Despite alleged free speech advocate Elon Musk’s purchase of a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter, the company reportedly has no plans to reinstate the accounts of former President Donald Trump and the many other conservatives blacklisted by the censor-happy platform. The company defied Musk in a statement, saying: “policy decisions are not determined by the board or shareholders, and we have no plans to reverse any policy decisions.”
The Mercury News reports that following the recent news that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had purchased a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter, many hoped that the development might result in the return of former President Donald Trump to the platform.
But Twitter has quickly put those hopes to rest, stating that the former president would remain permanently banned across the platform. In an emailed statement, Twitter stated that although the company’s board “plays an important advisory and feedback role,” the firm’s “policy decisions are not determined by the board or shareholders, and we have no plans to reverse any policy decisions.”
Jo-Ellen Pozner, a professor at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business, stated that the addition of one person to a company’s board should not make a huge difference to company policies. Pozner stated: “The fact that he took a $2 billion-plus position in this company and got on the board right away suggests he is being paid deference and might demand deference that most people would not be able to command. I would not be surprised if there were shakeups of various sorts following this development.”
Breitbart News recently reported that many popular conservatives are still currently locked out of their Twitter accounts. Reporter Alana Mastrangelo wrote:
Christian satire site Babylon Bee, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, and Fox News’s Tucker Carlson are all still locked out of their Twitter accounts for posting that transgender Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) assistant secretary Rachel Levine is a biological male.
The Babylon Bee, Kirk, and Carlson remain defiant after getting suspended from their Twitter accounts, refusing to delete the tweets that got them locked out of their accounts in protest of the social media platform’s censorship of true statements deemed offensive by irascible members of society.
“We aren’t banned, but we are suspended until we delete the tweet. We won’t do that,” Kirk told Breitbart News on Tuesday. “I won’t deny the truth just to be on Twitter.”
On March 20, the Babylon Bee was locked out of its Twitter account and told that it would have to delete one of its tweets in order to successfully log back into the account. The satire site’s offending tweet featured an article mocking USA Today for recently declaring Levine “woman of the year.”
Read more at the Mercury News here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com