'A Neo-Nazi Terrorized My Family. Now Elon Musk Has Him Back on Twitter'

When Elon Musk upended Twitter's moderation policies, allowing neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin to become active on the platform on December 2, years after his Daily Stormer account was banned, the pain and fear I felt were visceral. It immediately reignited the trauma my family and I have been working so hard to overcome since Anglin began a campaign of terror against us in 2017 simply because we were Jewish and dared to question another well-known white nationalist from my small hometown, Richard Spencer.

Five years ago, my entire life as I knew it was nearly destroyed by Anglin after he targeted me and my family in an antisemitic terror campaign. Anglin published on his neo-Nazi website—the Daily Stormer—my private contact information, home address, and photos of me and my 12-year-old son.

One of the photos had us on a Nazi death camp implying that we too should die like millions of others did during the Holocaust. He encouraged his many thousands of followers to make my life a living hell, and a living hell is exactly what my life became. At his command, his followers sent thousands of vile and threatening antisemitic direct messages, internet posts, and phone calls to my home, office, community, and to every corner of my life.

During this storm of hate, one hateful caller said their purpose was to drive me to suicide. I was terrified for my life and that of my husband and sons. Somehow, I found the strength not to crumble.

Instead, after I learned that Andrew Anglin had done this to others, I was determined to do everything in my power to keep this from happening to anyone else.

Since I was a little girl, my Jewish heritage taught me that complacency in the face of hate is dangerous. There are few Jewish people alive today that don't know someone, or are related to someone, whose family members were murdered by Nazis in the Holocaust, while so many in the world stood by.

So, I fought back. I took Anglin to court, and I won. It wasn't easy to relive the terror and share publicly my harrowing story. But it was worth it. Anglin was exposed for the dangerously cruel and racist man that he is. His website was repeatedly banned from popular hosting services and forced to utilize fringe operators in places like China. And while I haven't seen a penny, the $14 million in damages awarded me for the harm he caused me and my family, as well as lawsuits brought by two more of his victims, ensure that he—not my family and I—will always be looking over his shoulder. Anglin has been running ever since I filed suit, and the judge in my case recently issued a warrant for his arrest because he's still trying to escape from his legal responsibilities.

My lawsuit brought a tremendous victory, not just for me and my family, but for justice and human rights. A relentlessly antisemitic white supremacist lost his major platforms for spreading hate. And now, Musk, who has said that the "new Twitter policy is freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach," has allowed Anglin to operate a Twitter account and potentially build a massive audience to spread his vicious hate and lies. Without an online platform through which to spread hate and rally people, Anglin couldn't have done what he did to me. He wouldn't have had the tools to follow through.

Allowing a dangerous man like Anglin, knowing all the harm he has caused and is likely to cause, to have a home on his platform makes me question Musk's moral dignity. Hate speech has the capacity to lead to hate incidents, crimes, and even genocide. Anglin and his speech can become an inspiration to those who are angry and looking for answers, those who can be or have been radicalized. And who knows how many of the thousands of other banned accounts that have been reinstated under Musk, share Anglin's views?

Racist, antisemitic conspiracy theories will not stop as long as extremism is allowed to thrive online. There are real consequences to letting true hate spread.

The perpetrators of the 2018 murders of 11 Jewish people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, the 10 Black people murdered in May in Buffalo, New York and the 23 people killed in an attack on the Latino community in El Paso, Texas in 2019 all spread and engaged with racist online hate before committing their crimes.

So it is vital to me that we do not look the other way when it comes to unleashing a powerful voice of this kind of bigotry and hate.

I am a mom from a small town in Montana. So, if you think this issue couldn't affect you or your neighbor, think again. I was living a normal and happy life, and it was turned upside down overnight. The story of my life changed completely, thanks to Anglin.

But there are countless others who have been targeted on social media and in real life simply because of who they are, and my heart goes out to them because I share their pain. It is time, right now, for all of us to fight back for what is right.

Not just what is right legally, but what is right morally, so that we build a functioning and flourishing democracy where all of us, regardless of our religion, race, origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity, can live in peace.

Yet with his decision, Musk has put my life in a precarious position once again, not to mention countless others who have been targeted by previously banned extremists back on his Twitter platform.

I'm most afraid that after everything we've done to de-platform Anglin and show him for the antisemite that he is, he now has the opportunity to recruit and radicalize others on a very large global platform, spreading antisemitism and possibly causing more attacks on individuals.

He risks undoing my years' long efforts and those of the civil rights groups and legal advocates who supported me through this ordeal and those who continue to demand online human rights protections, like the Global Alliance Against Digital Hate and Extremism.

Musk, one man, should not have the power to decide which vile online hate can be unleashed on the world, impacting the fate and safety of other human beings. My own experience with Anglin should be enough to show that he, and extremists like him, should not be given a platform.

Since Musk has the power, he also has the moral responsibility to protect his customers, Twitter users, and people and democracies everywhere. I believe that he should work with and learn from these groups around the world that have tirelessly been trying to keep us safe from online hate and violence for years.

I shouldn't have to explain to Musk why these actions are dangerous for the entire world. To me, it is simply a matter of moral and common sense to not provide a space for this proselytizing of hatred. Musk has the power to choose acceptance, peace and thriving democracies, but it seems he's choosing the opposite. I urge him to reconsider and let the protection of humanity be his priority.

We all have a part to play to make sure that nobody else goes through the living hell that I did.

Tanya Gersh is a businesswoman and civil and human rights activist.

All views expressed in this article are the author's own.