Elon Musk should lift Twitter’s ban on Donald Trump
Elon Musk should allow Donald Trump back on Twitter. Today!
The Tesla and SpaceX brainiac realizes the social-media platform is moribund after tweeting over the weekend: “Is Twitter dying?” He asked that question after listing some of the top Twitter accounts — from former President Barack Obama to Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift — where the famous seldom post.
Trump, however, lit up Twitter like a Fourth of July fireworks show. People loved to disagree with him in such a frenzy that the re-tweets were just as eye-popping as the original posts.
Twitter wrote on Jan. 8, 2021, that the 45th president was being “permanently suspended” from the platform “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” following the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Trump violated the Glorification of Violence Policy, Twitter said, by fanning the flames in the days after.
“The user @realDonaldTrump should be immediately permanently suspended from the service,” the company blog post added.
The courts and Congress are diving deep into the insurrection and those convicted of violence are being held accountable.
But free speech was never intended to come without consequences. Would Donald Trump of 2022 evolve? How would we know, if Twitter won’t allow him back on the feed.
Musk now holds a roughly 9% stake in Twitter and he’s a champion of free speech. What better way to find out if Trump can bounce back than allowing him back on the platform.
Trump’s attempts at launching his own social media platform have stumbled out of the gate. But Twitter is still viable. Musk has even teased a potential comeback for trump, asking in a tweet: “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?”
The answer? Slightly more than 70% said “no.”
He then boosted his share in Twitter. If, as Musk writes, Twitter is the “town square” for the nation — if not the planet — then why ban anyone? If a crime is committed, or if someone is defamed or libled, use the power of the subpoena or arrest warrant.
Twitter, of course, allows some of the world’s worst actors to have active Twitter accounts, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin, the Taliban and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei — but the former U.S. president apparently had to go, The Hill noted.
Putin hasn’t added to his account since March 15. The horror he’s inflicting upon Ukraine goes so far beyond Twitter’s Glorification of Violence code. Putin has tweeted about “the special operation in Ukraine.” To date war crimes by his troops hasn’t been addressed.
Yet, Illia Ponomarenko, defense reporter with The Kyiv Independent, is tweeting about the atrocities he’s seeing with his own eyes. That’s the flip side of free speech. That’s heroism.
Do you agree? Do you think the “Real Donald Trump” should be allowed back on Twitter? Or should he remain sidelined?
We’ve launched a new email address — Kvetch@bostonherald.com — to field your responses. Put your thoughts down and email away. We’ll share your thoughts in a follow-up editorial.
We end with a quote from George Washington: “If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”