Rick Scott praises Elon Musk for banning Ye, restoring Twitter access for others

Rick Scott gives props to Elon Musk for Ye's suspension from Twitter.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott feels happy Elon Musk suspended Ye from Twitter. And he’s also happy Musk isn’t censoring many others.

The Florida Republican penned a letter on Senate stationary thanking Musk for re-suspending the rapper. Twitter had previously suspended West over anti-Semitic remarks but restored his account in October as Tesla owner Musk was purchasing the social media platform. Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, had his account freshly re-suspended on Friday.

“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,” Scott wrote in his letter.

But Scott stressed he has appreciated Musk’s normally light-handed approach to moderating content, which he said shows a commitment to free speech unseen from Twitter’s previous leadership.

“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 canceled and censored,” Scott wrote. “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.”

There was no mention of former President Donald Trump, a close ally of Scott and the man largely responsible for Ye’s recent revival in headlines about hate. Ye attended a Thanksgiving meal at Mar-a-Lago with noted antisemite Nick Fuentes. Of note, Fuentes remains suspended as well.

Since Musk purchased Twitter, a number of other accounts have also been restored, including Stormfront editor Andrew Anglin, a White nationalist who just endorsed Ye’s campaign for President.

Scott stressed a line between censorship of politically important content and moderating hate speech.

“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,” he wrote.

He leveled particular criticism at Ye.

“Anti-Semitism is disgusting, evil and has no place in our society,” Scott wrote. “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.”