Elon Musk reactivates white supremacist Nick Fuentes’ account on X amid controversy

Fuentes, who previously made several antisemitic comments, is alleged to be a white supremacist who has called for the death penalty for ‘perfidious Jews’

Tesla and SpaceX’s CEO Elon Musk said that Nick Fuentes’ X account, which was suspended after he called for the death penalty for “perfidious Jews,” should be reinstated despite widespread criticism.

Fuentes, who previously made several antisemitic comments, is alleged to be a white supremacist who has called for the death penalty for “perfidious Jews.”

“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 on Thursday. “It is better to have anti-whatever out in the open to be rebutted than grow simmering in the darkness,” the TESLA owner wrote on Twitter.

American far-right political commentator and live streamer Nicholas Joseph Fuentes is known for his Islamophobic, misogynistic, homophobic, antisemitic and white supremacist views.

Fuentes’ social media accounts were suspended in response to his advocacy of Christian and white supremacy across multiple platforms.

Musk was responding to a request on the platform from a user known as GoyaBeanGroyper, indicating a clear association with Fuentes and his antisemitic Christian nationalism.

Fuentes’ account remained suspended as of Friday morning.

Musk, a proponent of unrestricted free speech, permitted Fuentes to return to Twitter for a single day in January 2023 following his suspension of the accounts of journalists whose reporting offended him.

The company suspended Fuentes’ account again the next day without providing any explanation after he bombarded his feed with antisemitic remarks.

In conversations with followers on Thursday, Musk stated that continuing to repress Fuentes would be hypocritical.

“I cannot claim to be a defender of free speech but then permanently ban someone who hasn’t violated the law, no matter how much I disagree with what they say,” Musk said.

Since acquiring the platform, Musk has sued or threatened to sue watchdogs that monitor the spread of hate speech. “This will probably cause us to lose a lot of advertisers and saddens me, but a principle is a principle,” Musk added.

Source: Newsroom