【Esther Moser】

White nationalists on Esther MoserTwitter are readying themselves for a life without the social network.

Several prominent members of the "alt-right" were banned from the platform on Tuesday, including Richard Spencer, whom some consider to be the "father" of the internet-savvy white nationalist movement.

"The thing that really gets me is that they think they're banning the alt-right," Sven Sontag of the white nationalist, anti-Semitic website TheRightStuff.biz told Mashablein an email. "Our people are going to be in the next administration, in the next Congress. If they think denying us access to social media is going to stop our message from getting out, they're in for a bad time."

Twitter has provided a massive platform for white nationalists, especially in the lead up to the election. White nationalism has gained 22,000 more adherents on Twitter since 2012, a growth rate somewhere around 600 percent. It's been a hugely influential platform for the alt-right movement, and Tuesday seemed to be one of the first times Twitter has heeded critics who say it has allowed hate to fester on its platform for too long, slicing off some of white nationalism's biggest proponents from a part of their audience that was active and growing rapidly.

Twitter blocked Spencer as well the National Policy Institute and Radix Journal, a think tank and publication both led by him. They also blocked several other prominent members of the alt-right, including Pax Dickinson, John Rivers, Paul Town and Ricky Vaughn.

It's unclear why these accounts were selected while others were left up and running. Spencer is undoubtedly a racist, but he did not engage in harassment campaigns as other accounts did. Vaughn's suspension makes more sense. He had recently spread fake campaign ads that told Clinton voters they were able to vote via text message. 

The company's general policy on not commenting about individual accounts makes it hard to know why some accounts are blocked and others are allowed to stay.

"The Twitter Rules prohibit violent threats, harassment, hateful conduct, and multiple account abuse, and we will take action on accounts violating those policies," a Twitter spokesperson, who declined to be named, told Mashable via email.

Preparing for the Twitter purge

After the account closures took place on Tuesday, it was apparent that -- Twitter access or no Twitter access -- prominent white nationalists had many other ways to spread their racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism online. They began to share other sources of off-platform information in case Twitter decided to purge even more accounts.

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White nationalists have several homes on websites such as The Right Stuff, American Renaissance, and Vdare. The Right Stuff runs a prominent podcast that's credited with starting a harassment meme directed at Jewish journalists and individuals. Andrew Anglin, a self-avowed white supremacist who runs the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, still directs Twitter harassment campaigns despite being banned from the platform.

Plenty of alt-righters who hang out in /r/The_Donald on Reddit have already begun to direct their memes at voters in Europe, where they hope to push for a series of far-right governments.

Spencer, perhaps the most prominent white nationalist affected by the ban, put a brief video online after his account was suspended, suggesting he might try out another micro-blogging site if he isn't allowed back on Twitter.

"There's obviously Gab, which is an interesting medium," Spencer said of the Twitter-like social network. "I think that will be the place where we go next."

But those who are cut off from Twitter are likely to miss it. Twitter, as it is for everyone, has been a way for white nationalists to spread their racism and xenophobia to those who may not otherwise seek out their websites or YouTube channels. As white nationalist memes and ideas have spread from reddit and 4chan into Twitter, prominent white nationalists have been given a bigger microphone on the platform.

That's why some prominent alt-right members want to keep things the way they are, and have decried what they feel is an attack on free speech.

"We call on journalists to take a stand for free expression in response to yesterday's outrageous purge of Twitter accounts associated with the Alt-Right," The American Renaissancesaid in a statement provided to Mashable. "Several of the banned accounts were in no way guilty of trolling or 'harassment,' so we can conclude only that the bans were politically motivated."

Twitter suspends Richard Spencer, Radix Journal, Ricky Vaughn, Pax Dickinson. CENSORSHIP ! https://t.co/XATwbj0KVb via @usatoday

— Jared Taylor (@jartaylor) November 16, 2016

Several journalists have agreed that white nationalists shouldn't be banned from Twitter so long as they don't harass other users.

i don't think twitter should suspend racist accounts that don't engage in harassment https://t.co/10kGfrnvU8

— Mazel Tov Cocktail (@AdamSerwer) November 16, 2016

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Twitter hasn't continued to ban prominent white nationalist accounts following its initial spree. But, even if it does in the coming months, many members of the alt-right already have small media empires that are likely to survive whether Twitter bans them or not.