Twitter suspends white nationalist Nick Fuentes’ account a day after it was restored.
WASHINGTON, Jan 25 (Reuters) – The U.S. Twitter (TWTR.MX) deactivated the account of white nationalist Nick Fuentes on Wednesday, just a day after restoring it drew considerable condemnation. According to Hannah Gais, a senior researcher at the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which tracks hate organizations, Fuentes made many antisemitic statements in a Twitter Space on Tuesday after his account was reinstated. Following his suspension on Wednesday, Fuentes requested his Telegram followers to petition for the restoration of his account.
In 2020 and 2021, the white supremacist was banned from a number of social media networks for hate speech, including Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. On Wednesday, Twitter did not immediately react to a request for comment on its newest choices for Fuentes’ account.
Elon Musk, the platform’s new owner, describes himself as a free-speech absolutist. Under Musk’s leadership, Twitter has reversed suspensions of several accounts that were removed under previous ownership, most notably the account of former President Donald Trump, who was permanently banned from Twitter after being accused of inciting violence following the Capitol incident on January 6, 2021.
Human rights organizations have expressed concern about hate speech on Twitter after Musk’s takeover.
Fuentes made headlines again late last year when Trump welcomed him and the singer formerly known as Kanye West at his Florida private club. Trump said that the contact with Fuentes came by chance while he was eating dinner with West. West, now known as Ye, has also received tremendous criticism for a slew of antisemitic statements and was recently suspended from social media networks such as Twitter.
According to an Anti-Defamation League study issued earlier this month, Americans’ trust in antisemitic conspiracy theories and clichés has nearly doubled since 2019. In December, the White House addressed rising antisemitism at a roundtable gathering with Jewish leaders, and President Joe Biden launched an inter-agency group to coordinate antisemitism initiatives. Kanishka Singh in Washington contributed reporting, while Tim Ahmann and Daniel Wallis edited the piece.
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