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- Oct 30, 2021
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This should not be about Trump, and to make it about Trump would be erroneous.
It is about Terms of Service.
Those that abide by the ToS should be allowed to post, those that do not abide by ToS should not be allowed tp post. Nothing to do with Trump. He's a non-issue, and irrelevant to the determinant factors in platform access.
It was never completely about terms of service, either, though. Trump was only kicked off the platform in the days following the January 6th insurrection because he was so polarizing that twitter worried the more legitimately followed users and influencers might pull a spotify and leave in droves. It was a business decision, plain and simple.
On the one hand, bringing back Trump, Alex Jones, and other right wing nutters would probably create a lot of controversy, a lot of stir, but I'm not convinced it would be a great business decision. I suspect what Musk might seek is a middle ground, calling for a conditional reinstatement and maybe a general revision of the policy to include more long-term suspensions rather than outright perma-bans. But who knows where Musk's head is on that front.
I don't think Musk is doing any of this to curry favor with the right wing; I think he's buying twitter to make sure that he gets a lot of attention for himself and his brands. And maybe, just maybe, he thinks he can do something different with twitter beyond what it is now. Twitter is not Facebook though. The average person has no need for twitter, and it's not how the average social media user communicates with his/her social networks. It's more for people in public-facing endeavors get their message out to the public. It's closer to mass media than e-mail/rolodex.