A Step in the Right Direction for Elon Musk’s Free Speech Agenda

Elon Musk made headlines today by pledging to reinstate the X account of Nick Fuentes, the controversial 25-year-old pundit who has long served as one of a handful of conspicuous exceptions to Musk’s stated free-speech absolutism. Since taking over X, Musk has — in bits and spurts — allowed a number of previously banned accounts to return to the platform. But Fuentes, along with a few other “far-right” voices, has remained in digital exile. (During Musk’s initial mass amnesty, Fuentes was briefly allowed back on the platform — only to be suspended a day later.) Musk wrote:

Very well, he will be reinstated, provided he does not violate the law, and let him be crushed by the comments and Community Notes.

It is better to have anti whatever out in the open to be rebutted than grow simmering in the darkness.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 2, 2024

“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 added. “This will probably cause us to lose a lot of advertisers and makes me sad, but a principle is a principle.”

The move was significant for a number of reasons. Musk clearly pays attention to (and often participates in) discourse on the right-wing corners of X, where Fuentes has long played a prominent role: Even in his absence, his army of young followers — known as the “groypers” — are one of the most energetic and active cohorts on the platform. (Look at the comment section of any prominent conservative account, and there’s a good chance you’ll find video clips of Fuentes and other posts from his fans.) Some of the groypers have substantial followings and have been spearheading a prolonged pressure campaign against Musk and X to reinstate Fuentes since he was banned in January 2023. “Nick Fuentes” has been the top trending topic on X at numerous junctures over the past year — including last month, when the young right-wing firebrand participated in a highly discussed conversation on the platform with Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing.

It’s almost impossible to believe that Musk wasn’t aware of all this, or that he hadn’t seen the ubiquitous calls to replatform Fuentes, which would, like clockwork, appear en masse in Musk’s replies practically every time he touted X’s commitment to free speech. But until now, he neglected to address the issue publicly — and X routinely banned the various anonymous “burner” accounts that Fuentes made in the interim.

To be sure, Musk has yet to actually make good on his pledge to lift the Fuentes ban — and he has a history of reneging on public promises in this context. “While he played a pivotal role in the anti-censorship campaign against the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) earlier this year,” I wrote last November, “many of his ambitious promises—including his pledge to sue the ADL and release a ‘giant data dump’ exposing the group’s efforts to lobby for censorship—never materialized.” Furthermore:

Despite Musk’s laudable pledge to govern X as a “free speech absolutist,” a March 2023 study found that censorship on the platform actually increased in the first four months of his takeover. While Musk himself has criticized gender ideology, censorship of “anti-trans” ideas and speech on X—including temporary bans of high-profile conservative journalists and at least one sitting member of Congress—have persisted under his leadership. While Musk promised (and briefly delivered on) a general amnesty for accounts suspended under previous Twitter leadership, he has presided over a succession of ban waves, often with no public rationale. Earlier this month, two British right-wing activists, Katie Hopkins and Tommy Robinson, were abruptly reinstated on X without explanation, while their counterparts in the Twitter gulag remained banned. It’s difficult to escape the sense that X’s decisions on these matters are being driven by internal political maneuvering rather than any objective standard.

But those who support Musk’s stated goal of a true “free speech platform” should urge him to make good on his promise and follow through. Even if some conservatives can’t emotionally bring themselves to support Fuentes’ speech rights for principled reasons, they can and should do so for entirely self-interested ones. As I wrote in these pages last month:

By claiming to defend all free speech in principle but only defending some in practice, the Right concedes, by omission, that certain ideas fall outside the bounds of free expression — and that it’s perfectly appropriate (or, at least, not particularly objectionable) to bring the full force of regime power to bear against any individual so unwise as to express them…The irony, of course, is that the ideas and individuals in question — i.e., those who stray too far to the right — are often the subject of the most vigorous, aggressive, and consistent censorship, both from major tech platforms and the apparatus of the American state. But the so-called far Right tends to be a canary in the coal mine. Invariably, censorship of the right-wing fringe is only ever a pretext for much broader censorship of ideas and figures well within the conservative mainstream. In 2016, the first few rounds of permanent Twitter bans came for figures such as Milo Yiannopoulos and Richard Spencer (as well as Spencer’s think tank and journal). In 2017, the censors graduated to Roger Stone and Andrew Tate; in 2018, Alex Jones. By 2020, the scope of censorship had expanded to include factual reporting from the New York Post, and, by 2022, comedy from the Babylon Bee.

One need not agree with anything that Fuentes says to understand the critical significance of securing freedom of speech — true free speech, which includes the most controversial or otherwise objectionable ideas and voices — on one of the most powerful social media platforms in the world. Elon Musk should be commended for taking an important step toward realizing that goal.