Elon Musk’s Twitter continues its streak of bringing some of the worst people back to the platform with perhaps its most harmful user yet.
Nick Fuentes, the 24-year-old white nationalist, Holocaust denier and founder of the far-right Groypers, had his verified Twitter account restored on Tuesday. Fuentes sent his first and, so far, only tweet at 7:30 a.m. EST, which included nothing more than an image of Patrick Star from the cartoon. Sponge Bob SquarePants nonchalantly pushing open a door.
Fuentes has been described by the Anti-Defamation League as a white supremacist(Opens in a new window). Fuentes’ fans greeted him on Twitter with far-right memes, racist imagery and photos of Adolf Hitler.
While Musk’s Twitter has brought back many previously banned right-wing users, ranging from former President Donald Trump to Stop the Steal frontman Ali Alexander, the reinstatement of Nick Fuentes is certainly interesting.
In December last year, Elon Musk personally suspended Twitter rapper Kanye West after West posted an image of a swastika connected to a Star of David as well as unflattering photos of Musk shirtless on a yacht. West, who was in the middle of a media tour promoting an alleged presidential campaign, had made anti-Semitic remarks in the weeks before he was suspended from Twitter.
Fuentes had begun appearing alongside West regularly during this time. It was later announced that Fuentes had joined West’s campaign as an adviser. On the day West was suspended from Twitter, he and Fuentes had appeared on right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ show, where West declared his “love” for Adolf Hitler as Fuentes looked on, nodding in agreement.
Fuentes was originally suspended from Twitter in July 2021. At the time, a Twitter spokesperson only shared that Fuentes had been suspended(Opens in a new window) for “permanent suspension for repeated violations of the Twitter rules”. Experts and researchers on extremism have long critical(Opens in a new window) Twitter for allowing Fuentes on the platform, with a legacy verified tick as well, long after most other social media platforms have given it a go.
Since Elon Musk acquired the social media platform, however, many far-right users who had been “permanently suspended” from Twitter have since been authorized back to(Opens in a new window) the platform. Musk’s Twitter reinstated accounts like Fuentes’ while to suspend(Opens in a new window) prominent left-wing users like disinformation and cybersecurity expert Chad Loder.
It’s unclear why Twitter chose to reinstate Nick Fuentes’ account at this exact time. While some formerly suspended users have received help from high-profile right-wing influencers pressuring Musk to reinstate their accounts, others have found their accounts reinstated seemingly at random with large swathes of other users.
Another suspended far-right Twitter user known to hold anti-Semitic views, Patrick Howley, was also reinstated today.
Mashable has reached out to Twitter for comment. This story will be updated if Twitter responds, but it’s important to note that Twitter hasn’t set up a communications team since Musk acquired the company.
