Musk announces he will reinstate 'groyper' leader Nick Fuentes to X

X owner Elon Musk on Thursday announced that he would reinstated the account of far-right "groyper" leader Nick Fuentes, who was banned from the platform prior to Musk's purchase of Twitter.

Musk made the pledge in response to a request from the "GoyaBeanGroyper" account asking for Fuentes's return. "Groypers" are supporters of Fuentes and take their name from a variation of the popular "Pepe the Frog" meme.

"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," Musk said.

After taking over the platform, Musk promised to permit free speech and reinstated the accounts of many banned figures such as Alex Jones. Fuentes, however, remained banned.

"Fate loves irony, but hates hypocrisy. 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," he went on. "This will probably cause us to lose a lot of advertisers and makes me sad, but a principle is a principle."

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.