Elon Musk said he plans to reinstate the X account of white-nationalist activist and all-around problematic podcaster Nick Fuentes.
On X on Thursday, Musk caved to a user’s demand to make good on his “promise” and bring Fuentes back to the social media site, from which he has been banned for over a year.
It’s unclear what Musk’s “promise” was, but the billionaire has seemingly been determined to bring as many far-right voices espousing dangerous conspiracy theories back to the platform as possible.
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“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 wrote in a response to the demand. “It is better to have anti whatever out in the open to be rebutted than grow simmering in the darkness.”
Seth Dillon, the CEO of conservative satire website Babylon Bee and fervent Musk fanboy, touted the decision in a post on X.
“You don't have to like what someone says to support their right to say it,” he wrote. “Anyone who isn't breaking the law (e.g., calling for violence, making threats, etc.) should be permitted to speak in the public square. If you don't like what they have to say, respond with more speech or tune them out.”
Musk responded to the post, writing “Exactly!”
Of course, thanks to X’s algorithm, it’s unlikely that Fuentes’ speech would be buried by more speech, but rather be whisked away to a right-wing sub-community—or even promoted by the site’s “Who to Follow” feature like Alex Jones, the far-right broadcaster and conspiracy theorist who was recently reinstated, even after being handed a series of legal judgements of more than $1 billion for a hoax campaign claiming that a 2012 school shooting in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, was faked.
The decision to reinstate Fuentes comes months after Musk himself faced criticism over alleged antisemitic statements, accusations the technology baron called “bogus.”
Fuentes was first kicked off the platform in July 2021. Before then, Twitter administrators were unwilling to ban the right-wing activist, even when he floated the idea to assassinate state legislators the day before the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. By the end of 2021 he was also banned from Facebook and YouTube.
Fuentes was unsuspended from the app for a single day in Jan. 2023, before being promptly banned yet again. According to Hannah Gais, a senior researcher at the Southern Poverty Law Center, Fuentes had tweeted several antisemitic comments immediately upon having his account reinstated.
He also shared a video promoting Kanye West’s 2024 presidential campaign, which included one of the rapper’s virulent antisemitic tweets, where he said he planned to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” according to The Hill.
Since being banned, Fuentes has tried to remain on the site using a series of burner accounts, The Daily Beast reported in October.
A Holocaust denier, Fuentes marched alongside his fellow neo-Nazis at the deadly Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017. He was later invited to dine at Mar-a-Lago with former president Donald Trump and Kanye West in 2022.
Fuentes has previously said that he believes improving the rights of women and LGBTQ+ people constitutes the “bastardized Jewish subversion of the American creed. The Founders never intended for America to be a refugee camp for nonwhite people.” Fuentes started his America First livestream and podcast to deliver his hate speech directly to his followers, colloquially known as “groypers.”
