‘It was a mistake’: Ex-CEO Jack Dorsey weighs in on Elon Musk reinstating Trump’s account

Jack Dorsey may have been CEO of Twitter when President Donald Trump was banned from the platform, but he now agrees with new owner Elon Musk that it was “wrong” and the former president’s account should be reinstated.

Dorsey responded in a tweet to comments made by Musk in which the billionaire said Dorsey agreed with him about reversing the ban and later reiterated that the decision made in 2021 was a bad one.

On Tuesday, Musk weighed in on the permanent ban on Trump’s account which went into effect in January 2021 after the storming of the U.S. Capitol.

“Permanent bans should be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts that are bots, or scam, spam accounts,” Musk, who is set to take over Twitter after his $44 billion acquisition, said at the FT Future of the Car conference.

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

“He is now going to be on Truth Social,” Musk said of the 45th president who launched his own social media platform and had said he plans to stay there rather than rejoin Twitter.

“So I think this may end up being frankly worse than having a single forum where everyone can debate. I guess the answer is that I would reverse the permanent ban,” Musk continued at the London conference, adding that he had discussed a reversal with Dorsey who agreed.

“He and I are of the same mind, which is that permanent bans should be extremely rare, and really reserved for accounts that are bots, or spam/scam accounts,” the Tesla/SpaceX CEO said. “I would reverse the permaban.”

“Obviously I don’t own Twitter yet, so this is not something that will definitely happen,” Musk added. “But my opinion, and I want to be clear that Jack Dorsey shares this opinion, is that we should not have permabans.”

And Dorsey soon chimed in with his agreement.

“I do agree,” he tweeted, linking to his January 13, 2021, tweet defending the decision to ban Trump, before saying, “generally permanent bans are a failure of ours and don’t work.”

Dorsey, who stepped down as Twitter CEO last November, continued to expound on the topic, saying in response to comments from Axios editor Dan Primack that the decision to ban Trump was a “business decision” that “shouldn’t have been.”

A surprising statement from the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also agreed that lifting the ban on Trump is the “right call.”

“You’d be hard-pressed to find a more steadfast opponent of Trump and his policies than the ACLU, but Elon Musk’s decision to re-platform President Trump is the right call,” Anthony Romero said in a statement Tuesday.

“If Trump violates the platform rules again, Twitter should first employ lesser penalties like removing the offending post—rather than banning a political figure,” he added. “Like it or not, President Trump is one of the most important political figures in this country, and the public has a strong interest in hearing his speech.”

Frieda Powers

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