Elon Musk Becomes Twitter's Largest Shareholder, Calls To Restore Donald Trump's Account

Donald Trump. (Wikimedia Commons/Gage Skidmore)

JAKARTA - Calls to restore Donald Trump's Twitter account emerged, after Elon Musk became the largest shareholder of the social media.

Requests for the restoration of the former President of the United States, among others, came from Republican politicians and activists, along with repeated criticism by the Tesla and SpaceX boss about the biased treatment of social media towards conservative voices.

"Now that @ElonMusk is Twitter's biggest shareholder, it's time to lift political censorship," tweeted Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert.

"Oh… and SEND TRUMP BACK!"

Meanwhile, TV presenter and activist Pete Hegseth said on 'Fox & Friends' on Tuesday, "Twitter used to be an open field of free thought." While "now blue ticks like left-minded groupthink cops and corporate types on Twitter have been happy to enforce them."

"They pushed Donald Trump. They got rid of a lot of conservatives. If he opens it, it opens a conversation in America," he said, as quoted by Mediaite.

Separately, British politician and former Member of the European Parliament Nigel Farage also joined calls to 'return Trump', tweeting on Tuesday that Musk's decision to become a board member "is the first step in the right direction."

On the other hand, the CEO of conservative satirical website Babylon Bee, whose Twitter account was blocked after an article emerged calling Biden's transgender administration official, Rachel Levine, "man of the year," said it was possible the website's account could also be unblocked.

"Musk contacted us before he polled his followers about Twitter's commitment to free speech," said Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon.

"He wanted to confirm that we had actually been suspended. He even thought about the call, that he might need to buy Twitter."

On April 4, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) website announced that the tech billionaire owned approximately 73.48 million shares of Twitter common stock as of March 14.

This equates to a 9.2 percent stake in the company, totaling $2.89 billion, making it the largest shareholder. Musk enters the company's board and his term ends in 2024, with a possible extension.

Following the announcement, Twitter shares rose 26 percent to 49.56 dollars on Monday.

To note, Musk, who is active on Twitter and has more than 80 million followers, has repeatedly questioned Twitter's commitment to free speech, considering creating his own social network.

Last week, he said he was "thinking seriously" about creating a new platform. He also posted a survey in which he asked his followers whether Twitter's management strictly adhered to the principles of free speech. More than 70 percent of respondents said 'no.'

Last year, Twitter froze Donald Trump's account, because Trump's tweets violated its policy of glorifying violence in January 2021.

Trump's personal Twitter account has 88 million followers. Not only Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are also still blocking Trump's account indefinitely, after the attack on the US Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.

In addition, Twitter also does not allow Trump to create new accounts, even if in the future Trump runs again in the United States Presidential Election.