Within Hour, Millions Answer Elon Musk's Twitter Poll on Reinstating Trump

More than 2 million Twitter users on Friday responded within the first hour to CEO Elon Musk's poll asking if he should reinstate former President Donald Trump's account.

As of 9:25 p.m., with 22 hours left to respond, 57.9 percent had answered "Yes" to the prompt.

Trump has been suspended from Twitter since January 8, 2021, two days after his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol. The company released a statement explaining its reason for banning the former president after two particularly "inflammatory tweets," writing that the messages could be "mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence."

Musk publicly reissued three accounts earlier in the day that had recently been suspended. Comedian Kathy Griffin lost her account after impersonating Musk last week, while Jordan Peterson, a social media personality who was suspended in July, and The Babylon Bee, a satire news website that was suspended in March, were blocked for making transphobic tweets.

In his tweet announcing the reinstatements Friday, Musk wrote that the "Trump decision had not been made yet."

Musk also announced an update to Twitter's policy, saying the platform will uphold "freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach."

"Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized, so no ads or other revenue to Twitter," Musk posted. "You won't find the tweet unless you specifically seek it out, which is no different from rest of Internet."

Trump's return to the platform has been anticipated since Musk took over Twitter in late October. The new owner has publicly disagreed with the decision to ban Trump's account, saying during a press conference in the spring that the choice was "morally wrong and flat-out stupid."

The former president also praised Musk's acquisition of the company, posting on his Truth Social account that he was glad Twitter "is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country."

Musk did tell advisers in an open letter last month that he plans on implementing some guidelines for what users could say on Twitter, adding that he didn't want it to turn into a "free-for-all hellscape."

"There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society," Musk wrote in the letter.

However, Musk has already been praised by some far-right politicians since acquiring the platform and after quickly reinstating Arizona state Representative Mark Finchem in late October. Finchem, a 2020 election denier, had reportedly broken "Twitter rules" when he was locked out from posting, although it is unclear what he tweeted. Finchem lost Arizona's secretary of state race in the midterm elections, but has yet to concede.

Musk has made several changes to the company during his first few weeks in office, including formation of a new content moderation council to oversee Twitter's topic rules. Other changes include mass layoffs throughout the company and additions like "Blue Verified."

On Thursday, The New York Times reported that over 1,200 full-time Twitter employees had resigned in response to an ultimatum deadline issued by Musk the day before. Musk had told employees they had until 5 p.m. Thursday to sign up for "Twitter 2.0" or accept a severance package.

The major restructuring has led to some fears that Twitter may soon cease to exist, although Musk has not shown any signs of worry. As news spread of the company's unrest Thursday night, Musk tweeted the platform had "just hit another all-time high in Twitter usage."

Newsweek has reached out to Trump's press team for comment.