Elon Musk says he’ll overturn Donald Trump’s Twitter ban

Elon Musk on Tuesday said he’ll restore former president Donald Trump’s Twitter account if his $44 billion deal to purchase the social media giant is finalized, CNN reported.

The South African-born billionaire made those comments at the Financial Times’ Future of the Car conference. And though that marked his first public admission, it did not reportedly come as a surprise as that move was anticipated following the announcement of his deal to purchase the social media platform.

Musk has in the past said that he feels Twitter has to be more “reluctant to delete things” and “very cautious with permanent bans.” At Tuesday’s conference, the 50-year-old said he felt Trump’s January 2021 Twitter ban was a “mistake” by the social media giant.

“I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump, I think that was a mistake,” Musk said. “I would reverse the perma-ban. … But my opinion, and Jack Dorsey [Twitter cofounder and former CEO], I want to be clear, shares this opinion, is that we should not have perma-bans.”

Responding to Musk’s comments in a tweet on Tuesday, Dorsey said he also agreed permanent user bans shouldn’t be a thing on Twitter. “There are exceptions … but generally permanent bans are a failure of ours and don’t work,” he added.

Twitter permanently banned Donald Trump’s account following the deadly January 6 Capitol Riot. The social media giant explained the former president had violated its rules against violence incitement, CNN reported. Dorsey was Twitter CEO at the time, and the company said he oversaw the decision. Trump’s accounts on other social media platforms were also either banned or suspended during that period.

But Trump said he has no intention of returning to Twitter should his ban be lifted. The former president has been encouraging his supporters and people to join him on his recently launched social media platform, Truth Social. But the new social media platform is reportedly having issues with regard to finding its feet.