Elon Musk to reinstate X account of white nationalist Nick Fuentes
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Elon Musk in Los Angeles; White nationalist Nick Fuentes answers question during an interview with Agence France-Presse in Boston. Photo: William Edwards/AFP via Getty Images
Elon Musk says X, formerly Twitter, will reinstate the suspended account of Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist and Holocaust-denying broadcaster.
Why it matters: Musk's announcement comes as the nation experiences a surge in antisemitism incidents and months after his social media company lost a slew of advertisers following his decision to back an antisemitic post.
- The decision also came hours after Holocaust survivors launched a new campaign targeting antisemitism and disinformation online.
- Fuentes' X account was still suspended as of Friday morning.
Driving the news: Musk said Thursday that he would lift the ban on Fuentes after a Fuentes supporter demanded that the white nationalist be allowed to return to X.
- "Very well, he will be reinstated, provided he does not violate the law, and let him be crushed by the comments and Community Notes," Musk posted on X.
- "It is better to have anti whatever out in the open to be rebutted than grow simmering in the darkness."
- Musk then posted that he couldn't be a defender of free speech and "permanently ban someone who hasn't violated the law."
- "This will probably cause us to lose a lot of advertisers and makes me sad, but a principle is a principle."
Catch up quick: Fuentes was first banned for repeated violations of Twitter's content moderation rules in December 2021, and he was banned on several other social media platforms as well.
- He was re-banned in October 2022 after he created a new account following Musk's official purchase of the platform.
- At the time, Musk said he didn't want the platform to become "a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!"
Background: Fuentes, identified as a white supremacist in Justice Department filings, has questioned the Holocaust, criticized interracial marriage and defended Jim Crow-era segregation.
- The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) describes him as "a white supremacist leader and podcaster who seeks to forge a white nationalist alternative to the mainstream GOP."
Between the lines: Musk, a self-proclaimed free speech "absolutist," has repeatedly claimed that he would protect all forms of speech on Twitter.
- In practice, however, the platform has been lenient to those who post hateful or extremist content while cracking down on speech that's critical of the platform or of Musk.
- A federal judge in California in March threw out a lawsuit filed by X against a hate speech watchdog that has said the use of racial slurs on X has soared since Musk's takeover.
The big picture: Antisemitic incidents in the U.S. more than doubled last year and set another record primarily driven by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel, the ADL said last month.
- The group said anti-Jewish hate has grown in part because of antisemitism and Holocaust denial on social media.
- The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany on Thursday launched a new ad campaign that targets antisemitism featuring Holocaust survivors who are visibly shaken as they read a series of social media posts denying the massacre of Jews.
Go deeper: The rise of white nationalist Hispanics
