‘Flat-Out Stupid’: Elon Musk BLASTS Twitter Over Its Decision to Ban Donald Trump

Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has received mixed reviews of his bid to buy Twitter.

Many of his critics believe he will turn the social media platform into a safe haven for threatening behavior, disinformation, and other potentially dangerous forms of expression.

Plenty of Musk’s supporters, on the other hand, say his leadership would help revive the concept of free speech.

One particularly noteworthy aspect of the public debate hinges on Donald Trump’s permanent suspension from Twitter.

In a recent interview, Musk revealed that he favors reversing that decision and allowing the 45th president to once again post his messages directly to the site.

According to CNN:

Musk has previously said he thinks Twitter should be more “reluctant to delete things” and “very cautious with permanent bans.” On Tuesday, he called Twitter’s decision to ban Trump in January 2021 a “mistake.”

“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, I want to be clear, shares this opinion, is that we should not have perma-bans.”

Dorsey, Twitter’s cofounder and former CEO, tweeted Tuesday following Musk’s remarks that he does “agree” there shouldn’t be permanent bans on Twitter users. “There are exceptions … but generally permanent bans are a failure of ours and don’t work,” he said.

Twitter declined to comment on Musk’s remarks.

Many prominent Twitter users celebrated the news in tweets of their own.

Agree with @elonmusk that the Trump ban "was morally wrong and flat out stupid."

Twitter's days of canceling conservatives are done.

— Brent Bozell (@BrentBozell) May 10, 2022

.@elonmusk is right: Donald Trump should not be permanently banned from Twitter. There are actual authoritarian regimes with active Twitter accounts. A better standard would be to ban any government from Twitter that restricts the freedom of speech. Don’t tolerate the intolerant.

— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 10, 2022

As Musk noted, even Twitter’s founder seems to agree that the platform should not have permanently banned Trump.

I have tried taking a break from Twitter recently, but I must say: the company has always tried to do its best given the information it had. Every decision we made was ultimately my responsibility*. In the cases we were wrong or went too far, we admitted it and worked to correct.

— jack (@jack) April 29, 2022

The New York Post explained:

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has admitted that he should never have allowed then-President Donald Trump to be banned from his social media giant.

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The tech titan conceded Tuesday it was the wrong move after Elon Musk, Twitter’s presumptive new owner, said he would reinstate Trump’s account and that Dorsey agreed that there shouldn’t be permanent bans.

“I do agree,” tweeted Dorsey, who was still at the helm when Trump was banned in January 2021 at the end of his presidency.

He said there “are exceptions,” listing sexual exploitation of children, illegal behavior or network manipulation.

“But generally permanent bans are a failure of ours and don’t work,” he said.

Here’s a video clip of Musk’s recent remarks.

BREAKING: @ElonMusk says he would reverse Trump's suspension from Twitter and called the ban "morally wrong" and "flat out stupid." pic.twitter.com/ahRTaO5caV

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 10, 2022