By John Ikani
Donald Trump’s Twitter account has been reinstated after a slim majority of votes were cast, in a Twitter poll organised by Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk.
Musk restored the account less than a month after the Tesla CEO took control of Twitter and four days after Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential race.
“The people have spoken,” tweeted Musk, saying that 51.8% of more than 15 million Twitter users voted for the ban to be lifted.
Reinstate former President Trump
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2022
Shortly afterward Trump’s account, which had earlier appeared as suspended, reappeared on the platform complete with his former tweets, more than 59,000 of them.
But the former US President may not return to the platform, earlier saying: “I don’t see any reason for it”.
Trump’s account was suspended in 2021 due to the risk of incitement of violence after a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress was poised to certify Joe Biden’s election victory.
Hundreds of rioters entered the complex as the US Congress attempted to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election. The ensuing violence led to the deaths of four civilians and a police officer.
Soon after the riots, Donald Trump’s Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts, which all had tens of millions of followers – were also suspended.
Several months later, he launched his own social media platform, Truth Social.
Earlier this week, the Republican announced that he would once again run for the US presidency in 2024.
