Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones had his account on X – known as Twitter when he was banned – reinstated by Elon Musk after nearly five years, on Sunday (Dec 10). The United States conspiracy theorist’s account was reinstated after a poll organised by owner Musk backed his return.
The poll was posted on Saturday (Dec 9) and was active for more than 12 hours. Musk had asked users to vote on whether or not to lift a ban on Jones, which was imposed before he bought the platform, adding that he would listen to the people and honour the result.
Nearly two million people voted by the time the poll closed and around 70 per cent voted in favour of Jones’ return. In a subsequent post, Musk said, “The people have spoken and so it shall be.”
Reinstate Alex Jones on this platform?
Vox Populi, Vox Dei.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2023
While there is no confirmation from Musk, X or Alex Jones himself that his account has been reinstated, his account “@RealAlexJones” no longer indicates that it was banned with the last post from September 6, 2018, the day that X, then known as Twitter permanently banned his account and website Infowars from its platform.
At the time, Twitter had said that Jones’ accounts had violated its behaviour policies weeks after most platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Google, and Apple had taken down his podcasts and channels citing community standards.
Who is the infamous conspiracy theorist?
Alex Jones has repeatedly made headlines for all the wrong reasons, including his outlandish conspiracy theories on his website Infowars. However, he is most famous for falsely claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting which claimed the lives of 20 children and six adults was “staged” as part of a government plot to seize Americans’ guns.
He has since been ordered to pay $1.5 billion in damages to the victims’ family members by the American courts who said that the Infowars host’s claims have incited death threats and harassment. They also reportedly received regular abuse from his followers on social media, including threats of digging up the coffins of their loved ones.
Jones was banned from Twitter, in 2018. It is worth noting that Musk, who is a self-described free-speech absolutist, had previously ignored calls from the Infowars host’s supporters to reinstate his account.
The X owner cited the death of his 10-week-old baby, in 2022, as motivation for not reversing the ban saying “I have no mercy for anyone who would use the death of children for gain, politics or fame.”
Musk, on Saturday in response to one user’s post said he “vehemently” disagreed with Jones’ statements about Sandy Hook, adding “but are we a platform that believes in freedom of speech or are we not?”
(With inputs from agencies)
