Richest Hypocrite In The World Is Returning Twitter to Hatred
Musk and trump sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.
Elon Musk, that man with the strange name who happens to be the richest bizarro in the world, is about to unlock the Twitter prison gates and welcome back all. But it’s OK because Musk, the new owner of Twitter, took a poll of 3,162,112 Twitter users and found that most people thought trump should be reinstated to Twitter despite leading an insurrection to topple the government.
And furthermore, Musk has announced, another poll he took found that 72.4 percent of the responders said that Twitter should grant a “general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam?” Musk wouldn’t lie.
It should come as no surprise that in the month since Musk took over Twitter, there has seen a growing number of tweets reflecting racist, anti-Semitic and other toxic subjects. That has included a surge in racist abuse of World Cup soccer players that Twitter is allegedly failing to act on.
Certainly, Musk is acting in the public interest. His motivation couldn’t possibly be that he’s trying to grow Twitter’s revenues, which totaled $3.72 billion in 2020. Or that he’s trying to boost the 396.5 million users signed up, including 206 million users who access Twitter daily, of which the most popular users are 25- to 34-year-olds. And never one to limit his interests, Musk also may be trying to increase the 75 percent of users not based in the U.S.
“The people have spoken,” Musk tweeted. “Amnesty begins next week. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.”
Hopefully, Musk will forgive and reinstate The Chaser, an Australian comedy group and satirical news publication, which was temporarily suspended for impersonating Pope Francis, J. K. Rowling, Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison and Coca-Cola.
Already, Musk welcomed back trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., the trump backer supreme, Christian nationalist and all-around nut job.
Trump was temporarily kicked off on Jan. 7, 2021, before Musk bought the company, for using the platform to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election and to incite the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Twitter also suspended or heavily moderated accounts that enabled trump to circumvent his ban, including the official @POTUS handle and “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump” account. Trump’s “Truth Social” posts also were suspended for violating Twitter’s ban evasion policy since his role in the 2021 Capitol attack.
Greene had been suspended in January 2021 for spreading misinformation about voter fraud in the 2020 election and for repeatedly posting COVID-19 misinformation. Greene was the first sitting member of Congress to have her personal Twitter account permanently suspended.
So who might be next? How about Donald trump Jr.; former trump adviser and far right wing commentator, Steve Bannon; or right-wing commentator Katie Hopkins; conspiracy theorist David Icke; and don’t forget former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke.
Donald Jr., the son of trump, was temporarily blocked on July 28, 2020, for spreading the debunked claim that Hydroxychloroquine can prevent COVID-19.
Bannon was banned on Nov. 5, 2020, after he called for the beheading of Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top epidemiologist; and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray.
There are many hatred-filled racists and worse who are hoping to get the blessings of Musk, including:
Nicholas Joseph Fuentes, a far-right, Christian nationalist, white nationalist, white supremacist and Holocaust denier, was permanently suspended from YouTube in February 2020 for violating YouTube’s hate speech policy. Fuentes attended and spoke at events preceding the 2021 Capitol attack and he attended the violent, white supremacist, 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va.
Twitter was among the last mainstream social media sites to ban Fuentes, permanently suspending his verified account in July 2021.
He hosted his third annual America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC) in February 2022 and lauded Vladimir Putin while giving a back-handed compliment to Adolf Hitler. Among those at the conference were Rep. Greene while Idaho Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin and Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., prerecorded videos that were played at the event.
On Tuesday, trump dined and conversed at his Mar-a-Lago castle with Fuentes and rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. Rep. Greene also tweeted on Tuesday that Fuentes and Alex Jones should both be reinstated to Twitter. Over the weekend, Musk also reinstated Ye to Twitter though the rapper has spread vile anti-Semitic misinformation.
No doubt hoping for reinstatement is Milo Yiannopoulos, a British alt-right political commentator who has ridiculed Islam, feminism, social justice, and political correctness. Yiannopoulos is a former editor for Breitbart News, a far-right media organization formed by Bannon. In July 2016, Yiannopoulos was permanently banned from Twitter for online harassment of actress Leslie Jones.
Yiannopoulos has been accused of advocating pedophilia and was a 2022 intern for Rep. Greene. Ye (West) was suspended after posting an anti-Semitic Tweet, declaring that he was going to go “death con 3” on Jewish people. West said he plans to run for president and has asked trump to be his vice presidential candidate and hopes that Yiannopoulos will be his campaign manager for his 2024 presidential election campaign.
David Duke, a white supremacist and former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, was temporarily suspended on July 30, 2020, for his association with the violent 2017, “Unite the Right” rally by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va. He was permanently suspended in July 2020 for hateful content.
The hopeful also include such far right darlings as Katie Olivia Hopkins, an English media personality who was a contestant on the third series of The Apprentice in 2007. Hopkins has been accused of making racist comments about migrants. In 2016, her former employer MailOnline was forced to pay significant damages to a Muslim family whom she had falsely accused of extremist links.
In July 2021, Hopkins was deported from Australia and was fined for deliberately breaching COVID-19 health regulations. Hopkins was permanently suspended from Twitter in June 2020 for what the company described as “violations of our hateful conduct policy.”
