Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk said on Saturday that around one million Twitter users cast their votes each hour in a poll on whether to reinstate the account of former US President Donald Trump on the platform.
Earlier in the day, Musk launched a poll asking his followers if he should lift the permanent ban on Trump’s Twitter account that was imposed following the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. The platform deemed that his activities in relation to the event violated its policies. The former president later launched a new social network Truth Social to fight Big Tech censorship and protect the right to free speech and expression.
“Trump poll getting Rs1M votes/hour!” Musk tweeted.
As of 4 p.m. Moscow time (13:00 GMT), 52.3% of Twitter users supported Trump’s reinstatement, while 47.7% voted against, with over 10 million votes cast in total. The poll will close in 11 hours.
In late October, after Musk closed the $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter, he vowed to bolster protections of free speech on social media as part of his acquisition of the platform. Musk said that he would be willing to reverse Twitter’s ban of Trump; however, said later that the reinstatement may instead be a decision made by the content moderation council.
