WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Senator Rick Scott sent a letter to Twitter CEO, Elon Musk, thanking him for suspending the account of Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, for the hateful and anti-Semitic he posted, which had the potential to incite violence against Jewish Americans. Senator Scott remains committed to eliminating abhorrent anti-Semitic speech that incites hate crimes against Jewish communities and hopes to see Twitter be a reliable partner in this important work.

Read the full letter HERE or below.

December 2, 2022

Dear Mr. Musk:

            I want to express my thanks for your swift action to suspend the Twitter account of Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, following his sickening comments praising Nazis and Adolf Hitler, and sharing the image of a swastika. You were right to take this decisive action to prevent acts of violence and hate crimes against the Jewish community that could have been motivated by these disgusting comments and posts on your platform.

            I also want to commend you for your approach to content moderation on Twitter which, unlike the previous leadership, shows that you are committed to standing up for free speech and making an appropriate distinction between hate speech and speech that doesn't align with the woke values of Big Tech. For too long, Big Tech giants like Twitter have put their thumb on the scale in the political process, resulting in conservatives and conservative viewpoints being cancelled and censored. A prime example of this is the now widely verified reporting from the New York Post on Hunter Biden’s laptop, which was initially blocked from Twitter in an act of blatant partisan censorship. Looking forward, I expect Twitter will show the willingness to both defend free speech and the right of all Americans to express their political views in a digital town square, while providing no safe harbor for anti-Semitic and incendiary content.

Anti-Semitism is disgusting, evil and has no place in our society. The nonsense Mr. West is spewing is hate and should never, ever be tolerated and I strongly believe that all Americans must stand united against anti-Semitism and support our Jewish neighbors in the face of these despicable attacks, whether made online or in their communities.

As a U.S. Senator, I remain committed to working to eliminate this type of abhorrent speech that incites hate crimes against our Jewish communities and hope to see Twitter be a reliable partner in this important work.

Sincerely,

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