Nazi-saluting white nationalist Richard Spencer—who coined the term “alt-right”—had his Twitter account reinstated, along with verification. In mid-November, Spencer was suspended from the site along with other prominent alt-right voices like Pax Dickinson and Ricky Vaughn.
Now Spencer is back, though the other Twitter-banned men of the alt-right remain forgotten.
Why was Spencer—who runs The National Policy Institute, a white nationalist think-tank—allowed to return while his peers are resigned to a tweet-free existence? Twitter told BuzzFeed that the white nationalist leader’s account was only suspended on a technicality. Spencer violated Twitter’s policy that bans “creating multiple accounts with overlapping uses or in order to evade the temporary or permanent suspension of a separate account.”
The company warned Spencer that to remain on the site, his account will have to “comply fully with the Twitter Rules.” A Twitter spokesperson told BuzzFeed:
Our rules explicitly prohibit creating multiple accounts with overlapping uses. When we temporarily suspend multiple accounts for this violation, the account owner can designate one account for reinstatement. Twitter Rules also prohibit hateful conduct, harassment, and violent threats. We will take action on accounts that violate these policies.
On Twitter, Spencer wrote that there were “silver linings” to his suspension from the troubled social network. He said it allowed his brain to de-fragment for a few weeks.
He then returned to tweeting and retweeting shit like this.
Another day, another Nazi gets to tweet.
[BuzzFeed]