Twitter this week suspended several prominent accounts linked to the alt-right movement, the fringe white nationalist group that helped propel President-elect Donald Trump to the White House. As USA Today reports, the site suspended the accounts on Tuesday, the same day it announced a long-awaited measure to combat abuse on its platform.
Among the users suspended this week is Richard Spencer, head of the National Policy Institute, a white nationalist think tank that, according to its website, is “dedicated to the heritage, identity, and future of people of European descent in the United State.” Spencer’s personal verified account was suspended, as were those of the National Policy Institute and his magazine, Radix Journal. Other suspended alt-right Twitter users include Paul Town, Pax Dickinson, Ricky Vaughn and John Rivers.
“Corporate Stalinism”
In an interview with The Daily Caller, Spencer described Twitter’s move as “corporate Stalinism.” “Twitter is trying to airbrush the alt-right out of existence,” he told the website. “They’re clearly afraid. They will fail!” In a YouTube video posted online Tuesday, he said that online “execution squads” were targeting the alt-right, comparing it, curiously, to Adolf Hitler’s purge of Nazi leaders in 1934.
Twitter declined to comment on the suspensions in a statement to USA Today, citing “privacy and security reasons.”