On 30th September, a clip from an old interview of Jack Dorsey went viral on social media in which he admitted that banning the former President of the United States from Twitter (now X) was a ‘wrong decision for the world’. Notably, when Twitter decided to ban Trump from the social media platform, he was still the President of the US. The viral clip shared by Dr Anastasia Maria Loupis (@/DrLoupis) was from an interview Dorsey gave to controversial actor and presenter Russell Brand in July 2023.
Former Twitter CEO admits banning Donald Trump was 'wrong decision for the world'.
— Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis (@DrLoupis) September 30, 2023
The rats are jumping ship. pic.twitter.com/6qVUTv5UWg
Brand asked Jack Dorsey how he felt about deciding to ban Trump while he was the President of the US. Jack said, “I felt bad about it. I felt bad that we had to take that action. It was a challenging time, and I do believe that the company was working with its best efforts with the information it had. But as I said a few days after that suspension, I believe [it was] probably the right decision for the company, but the wrong decision for the world. We saw a lot of follow-on companies, such as AWS, take parler off their services and being removed from the app store. I think it opened the gate I am not proud of at all.”
Jack Dorsey, co-founder and ex-CEO of Twitter is joining me on the show today and reveals what REALLY happened around Trump's infamous Twitter suspension @jack pic.twitter.com/2fwTty30an
— Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) July 6, 2023
“It was another one of those moments when [I thought] ‘I don’t think it was going to work. I don’t want to do this.’ Independent of who this person was or anyone that we probably suspended from the network, it felt wrong to me, and I was always searching for a different solution, but I just did not come up with a solution within that structure. I could not figure it out. Personally, it was heartbreaking. All the actions that we took and all the actions that we did not take,” he added.
Interestingly, soon after banning Trump, Jack supported the decision in a thread on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “I believe this was the right decision for Twitter”.
Trump’s suspension from Twitter
On 9th January 2021, then-President of the United States, Donald Trump, was permanently suspended from Twitter after the Capitol Hall violence of 6th January 2021. Twitter had said, “After a close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
Other social media giants like Facebook, etc., also suspended Trump’s accounts. Soon after, Trump announced his own social media platform, and in February 2022, Truth Social was launched.
Elon Musk reinstated Trump’s account on X
On 19th November 2022, Elon Musk reinstated the X account of the former President of the United States, Donald Trump. The decision was taken following a poll by Musk asking people to decide if Trump’s account should be reinstated. In a post, Musk wrote, “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.” The Latin phrase at the end of the tweet literally translates to “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Initially, Trump said in an interview that he had no plans to return on X. However, on the 24th of August, following his indictment in the Georgia 2020 election interference case, he marked his return to Twitter, now called X, after surrendering at an Atlanta Jail. Taking to X, Trump wrote, “Election interference. Never surrender!” along with a link to his website. Elon Musk reacted to Trump’s post with his mug shot, calling it “Next level”.
Since Elon Musk took over Twitter (now X), many accounts suspended from the platform have been reinstated. However, as per the platform’s policy, if X believes a post on the platform was in bad taste or may cause harm to someone or in some way, it reduces its reach irrespective of the fact if the account holder has brought Premium membership or not.
