Why is Elon Musk courting Donald Trump and unbanning the right wing on Twitter?

“The right people have spoken,” Elon Musk Tweeted on the day he reinstated former President Donald Trump’s account on his newly acquired social media platform. 

Musk, who prior to officially taking over Twitter had revealed that he would reverse Trump’s ban, published a Twitter poll on November 18th asking users to do his dirty work for him and vote on whether or not the former president should be reinstated.

The “YES” vote won by a slim 51.8% majority and Trump was officially reinstated. “Vox Populi, Vox Dei.” Musk wrote, a Latin phrase meaning, "the voice of the people is the voice of God."

But the return of Trump was viewed by many onlookers as a cynical ploy to generate media attention and revive right-wing fervor for a platform that was suffering greatly under Musk’s two weeks of leadership.  

But after spending nearly three years banished from the platform, many Americans feared Trump’s restoration would also bring the return of his old tricks like berating “Sleepy Joe” for his poor presidential performance or sowing more seeds of doubt on the integrity of the 2020 election. 

But Trump didn’t return to Twitter. He instead chose to stick with his Trump-owned platform, Truth Social, noting during a video speech with the Republican Jewish Coalition that he was aware of the Twitter poll but “saw too many problems at Twitter.”

When asked outright if he would return, Trump responded, "I hear we're getting a big vote to also go back on Twitter. I don't see it because I don't see any reason for it.”

So what looked like a clever but cynical business move on Musk’s part may have indeed been a genuine gesture of the Twitter boss's commitment to his "all or nothing" ideals of free speech in the online world’s "town square". 

Musk has spent much of the last two weeks working on unbanning a number of permanently banned accounts and even proposed a general amnesty for all accounts banned before he acquired the company. 

One of the least anticipated returns to Twitter has been that of Majorie Taylor Greene, the unhinged and unfiltered Republican Congresswoman from Georgia who was banned from repeatedly Tweeting out Covid-19 misinformation.

Musk also removed bans on several other controversial figures including David Duke (a literal white supremacist), Steve Bannon (Trump’s media mouthpiece), Michael Flynn (the general accused of lying to the FBI), and Mike Lindell—that MyPillows guys… seeing a pattern?

Many of those restored to Twitter just also happen to be important Trump allies or members of the so-called intellectual far-right in the United States.

All of this has spooked many of the businesses that both operate on, and run ads with, Twitter. According to prominent non-profit media watchdog Media Matters, nearly half of Twitter's top advertisers have left the platform over concerns with Twitter's new direction. 

In recent weeks, 50 of the top 100 advertisers have either announced or seemingly stopped advertising on Twitter,” the Media Matters report noted, “These advertisers have accounted for nearly $2 billion in spending on the platform since 2020, and over $750 million in advertising in 2022 alone.”

So where does this leave us? Well, we can assume that Musk is courting the far right in an attempt to provide a genuinely free speech zone on the internet. But a recent Tweet from Musk show just how arbitrary the rule might be under his reign. 

When asked if he would allow controversial conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to return to Twitter, Musk replied, “No,” flatly, before going on to explain, “My firstborn child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat. “I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics, or fame.” 

Jones was permanently suspended from Twitter in 2018 for repeatedly posting defamatory and conspiratorial videos about the Sandy Hook Massacre. So it seems Musk’s Twitter will have some limits, leaving us to wonder why he would invite so many other controversial figures back to his platform. 

Vox Elon Musk, vox dei, or the voice of Elon Musk is the voice of God…