Elon Musk said he will allow former Donald Trump’s Twitter account to be restored after users on the social media website voted 52% to 48% to allow the former president’s return.
The 24-hour poll garnered more than 15 million votes. Musk earlier reinstated accounts tied to conservative media personality Jordan Peterson and satirical website Babylon Bee.
Trump was permanently banned from Twitter in 2021 “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.” Earlier this week, he formally entered the 2024 U.S. presidential race, making official what he had been teasing for months.
Still, it’s not a done deal that the former president will return. Trump said earlier Saturday that he sees “a lot of problems at Twitter” and will stick to his own social-media platform.
“I hear we’re getting a big vote to also go back on Twitter. I don’t see it because I don’t see any reason for it,” Trump told the Republican Jewish Coalition meeting in Las Vegas via video link. “It may make it, it may not make it.”
Musk has a history of polling his followers on everything from an edit button for Twitter, to selling shares in Tesla Inc. and even whether politicians or billionaires are more trustworthy.
(Dominic Lau contributed to this report.)
