Donald Trump Has Been Unbanned From Twitter Following Elon Musk’s Poll – SlashGear

First, a few caveats. It’s unclear at this point whether Musk or anybody remaining at Twitter reached out to Donald Trump or his handlers before conducting the poll. The results aren’t binding, and of course Trump himself hasn’t even said whether he cares to re-engage with the platform that unceremoniously threw him out. In an earlier statement to Reuters, the former President expressed reluctance to rejoin, in fact. “I don’t see any reason for it,” Trump said.

It’s also worth noting that the poll-driven approach is in direct contradiction to what Musk committed to just a few weeks ago. As of October 28, Musk had promised that no accounts would be unbanned until a “content moderation council” had been formed. In his own words:

It remains uncertain whether Musk opted to consult any such council, or simply decided to stage the poll himself. The Trump question gathered over 15 million votes and, per Musk’s Twitter, was seen by 134 million people. There’s no question the process is flawed –- as Mashable notes, Musk himself has excoriated bots and spam accounts for their disproportionate impact on Twitter polls –- but engagement is engagement, and these are major numbers.

The poll-based approach also offers Musk a way to rebrand Twitter and himself. In terms of public relations, the Twitter acquisition has not gone Elon Musk’s way. Much chaos has been reported after the outspoken new CEO issued stark ultimatums to staff. He’s even been the butt of several jokes. Outright asking Twitter what it wants — without the safeguards he initially promised — represents a new narrative, and it’s unclear whether that’s one the already critical user-base will accept.