Hopkins supported trump’s 2016 Republican presidential nomination and said, “I hear cries that he is a blithering idiot. I have often been called a deranged fool. But if this were true you could ignore me, ignore us, imaging [sic] the two of us shouting naked at the rain. It’s because we articulate sentiments repressed by the politically correct consensus that we have a voice.” That voice could soon be greatly louder because of Musk.
Another ex-Tweeter and trump supporter, who may be back, is John Doyle, a paleo-conservative political commentator and Internet personality. He’s described as opposing atheism, Satanism, Marxism, the homosexual agenda, gender transitioning on children, transgenderism, Black Lives Matter, pedophilia, Communism, abortion, pornography and the “Biden junta,” Hollywood values and most leftist ideologies.
Another right winger who may find his voice again on Twitter is Gavin McInnes, a Canadian writer, podcaster and far-right political commentator. He is the founder of the Proud Boys, a far-right neo-fascist, white supremacist organization involved in the Jan. 6, 2020, Capitol insurrection. In 2018, McInnes was banned from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for violating terms of use related to promoting violent extremist groups and hate speech.
The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “McInnes plays a duplicitous rhetorical game: rejecting white nationalism and, in particular, the term ‘alt-right’ while espousing some of its central tenets.”
And there’s Alex Jones, host of The Alex Jones Show and the web site Infowars, which promotes conspiracy theories and fake news. Jones has provided a platform and support for white nationalists, including Fuentes.
Jones alleged that the government concealed information or lied about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the September 11 attacks, and the 1969 Moon landing. A staunch trumper, Jones supported trump’s lies about electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
This year, Jones’ was found guilty of defamatory falsehoods about the Sandy Hook shooting, and juries in Connecticut and Texas awarded $965 million and $50 million in damages to families effected by the shootings.
Roger Stone, the trump confidant, political consultant and lobbyist was removed from Twitter on Oct. 29, 2017, for harassing CNN journalists.
Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon better known as Tommy Robinson, is a British far-right, anti-Islam activist, and convicted criminal on multiple counts of violence and fraud as well as other crimes. He is the co-founder and former leader of the English Defence League, a far right, anti-immigrant group. Robinson was a member of the neo-fascist and white nationalist British National Party (BNP) from 2004 to 2005. From 2017 to 2018, Robinson wrote for and appeared in online videos for Rebel News, a Canadian far-right political website.
Robinson has a long-standing criminal record for violence, stalking, financial and immigration frauds, drug possession and public order offenses. In March 2018, Robinson was permanently banned from Twitter for violating its rules on “hateful conduct.”
Some lesser characters also might find a pathway back, like Jared Fogle, the former Subway spokesman who pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography, soliciting minors for sex via the Internet, and performing sex acts on minors.
Actor James Woods was temporarily removed on Sept. 20, 2108, for posting a fake message, supposedly from Democrats, that urged men not to vote in the midterm elections. Woods refused to delete the tweet but he was allowed to return in October 2018.
Anthime Gionet, who goes by the name of Baked Alaska, was permanently removed from Twitter in November 2017 for repeated and/or non-consensual slurs, epithets, racist and sexist tropes, or other degrading content. Gionet also pleaded guilty to being part of the insurrection at the Capitol.
Musk isn’t likely to reinstate the 70 million automated, troll, and fake accounts permanently removed on July 6, 2018, as crackdown on malicious activity. Another 88,000 Saudi-linked accounts were kicked off on Dec. 20, 2019, for having “violated platform manipulation policies.” A total of 170,000 Chinese, 1,000 Russian, and 7,340 Turkish accounts were removed on June 11, 2020, for being linked to propaganda and disinformation supportive of their respective governments. Another 3,000 Chinese accounts were barred on Aug. 26, 2020, for being part of the Chinese botnet known as “Dracula.”
Danielle Stella, an unsuccessful 2020 candidate for congress in Minnesota, was permanently removed after sending a tweet that read, “If it is proven @IlhanMN [Ilhan Omar] passed sensitive info to Iran, she should be tried for #treason and hanged.”
The far right Federalist website was temporarily blocked in March 2020 for promoting an article advocating parties for people who had tested positive for COVID-19, a measure harshly criticized by public health officials.
Numerous suspicious accounts claiming to be Black supporters of trump were kicked off on Oct.13,2020, for violating Twitter’s rules on spam and platform manipulation.
L. Lin Wood, a lawyer for trump and conspiracy theorist was permanently banned for violating Twitter’s rules against inciting violence and using a second account.
Jake Angeli, a conspiracist and far right activist known as the QAnon Shaman, was removed after he was convicted of participating in the Jan. 6 rebellion.
Mike Lindell, CEO of My Pillow, a leading voice in the voter fraud conspiracy, was removed in Jan. 2021 for promoting disinformation about the 2020 presidential election.
Fox News personality Tucker Carlson was locked out on March 23, 2022, for hateful conduct after posting a Tweet mocking U.S. Health Assistant Secretary Rachel Levine’s placement on USA Today’s “Women of the Year” list. Levine is a transgender woman.
Kathy Griffin may not find that getting back on Twitter is that easy. The comedian was suspended on Nov. 6, 2022, for impersonating Elon Musk.