One of Elon Musk‘s top lieutenants has reportedly promised an infamous right-wing provocateur that his Twitter ban will be lifted ‘soon’.
Jared Birchall, who runs Musk’s personal investment office and has been a top advisor in his $44 billion Twitter takeover, made the promise in a text message to activist Charles C. Johnson, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Johnson is a self-described investigative journalist who became famous for his internet pranks and campaigns targeting left-wing activists, politicians and reporters. Critics call him a ‘digital Darth Vader’ and the ‘troll king’.
He was banned from Twitter in 2015 for sending a fundraising appeal to support ‘taking out’ Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson, who called the remark a ‘serious threat’ and asked for Johnson to be banned from the platform.
Johnson insisted that he was using the term ‘taking out’ to refer to his plans to dig up dirt on McKesson, but Twitter sided with the BLM activist, banning Johnson under its policy against targeted harassment.
The case became an early example of the social media site’s policies cracking down on controversial content, which critics argue are biased against conservatives.
According to the Journal, when Johnson saw Musk’s recent offer to buy Twitter, he texted Birchall asking: ‘When do I get my Twitter account back?’
‘Hopefully soon,’ Birchall reportedly responded.
Johnson told the newspaper that while he does want to regain his account, he doesn’t plan to return to regular tweeting, saying: ‘I’m over Twitter.’
