Musk begins Twitter poll on reinstating Trump's account

San Francisco: Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, started a poll late on Friday asking followers to vote on whether to reinstate former US President Donald Trump on the platform, whose account was suspended after last year’s attack on the US Capitol.  

"Reinstate former President Trump," Musk wrote in a post that garnered more than 4.4 million impressions at the time of publication—with early results showing roughly 53.8% voting “yes” while 46.2% said “no”.     

Reinstate former President Trump

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2022

Hours earlier, the American billionaire implied that he was mulling whether to reinstate Trump's Twitter account.

"Trump decision has not yet been made," tweeted Musk and stated that Twitter had reinstated some controversial accounts that had been banned or suspended, including the satirical website Babylon Bee and comedian Kathy Griffin.

Kathie Griffin, Jorden Peterson & Babylon Bee have been reinstated.

Trump decision has not yet been made.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022

Trump had about 88.8 million followers when Twitter permanently suspended his account in January 2021, citing his role in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol and the potential for more violence. 

On Thursday, Twitter told employees that it would close its offices and cut badge access until November 21. Another source said the company was planning to shut down one of Twitter’s three main US data centres, at the SMF1 facility near Sacramento, to save costs.