Elon Musk will remove the ban on former President Donald Trump if his bid to buy Twitter for $44 billion succeeds, the outspoken entrepreneur said Tuesday.
Speaking to a Financial Times conference, Musk said called Twitter’s shutdown of Trump’s Twitter account a “morally bad decision.” Twitter, Facebook and other social networks barred Trump from using their services after the deadly attack on Capitol Hill by Trump supporters last January.
“I think perma-bans fundamentally undermine trust in Twitter as a town square where everyone can voice their opinion,” Musk said via video chat, adding that temporary suspensions made sense. “If there are tweets that are wrong and bad, those should either be deleted or made invisible.”
Musk’s statement is the latest insight into how he might run the influential short-messaging service if he succeed in purchasing the company and taking it private. He has previously said he doesn’t agree with how the service is run and that he doesn’t have faith in its leaders to do their jobs correctly. Among his complaints, Musk, the world’s richest person, has said he believes the company is overly aggressive policing its platform to remove hate speech and harassment.
Musk, who runs both Tesla and SpaceX, shook the tech world last month when he unveiled a plan to purchase Twitter in a leveraged buyout. Many venture capitalists and tech luminaries have voiced support for Musk’s effort, particularly because of his strong stance in support of free expression.
Jack Dorsey, a Twitter co-founder and former CEO, said he called Musk the “singular solution I trust” to make the service better. In a series of tweets after Musk announced his acquisition plans, Dorsey said he believed in the tech billionaire’s plans for remaking the company.
“I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness,” Dorsey said.
Re-admitting Trump would be a controversial move, exciting users on the right and alienating those on the left.
