Elon Musk hints Trump, other de-platformed Twitter accounts won't reappear before US midterm elections

De-platformed for violating Twitter rules? It'll be 'at least a few more weeks' says Musk and decisions will be made by a 'Twitter moderation council to include reps with divergent views'

➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Busting a popular Twitter myth

• ⛔ De-platformed Twitter accounts won’t be reinstated right away, says Musk

• ⏲️ It’ll take “at least a few weeks” to create a clear process

• 🙅‍♂️ So, no, former Pres. Donald Trump won’t be back before the midterms

• 🗳️ US midterm elections take place next week, Tuesday, November 8

• 🐦 Twitter’s moderation council will have reps with divergent views, says Musk

Twitter won’t reinstate de-platformed accounts that violated the company’s rules right away, according to Musk in two important tweet replies this morning.

This means that former President Donald Trump won’t make a surprise comeback on Twitter before the US midterms next week, a popular myth and fear being repeated on the social media platform.

Elon Musk @elonmusk

@yoyoel @JGreenblattADL @YaelEisenstat @rashadrobinson @JGo4Justice @normanlschen @DerrickNAACP @TheBushCenter @SindyBenavides Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks

It’ll take weeks for Musk and Twitter to lay out a “clear process” on reversing bans and the US midterm elections take place on Tuesday, November 8. The floodgates won’t be open to de-platformed accounts in the coming days and previously banned Twitter users that violated Twitter’s rules won’t be able to weigh in on the election just as the final votes are cast and as they’re being tallied.

Musk followed up with another tweet that outlined who would help decide the process of unbanning accounts as well as taking action on future incidents.

Twitter's content moderation council will include representatives with widely divergent views, which will certainly include the civil rights community and groups who face hate-fueled violence

-Elon Musk on Twitter

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Elon Musk leaves some wiggle room

The Musk statement that “Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back onto the platform until we have a clear process for doing so” does leave the door open for the company to unban people who may have been mistakenly thrown off of Twitter or had their account locked.

Fox News’s anchor Pete Hegseth is back on Twitter, suggesting this weekend that he was banned (although an Instagram post of his earlier this year suggests he deleted his Twitter account, but I recall he was in fact banned for a period of time twice – back in 2019 and 2020). I’ll keep watching for who makes it back onto Twitter.

Pete Hegseth @PeteHegseth

When I was banned from Twitter (for total BS), I had roughly 400K followers. Now I’m back w/ 19K followers…and already have WAY more engagement than before. Shadow banning is real. Again, thank you @elonmusk for courageously fighting for 1A. 🇺🇸

There are many more de-platformed accounts that will likely be reviewed by this forthcoming Twitter council. In addition to Trump, the biggest names include Marjorie Taylor Greene, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, David Duke, Babylon Bee, Alex Jones, Katie Hopkins, Azealia Banks and Milo Yiannopoulos.

Note that just because Musk is suggesting the process “will take a few more weeks” doesn’t mean any of these names will be back in a few weeks or ever. That’s going to be up to this “moderation council.” But the suggestion that Trump is coming back before the US midterm elections just doesn’t hold weight.