Twitter Users Unhappy After Trump Account Reinstated
Billionaire and self-proclaimed Republican Elon Musk gave Donald Trump a powerful megaphone.
Musk, who now runs Twitter, reinstated the account of former President Donald Trump Saturday evening.
This action by Musk gives Trump an extremely powerful tool to kick off his campaign for the 2024 presidential election.
The former Republican president declared his candidacy on Nov. 15 as voters waited on the results of the midterm elections. The response was low key since the majority of mainstream media responded with limited coverage.
As of midday on Sunday, Trump has not posted any tweets.
His most recent tweet was dated on Jan. 8, 2021, when Trump wrote, "To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th."
Digital World Acquisition DWAC, the blank check company attempting to merge with former President Donald Trump's struggling media group Truth Social, has faced several hurdles in its attempts to complete the deal.
Trump was banned from Twitter and other social media sites after his failed attempt to subvert the peaceful transfer of power in the fatal Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
His supporters had stormed Congress to try and prevent the certification of the results of the presidential election of November 2020, which was lost by their champion.
Shares of DWAC closed at $25.37 on Nov. 15 and have fallen by 15.7% since the news of a potential comeback to close at $21.38 on Nov. 18.
The shares traded as high as $97.25 in late March. They lost more ground after Musk's plans to go through with the Twitter acquisition came to light.
Federal authorities and regulators opened an investigation into the merger while investors did not approve yet another extension on the deal's deadline.
A shareholder meeting was extended to Nov. 22 and if the deal does not close in December and the SPAC is liquidated, shareholders will only receive $10 a share in return, losing a large chunk of their investment.
Musk chose to organize a poll on Twitter the evening of Nov. 18. The question is simple: "Reinstate former President Trump: Yes or No"
The results were tight at the time of writing: 52% of users had voted Yes, to reactivate Trump's account, and 48% were against his return to the platform.
Musk was well aware that reactivating Trump's Twitter account would arouse passions and many emotions from the social media site's users.
Twitter Users Block Trump
Some Twitter users were adamant in blocking Trump from their account.
"Trump has been blocked and remains blocked on my feed. He always will be," tweeted Russell Frost.
Kara Swisher, a well-known tech journalist who co-founded Recode and wrote for the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, linked the reinstatement of the former president's account to a shooting that killed five people at at LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs, Colorado on Nov. 19.
Other users said they were refuse to leave the social media platform after spending many years building up a community.
"[1/2] Tweets like this prompt me to reconsider hastily abandoning my communities here, already under siege from multiple directions. I've spent 11 years here, or 182,000 tweets, growing a network of readers, sharing joyous discoveries, learning from experts, and fighting fascism," tweeted Steve Silberman, an author.
Amber Naslund, said she would remain on Twitter, but downloaded an archive of her tweets.
"Welp," she tweeted. "Locking it down. Downloaded the archive. Will keep the account for now but pinned tweet is where to find me elsewhere."
Other well-known people with large followings on Twitter commented on the number of trolls returning to the social media site, including Molly Jong-Fast, a special correspondent to Vanity Fair who has one million Twitter followers.
"Elon Musk is becoming the my pillow guy in front of our very eyes," she tweeted.
One reason could be the fact that Musk fired over 50% of the staff immediately after taking over the company and many other employees resigned, including those working on the content moderation team.
Before Trump received access back to his account, Twitter faced massive turmoil in the days following the takeover of the company as companies either halted their purchase of advertising or stopped tweeting.
CBS News had temporarily stopped using Twitter on Nov. 18 for 40 hours.
“In light of the uncertainty around Twitter and out of an abundance of caution, CBS News is pausing its activity on the social media site as it continues to monitor the platform,” said Jonathan Vigliotti, CBS News national correspondent.
The national TV company returned to Twitter on Nov. 20.
“After pausing for much of the weekend to assess the security concerns, CBS News and Stations is resuming its activity on Twitter as we continue to monitor the situation,” tweeted the news organizations communications team tweeted on Sunday morning.
