The ex-American president, banished from the social network after the violent assault of the Capitol in January 2021, nevertheless does not want to return to it.
by Alexandre Piquard
“The people spoke. Trump will be restored. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.” This is how Elon Musk justified, Sunday, November 20, the decision to reactivate the Twitter account of the former American president, Suspended since January 2021. The new CEO of the social network had, a few hours earlier, launched an online survey, which received 115 million votes, a short majority to bring Donald Trump back: 51.8 % for, 48.2 % against.
The account of the former president was suspended after the assault, by his supporters, of the Capitol, in Washington, causing a riot and several dead, on January 6, 2021. The management of the social network had estimated that Trump, notably challenging his defeat and the victory of Joe Biden, had encouraged the demonstrators. “After examining the content of recent tweets published by the @REALDONALDTRUMP account and in view of the current context, we made the decision to suspend this account in order to limit the risks of incentives to violence,” said Twitter. Donald Trump was then, with 88 million subscribers, the first user of the social network, multiplying messages and provocations – a role and a posture taken up in part by M. Musk.
The restoration of Donald Trump’s account by the boss of Tesla and Spacex, a self -proclaimed supporter of “absolute freedom of expression”, has an important symbolic significance. Especially since the ex-president defeated has just announced that he wanted to be again a candidate against Joe Biden in 2024.