Biden administration officials are concerned SpaceX founder and Tesla CEO Elon Musk will allow former US President Donald Trump to return to Twitter after he reached a deal to acquire the social media company.
Earlier on Monday, Twitter’s board of directors accepted Musk’s $44 billion offer to buy the company, but the deal is still subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, the report said.
The report said on Monday, citing sources, that Biden administration officials are concerned that misinformation on Twitter will increase under Musk’s control, which could be critical in the upcoming 2024 US presidential election.
However, Trump told Fox News he did not intend to return to Twitter, where he had 88 million followers before he was banned from the platform, which accused him of spreading false information that was blamed for fueling the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Trump did not have much success launching his own social media company, Truth Social, in February.
Musk has repeatedly complained that free speech is restricted on Twitter. He said in a statement after the deal was reached that Twitter is a “digital town square” where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.
Musk also said Twitter has tremendous potential to unlock and he intends to enhance the platform with “new features, making algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating spambots, and authenticating all humans.”