This offer may have come as a shock to many outside observers, but Musk has had a long and turbulent relationship with the social media platform. He has long been critical of Twitter’s handling of its platform, despite the company making efforts to crack down on misinformation, calls for violence, harassment, and conspiracy theories.
They most famously permanently suspended one of their more colorful customers, former President Donald J. Trump. The president’s account, with 88 million followers, was initially banned for 12 hours after he called the people who stormed the US Capitol on January 6 “patriots,” warning him that if he breached the platform’s rules again. They banned him permanently the following day, citing “the risk of further incitement of violence.”
With the platform now in the hands of Elon ‘Free Speech’ Musk and the 45th president of the United States announcing his wants to be the 17th as well, many observers and critics fear that Musk will likely let Mr. Trump and his dangerous rhetoric back on the platform.
