"What Musk proposes to do with the platform would represent a severe backslide in favor of allowing hate and misinformation that would put our communities in even more danger," said Sumayyah Waheed of the civil rights group Muslim Advocates. The group is a member of Twitter's Trust and Safety Council, which advises the company on its policies and products.
"Trump used that platform to encourage obviously false conspiracies about the election, all to undermine democracy and ensure that he could remain in office," Waheed said. "As part of that effort, he encouraged a violent mob to storm the U.S. Capitol, which resulted in multiple deaths. During and after the insurrection, he used his Twitter account to downplay the insurrectionists' actions."
She continued: "If this does not merit being banned from the platform, then I'm terrified of what else would be allowed under Musk's watch."
Allowing Trump to return could also exacerbate concerns among some Twitter employees who worry that Musk will undo years of work to curb abuse and harassment.
Since Musk first revealed he had become Twitter's largest individual shareholder in early April, he has been publicly critical of the company and its employees. He continued to lob criticism even after reaching an agreement to buy the company for $44 billion, and has amplified attacks on Twitter's top lawyer and head of policy.
"Twitter needs to be much more even-handed. It currently has a strong left bias because it's based in San Francisco," Musk said on Tuesday. Conservatives have long accused tech companies of bias and censorship, even though there is no evidence for these allegations.