X Unlocks Conspiracy Theorist Jones
Convicted conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has been banned from X (formerly Twitter) for years, has had his account reinstated by owner Musk, citing a poll among his followers.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has allowed the previously banned account of US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on the online platform X (formerly Twitter) to be reinstated. Musk had previously asked his followers whether Jones should regain access to the platform – and according to the result published by Musk, the majority were in favor. “The people have spoken, and so it shall be,” Musk wrote on X.
Jones, the founder of the right-wing website “Infowars,” was recently ordered to pay billions in damages in several lawsuits for his false claims about a massacre at an elementary school. For years, Jones had claimed that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Texas in December 2012 was staged. At that time, a young man had killed 20 schoolchildren and six teachers.
Numerous banned accounts have been reinstated
Since Musk took over the online service, numerous accounts that were once blocked for hate speech or spreading potentially dangerous falsehoods have been reinstated.
Musk also reinstated the account of former President Donald Trump, which was banned after the Capitol riot in 2021, following a closely contested poll among users last year. However, except for one exception, Trump has not used the account again and instead posts on his own platform, “Truth Social.”
Musk himself has come under pressure on X due to his own controversial political statements. Critics accuse him of supporting right-wing populist or even partly far-right positions. Numerous major advertisers have since turned their backs on X.