Elon Musk says he would let Trump back on Twitter. History shows us why that’s dangerous.
Musk: The decision to ban Trump from Twitter “was a morally bad decision” and “I would reverse the perma-ban.”
Written by Kayla Gogarty
Research contributions from Natalie Mathes
Published
During an interview at the Financial Times’ Future of the Car conference earlier today, Elon Musk — who has a pending deal with Twitter to buy the company — announced that he would “reverse the perma-ban” currently preventing former President Donald Trump from using the platform. Musk’s comments ignore both Trump’s previous social media behavior, in which he regularly pushed harmful misinformation and extreme rhetoric, and his continued promotion of election misinformation that incited the January 6, 2021, insurrection. Musk also revealed his fundamental lack of understanding of how much Trump’s presence on these social media platforms helped push misinformation to a large audience.
As Musk criticized Twitter’s ban, he failed to acknowledge how Trump used social media before most major social media platforms permanently banned or suspended him, fearing that he would incite further violence after pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Media Matters found that in addition to inciting violence via his social media accounts, Trump amplified QAnon-promoting Twitter accounts at least 315 times during his presidency. On Facebook, roughly a quarter of Trump’s posts — 1,443 posts out of 6,081 — between January 1, 2020, and when he was suspended on January 6, 2021, contained COVID-19 misinformation, election lies, or extreme rhetoric about his critics. Many of Trump’s posts on Facebook, including the ones with misinformation, were also posted on Twitter, reaching millions of followers on each platform.
Despite being kicked off social media, Trump continues to push misinformation, even to a smaller audience. In fact, he has continued to repeat the same election misinformation that incited the January 6 insurrection at his post-presidency rallies. And his published statements — formerly posted to his failed website and now published on his PAC’s website — still contain election misinformation and harmful rhetoric attacking his critics.
Though Musk claims Trump’s Twitter ban “did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice,” the ban has stopped Trump from pushing out harmful misinformation to a large audience, which was also aided by algorithms that expanded his reach. In fact, Twitter and other platforms saw decreases in misinformation following Trump’s ban. And Trump has struggled to maintain a presence online following his bans. His blog failed in less than 30 days after garnering exceptionally low traffic and his new platform, TruthSocial, is a disaster so far.
Musk’s new comments indicate that he would allow Trump’s misinformation and harmful rhetoric to reach millions of Twitter users. And as Facebook will be deciding whether to reinstate Trump in January, Musk is setting the stage for Facebook to follow his lead and for Twitter to become a right-wing echo chamber with barely any rules.
You can watch Musk's full comments from the interview below:
Citation From the May 10, 2022, interview with Elon Musk at the Financial Times' Future of the Car conference
PETER CAMPBELL (FINANCIAL TIMES GLOBAL MOTOR INDUSTRY CORRESPONDENT): Are you planning to let Donald Trump back on?
ELON MUSK: Well, I think there’s the general question of should Twitter have permanent bans. And, you know, I've talked with Jack Dorsey about this and he and I are of the same mind, which is that permanent bans should be extremely rare and really reserved for people where they’re trying to -- for accounts that are bots or spam, scam accounts -- where there is just no legitimacy to the account at all. I do think that it was not correct to ban Donald Trump. I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice. He is now going to be on Truth Social as will a large part of the … right in the United States. And so I think this could end up being frankly worse than having a single forum where everyone can debate. So, I guess the answer is that I would reverse the perma-ban. Obviously, I’m not -- I don't own Twitter yet, so this is not a thing that will definitely happen, because what if I don't own Twitter.
But my opinion, and Jack Dorsey, I want to be clear, shares this opinion, is that we should not have perma-bans. Now, that doesn't mean that somebody gets to say whatever they want to say, if they say something that is illegal or otherwise just destructive toward the world, then that -- they should have some time out, a temporary suspension, or that particular tweet should be made invisible or have very limited traction. But I think perma-bans just fundamentally undermine trust in Twitter as a town square where everyone can voice their opinion. I think it was a morally bad decision to be clear, and foolish in the extreme.
CAMPBELL: Even after he egged on the crowd who went to the U.S. Capitol, some of them carrying nooses, you still think it was a mistake to remove him?
MUSK: I think the -- if there are tweets that are wrong and bad, those should be either deleted or made invisible and a suspension -- a temporary suspension is appropriate, but not a permanent ban.
CAMPBELL: So, if the deal completes, he might potentially come back on but with the understanding that if he does something similar again he will be back in the sin bin.
MUSK: He has publicly stated that he will not be coming back to Twitter and that he will only be on Truth Social. And this is the point that I am trying to make, which is perhaps not getting across, is that banning Trump from Twitter didn’t end Trump's voice. It will amplify it among the right. And this is why it's morally wrong and flat-out stupid.