Opinion The breathtaking cluelessness of Elon Musk

Opinion: The breathtaking cluelessness of Elon Musk
Opinion by Holly Thomas
Updated 1008 GMT (1808 HKT) May 12, 2022
As a journalist primarily covering US news, monitoring Trump's account was essential. Even though fewer than a quarter of Americans say they use Twitter, Trump's caustic whims, jibes and attacks on the platform consistently set the agenda -- and for several years it was normal to watch major news sites hastily switch out whatever lead story they'd planned to reflect that morning's presidential caprice.
Then, without ceremony, he was gone. Two days after the horrifying events of the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021, Twitter announced that it was suspending Trump's account permanently, in accordance with its policy on inciting violence. The daily clamor that had affected so many lives was extinguished in a second, and millions breathed relief.
Smash cut to this week. Elon Musk, who's in the process of buying Twitter for $44 billion, has announced that once he's in charge, he'll undo Trump's Twitter ban -- even though Trump claims he'd rather stick to his own social media platform, Truth Social. A self-avowed champion of "free speech," Musk said that the decision to suspend Trump was "morally wrong" and that it "didn't end Trump's voice. It will amplify it among the right."
Both of those assertions are incorrect. Banning Trump was the only conscionable response to January 6 -- and de-platforming is proven to quash provocateurs. But the fact that Musk is able to act on these ideas regardless speaks to an axiom that Trump himself exemplified: In today's America, one person with no conscience and access to the right pressure points can do almost anything they want. And as Trump's record shows, people who are prepared to misrepresent the truth as a means to -- or excuse for -- abusing their power once will almost certainly do so again.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/12/opinions/elon-musk-donald-trump-twitter-thomas/index.html