Donald Trump appears to be back on Twitter after an online poll voted in favor of his return.
The platform’s new owner, Elon Musk, had announced Saturday evening that after the vote, the former president would be reinstated, nearly two years after he was ousted following the January 6 US Capitol riots.
Upon hearing the news, the former US president had initially said he had no interest in joining, but later on Saturday a verified account surfaced with a blue checkmark that read “@RealDonald Trump, 45th President of the United States United States of America” and the words “He’s Back” trended in the US.
The Twitter poll, accompanied by the words “Vox Populi, Vox Dei” – a Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people is the voice of God” – had asked users to vote on whether Trump should be allowed to return , and the result was that he should do it.
More than 15 million votes were cast, but the former president had said at a rally on Saturday evening: “I don’t see any reason (to go back).”
He said he would stick with his new social media platform, Truth Social.
Trump was permanently suspended from Twitter in January 2021 following the attack by his supporters on the US Capitol that left several people dead.
Twitter said the decision, following the unrest, was due to “the risk of further incitement to violence”.
Image: Elon Musk has overseen big changes at Twitter in just his first few weeks as owner
However, Musk earlier this year called the ban a “mistake” and “morally wrong.”
The reinstatement poll was close: 51.8% yes, 48.2% no.
Many on the right of the political spectrum have long argued that Twitter and other social media sites are biased against their views and are rushing to “deplatform.”
After his departure, Trump established Truth Social, his own social media platform, which was almost a copy of Twitter.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Twitter employees are estimated to have decided to leave the company after an announcement by Musk that employees either accept longer, more intense work patterns or quit smoking.
Image: Twitter corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California
The exodus adds to the rapid change and chaos that have marked the first three weeks of Mr. Musk as owner of Twitter, during which the company’s workforce had already been more than halved through layoffs and other departures to about 3,700.
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With so much of Twitter’s workforce now gone, there is speculation that the site will crash during the soccer World Cup, one of the site’s busiest traffic events.
Many high-profile and blue-label celebrities have tweeted goodbye to the platform “just in case.”
To add to Mr Musk’s business woes, Tesla is recalling more than 300,000 vehicles in the US because a software glitch can cause the rear lights to turn off intermittently, increasing the risk of a collision.