Key Points
- Elon Musk has reinstated Donald Trump’s Twitter account.
- Mr Trump's account was suspended after last year's attack on the US Capitol.
- Mr Musk had put the matter to a vote via a Twitter poll.
Donald Trump's Twitter account may be rapidly growing followers, but despite Elon Musk reinstating the account, the former US president has so far shown little interest in returning to the platform.
In a tweet on Sunday morning, the new owner of Twitter said: "The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated", after .
Mr Musk had in May said he would reverse Twitter's ban on Mr Trump, whose account was suspended after last year's attack on the US Capitol.
Mr Trump's once-blocked Twitter account reappeared on the platform moments after Musk announced he was lifting the 22-month suspension over incitement of violence.
The most recent tweet on Mr Trump's Twitter account was from January 2021.
"Vox Populi, Vox Dei," Mr Musk tweeted, a Latin phrase roughly meaning "the voice of the people is the voice of God".
It's unclear whether the reinstatement of his account will see Mr Trump become active on the site once again.
He had appeared less than keen earlier in the day.
"I don't see any reason for it," the former president said when asked whether he planned to return to Twitter by a panel at the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual leadership meeting.
He said he would stick with his new platform Truth Social, the app developed by his Trump Media & Technology Group startup, which he said was doing "phenomenally well".
Mr Trump's Twitter account, which once had almost 89 million followers, had less than a million when reinstated on Sunday, but had already regained more than 600,000 within an hour of it being re-activated.
Mr Trump, , praised Mr Musk and said he had always liked him.
Mr Musk had said no account reinstatements would happen before a content moderation council composed of people with "widely diverse viewpoints" was convened.
He also said Twitter would not reinstate any banned users until there was a "clear process for doing so".
There has been no new information about the process or the moderation council.
But this week Mr Musk reinstated comedian Kathy Griffin, , which violated his new rule against impersonation without indicating it was a parody account.
A no-show by Mr Trump could reduce concerns among major advertisers, who are already rattled by Mr Musk's drastic reshaping of Twitter.
He has halved the workforce and severely cut the company's trust and safety team, which is responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation and harmful content.
A number of major companies have halted advertising on the site as they monitor how the platform handles hate speech.
With AAP
