Just a few hours after Elon Musk launched a new era at Twitter Inc., the billionaire owner received a barrage of requests and pleadings from users with banned accounts and international leaders.
The influx of requests highlights the difficulty facing Tesla Inc.’s (TSLA.O) CEO in combining his commitment to restore free expression with his pledge to stop the platform from turning into a “hellscape” in an open letter to advertisers on Thursday.
Despite expressing support for the takeover, former US President Donald Trump, who was permanently banned from Twitter following the riots on January 6, 2021, spoke little about making a comeback. “I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs who truly hate our country.”
Former Russian President and current Vice-Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev tweeted his congratulations: “Wishing @elonmusk well as he battles ideological dominance and political prejudice on Twitter. And stop working for Starlink in Ukraine.”
Others begged Musk to undo punishments meted out by the social networking site. Musk tweeted, “I will be digging in more today,” in response to @catturd2, an anonymous account with 852,000 followers who is well-known for strongly endorsing Trump’s accusations of election fraud.
Musk and Twitter are under increasing pressure since he plans to address the Twitter workers on Friday once the purchase is finalized.
“Hey @ElonMusk, now that you own Twitter, will you help fight back against Trudeau’s online censorship bill C-11?” tweeted Canada Proud, an organization working to vote out Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“First I’ve heard,” Musk responded in a tweet on Friday.
