Elon Musk would reverse Donald Trump’s Twitter ban

Elon Musk says if his bid to buy Twitter is successful he will reverse Donald Trump’s ban from the platform.

The richest man in the world agreed a $44bn (£34.5bn) takeover bid with the Twitter board last month.

But he said it was not a done deal and that ideally it would be completed in the next two to three months.

Twitter’s decision to ban the former US president was “morally wrong and flat-out stupid”, Mr Musk told the Financial Times Future of the Car summit.

In January 2021, Twitter said the former US president’s account was “permanently suspended…due to the risk of further incitement of violence” following the storming of the Capitol.

But the Tesla owner told the Financial Times: “I would reverse the permanent ban but I don’t own Twitter yet.”

“Banning Donald Trump didn’t end Trump’s voice. It will amplify it among the right,” he said.

Mr Musk said banning Mr Trump was a “morally bad decision and foolish in the extreme”.

He pointed out that Mr Trump had previously said he would not return to Twitter even if his account was reinstated.

Mr Musk said he had spoken to Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey on the subject of locking users out of their social media accounts in response to offensive tweets.

“He and I are of the same mind that permanent bans should be extremely rare and reserved for accounts that are bots or scam accounts,” he said.

“I do think that it was not correct to ban Donald Trump. I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.”

Mr Musk said if someone tweeted something “illegal or otherwise destructive to the world” there should be temporary suspension or the post should be made invisible.

Mr Musk said he believed Twitter needed to build more trust by sharing its algorithm and asking people to make suggestions on how to improve it.

He said the company had a strong left bias because of its origins in the San Francisco tech community and needed to be “more even-handed”.

“Victory would be the far right 10% and the far left 10% are equally upset,” he said.

Speaking via video link, the Tesla boss said the company’s goal of making 20 million electric vehicles by 2030 was an aspiration not a promise.

But he said: “I’m confident that we will be able to sell all the cars we can make.”

He added: “At the moment the lead time is ridiculously long, so our issue is not demand, it’s production.”

Mr Musk said Tesla could stop taking orders beyond a certain period of time.