Donald Trump is unbanned from Twitter

[MallocVoidstar]

Musk claimed that he was forming a "moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints" and that "No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes". As far as I know, it was never formed but he unbanned Trump anyway. Seems like moderation on Twitter will just be "if Musk likes it, it's allowed."

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1586059953311137792

[hotpotamus]

There's a joke from "Malcom in the Middle" where Bryan Cranston and the youngest son build a delightful imaginary society out of legos where a council of enlightened elders benevolently governs the city. After awhile, the son decided to take the city in a more authoritarian direction, and Cranston asks the child what happened to the council of elders, to which he replies, "I had them lined up and shot!". Which is sort of how I imagine the moderation council thing would work out with Elon, so this probably just skips a few steps anyway.

[superchroma]

I'm sure he would remark that he consulted the largest moderation council available, the general public, or some equally lame shit like that. The guy does what he wants.

[kylecordes]

Probably Musk’s way of running Twitter will need to stabilize to a reasonably predictable long-term state, before it is feasible to spin up the council idea - if he even still wants to do the council idea.

[1letterunixname]

Pre-acquisition, there were arbitrary keyword and phrase bans. (Maybe there still are, I don't know for certain.)

For example, "tar and feather" was forbidden. I fail to see how that was anything other than an antiquated expression for "street justice". There are no -ists or -isms associated with it.

[socrates1998]

Musk was always going to do this. It's amazing how many times Musk lies and people just keep believing anything he says. It's not surprising that Musk likes Trump. Both are pathological liars.

[tech234a]

It's interesting to see the follower count slowly increasing (currently at ~300k) as if they are pulling the list from cold storage. Also it seems like the tweets are slowly being loaded back in also as I can reach the bottom without anything else loading in, but that could be a bug with infinite scroll.

[minimaxir]

Perma-suspended Twitter accounts lose all of their followers.

More specifically:

> Trump’s account is showing weird/low following and follower counts now because it will take time for the company to rebuild his connections. The same thing happened in 2017 when a Twitter contractor went rogue and deactivated Trump’s profile.

https://twitter.com/RMac18/status/1594143110220562432

[WheelsAtLarge]

He doesn't need many. All the news sources will hang on everyone of his tweets and amplify every single one.

[dibt]

Why is this flagged?

[z7]

I think some people are flagging news they dislike. Though it seems that flagging was originally intended for identifying posts that are "breaking the guidelines or otherwise [do not belong] on HN".

[Ptchd]

Because most people on HN are super-anti Trump

[Amfy]

something strange about the follower count, keeps going up, yet if you click on follow, you automatically unfollow him right away

[MallocVoidstar]

Accounts that were permabanned take a while to behave normally if they get unbanned. It's happened a few times before.

[Finnucane]

Good day for Mastadon tomorrow.

[topspin]

I only spectate on Twitter. Much more so since Russia invaded Ukraine. You know what all those accounts that are focused on the war are doing? They're tweeting like nothing has happened.

They're tweeting away and millions are following and commenting and retweeting, completely indifferent to Musk and the takeover.

I'm sincerely happy Mastodon is seeing some growth. But I think that growth is coming from a minority of users and that the bulk of Twitter users simply don't care.

[jeffbee]

Odd how "good day for Mastodon" tends to manifest as the total unavailability of well-known Mastodon instances.

[coffeeblack]

And for Twitter. Free speech deniers leave and Twitter becomes more open and divers. I like it.

[mullingitover]

RIP Truth Social’s investors, being Trump’s personal Twitter clone was the one thing keeping them afloat.

[shagie]

The question is "will he honor the contract" or "will he get sued and try to hire lawyers?"

https://www.forbes.com/sites/madelinehalpert/2022/05/16/trum...

> As a part of the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) “Social Media Exclusivity Term,” Trump has agreed to wait six hours before posting the same content from Truth Social on any other sites, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

> The former president is allowed, however, to make posts from his personal account related to “political messaging, political fundraising or get-out-the vote efforts” at “any time” on any social media site.

[megamike]

unban Trump it does not matter he is now the classic quote If you cant dazzle them with brilliance than baffle them with bullshit

[daVe23hu]

flagged --- of course HN is a joke

[pcunite]

Would someone explain to me why Trump is worse than Biden?

[32gbsd]

Unban everybody

[MallocVoidstar]

Including people violating laws on Twitter?

[minimaxir]

This is unfortunately legit, and not a fake/impersonation account.