So, Uh, Why Is Richard Spencer Still on Twitter?
On early Monday morning, leaked audio attributed to white supremacist Richard Spencer was published on fellow alt-right figure Milo Yiannopolous’ YouTube channel. In the clip, which was allegedly recorded in the summer of 2017, Spencer is heard yelling racial and ethnic slurs with reference to the Unite the Right rally, the alt-right rally in Charlottesville where one protester was killed.
“We are coming back here a fucking hundred times,” the person who is allegedly Spencer says on the recording, an apparent reference to Charlottesville. “I am so mad. I am so fucking mad at these people.” The voice in the video later refers to the protesters at Charlottesville as “little fucking kikes” and “fucking octoroons,” ranting, “My ancestors enslaved those pieces of fucking shit.”
One of the key figures behind the alt-right, Spencer initially rose to prominence by endorsing white-nationalist principles such as racial purity and so-called peaceful ethnic cleansing. Yet he gained some degree of mainstream visibility thanks to his academic credentials and buttoned-up persona, which was markedly different than that of other white supremacists. As a result, many mainstream media outlets provided a platform for Spencer’s views by using him as a source, most notoriously CNN, which interviewed Spencer last summer.
On Twitter, where the audio widely circulated, the clip was primarily cited as evidence that Spencer’s image served as a front for his white-supremacist views, exposing him for who he really was. (Spencer has made no public comment regarding the authenticity of the recording, other than to tweet a recording of a speech by far-right commenter Jonathan Bowden with the title “Never Apologize.” Spencer did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Rolling Stone.) Researchers of the far right also pointed out that Yiannopolous’ leak of the audio did not necessarily reflect his condemnation of the sentiments contained therein, but was the byproduct of a growing rift between members of a Trump-supporting contingent of the alt-right and the more overtly extremist camp helmed by Spencer, who has argued that the alt-right should break with Trump in 2020, as delineated in a thread from the anarchist news platform It’s Going Down. The release of the audio doesn’t reflect Yiannopolous’ change of heart so much as it represents his middle finger to the latter camp, despite the fact that Spencer and Yiannopolous have a history of palling around, according to IGD editor James Anderson. But the audio also raises another question: In the midst of the growing conversation about platforms and what responsibility they may have to limit hate speech, why does Spencer, an avowed racist, still have an active Twitter account to begin with?
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/richard-spencer-audio-milo-yiannopolous-twitter-907650/