Nick Fuentes, a controversial far-right political commentator and live streamer, is set to return to X.Elon Musk, the platform’s CEO since 2022, wrote, “it is better to have anti whatever out in the open to be rebutted than grow simmering in the darkness.”Very well, he will be reinstated, provided he does not violate the law, and let him be crushed by the comments and Community Notes. It is better to have anti whatever out in the open to be rebutted than grow simmering in the darkness.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 2, 2024
Fuentes’s extremist past includes attending a 2017 white nationalist rally in Virginia, criticizing interracial marriage, and defending Jim Crow-era segregation.The Anti-Defamation League describes Fuentes as a white supremacist, anti-semite, and 2020 election-denier “who seeks to forge a white nationalist alternative to the mainstream GOP.”Fuentes has denied the Holocaust and said “perfidious Jews” should be executed, the Times of Israel reports.He has also praised Hitler, calling him “cool.”When Elon Musk bought X for $44 billion in October 2022, he set out to defend free speech absolutism on the platform.
Contentious figures including Donald Trump, Kanye West, Jordan Peterson, and Andrew Tate have had their accounts restored.Musk has remained steadfast in his absolutist views and even doubled down when a slew of advertisers withdrew from the platform in 2023.When Musk first took over the platform, the use of the N-word jumped by almost 500% as trolls tested the limits on free speech.Nick Fuentes’ flirting with hate-speech has meant he has had a rocky relationship with X and Twitter before it. He was first banned from Twitter in December 2021 for flouting moderation rules and was re-banned in October 2022 after creating a new account under Musk’s leadership.At the time, Musk said he didn’t want the social media platform to become a “free-for-all hellscape.”Fuentes made a very brief comeback in January of 2023 when he was resuspended only after one day back on the platform, Reuters reports.His final post before his reappearance this week was made on January 25, 2023, when he posted an antisemitic chart indicating which media figures have Jewish heritage. “Who controls your mind?” the image is titled.Business Insider’s Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert reported that despite Musk identifying as a “free speech absolutist,” the same embrace of free speech does not extend to his critics.Musk has threatened to sue bloggers for critical coverage of the mogul and fired employees for disagreeing with him, per Tangalakis-Lippert.
