Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Richard Spencer Says He Might Leave Twitter And Twitter Loves It

Richard Spencer, the white nationalist, said he may leave Twitter after losing his verification badge Wednesday. In two tweets posted Thursday evening, Spencer announced the potential move and bemoaned what he called an attack on free speech.

“Twitter had the chance to become a true global public square, the preeminent free-speech platform of the digital age,” Spencer wrote. “Instead, its leadership seems to want just another safe and boring place, for safe and boring opinions.”

Twitter unverified several far right figures on Wednesday, removing the small blue checkmark badge from their username on the site. The move came after the company updated its verification policy.

The new policy states that a user can lose their badge if they “promote hate” on the basis of several protected categories.

Twitter users responded to Spencer’s tweet with a string of celebratory GIFs, and multiple users posted the footage of Spencer being punched in the face.

Laura Loomer, a self-styled “citizen journalist” who frequently tweets hateful messages about Muslims, was also unverified. She compared Twitter’s unverification campaign to “Hitler” in a tweet.

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.