As you’ve almost certainly heard by now. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk – who’s also in the process of trying to buy and run Twitter – said in a recent interview that he would allow former US President Donald Trump to return to Twitter.
That said, Musk made it clear that Trump has already vowed not to return to Twitter, and rather, to stick with his own “Truth Social” network. Moreover, Musk talked at length about the details surrounding the permanent ban situation, which provide very important context related to his beliefs. Before reading on, check out the clip above (or below) to hear Musk’s explanation in its entirety.
Whether or not you agree or disagree with Musk, taking his full explanation into account is arguably only fair, and the CEO made that clear himself on Twitter:
The interview was with Financial Times, and you can check out the full hour and 20 minutes here, but for now, we’re just honing in on the part about Trump. However, it’s important to note that while the hot topic was supposed to be very specific to Trump himself, at least based on the interview questions – as well as what it seems many people are eager to know – Musk’s explanation tended to be more general.
To be clear, he didn’t say much about Trump and the reasons the former president was banned, but rather, what he thinks about permanent bans across the board. Musk believes that permanent bans should almost never happen, except perhaps in the case of spammers, bots, or fake accounts. He thinks an account should have legitimacy in order to be allowed on the platform.
When asked if he is planning to let Donald Trump return to Twitter, Musk replied that he, along with former Twitter boss Jack Dorsey, both believe that the platform shouldn’t have permanent bans. Musk thinks that when you permanently ban anyone, you work to alienate people and further pit them against one another, and they could lose trust in the platform.
When people lose trust, they may leave and go elsewhere. Now, Trump’s voice isn’t banned or silenced, it’s just moved to other outlets, which are likely to have a large number of hardcore supporters that now think Twitter is wrong, and/or working against them, their cause, their party, etc.
That said, Musk does believe that if someone tweets out illegal and/or potentially harmful or dangerous information, their tweet should be removed or hidden. It shouldn’t be able to be widely shared to cause concern or an uprising among people. Meanwhile, the person who sent the tweet should probably be banned, but only temporarily. Musk believes in initial punishment and a “timeout” rather than a lifelong ban. If the person can return to the platform and follow the rules, that should remain an option.
We’ve included a few key statements from Musk’s responses below:
“Um, 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, sort 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.”
“Now, that doesn’t mean that somebody gets to say whatever they want to say. If they say something that is illegal, or, otherwise, you know, destructive to the world, then there should perhaps be a “time out,” a temporary suspension, or that particular Tweet should be made invisible or have very limited traction.”
After watching Musk’s responses in their entirety, what are your thoughts? Do you agree that permanent bans on social media may cause more problems down the road than temporary repercussions? We’d love to read your opinions in the comment section below.
Sources: CBS News, Teslarati
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