Elon Musk’s Offer to Assist in Reinstating Donald Trump’s Twitter Account
In late 2022, Elon Musk extended a helping hand to Twitter engineers who faced challenges in reinstating Donald Trump’s Twitter account. According to Zoë Schiffer’s new book, “Extremely Hardcore,” the process of reviving the account was anything but straightforward.
Technical Challenges Faced by Engineers
Engineers encountered difficulties in finding sufficient capacity to rebuild the account’s social graph. This task involved activating and updating millions of pieces of data, posing a significant hurdle in the account’s restoration process. The initial attempt at reinstating the account failed, prompting urgent Slack messages as the scheduled relaunch time approached.
Musk’s Personal Offer to Assist
The problems persisted even after the account went live, particularly with functionalities like the “follow” button and follower count. Musk, who served as Twitter’s CEO at the time, personally intervened and offered assistance to address the issues. According to Schiffer, Musk conveyed his willingness to provide any necessary support, as communicated through former head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin.
Response from Musk’s Representatives
Despite Musk’s offer, representatives for X (presumably referring to Elon Musk’s companies like SpaceX or Tesla) did not immediately respond to inquiries from Business Insider outside regular working hours.
Trump’s Ban and Subsequent Restoration
Donald Trump, with 87 million followers on Twitter, had been banned from the platform following the January 6 riots in Washington DC in 2021. Musk had criticized Twitter’s decision, labeling it a “grave mistake.” As a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” Musk conducted a poll among users regarding the restoration of Trump’s account, with 51% voting in favor.
Trump’s Return to Twitter
After the account was reinstated, Trump made only one tweet, opting to share his mug shot taken in a Georgia court in late August the previous year. Despite his return to Twitter, Trump has shown a preference for his own platform, Truth Social, where he has a significantly smaller following of 6.6 million users.
Musk’s General Amnesty
In addition to Trump’s account, Musk also reinstated several other banned accounts as part of a “general amnesty” announced in November 2022.
