Elon Musk to restore Alex Jones’ account on X after user vote
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70 per cent of the votes were in favour of unbanning conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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NEW YORK – Billionaire Elon Musk said he will restore the account of right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on X after users voted for the reinstatement five years after a ban.
Mr Musk, the owner of X, asked his followers on the platform whether to unban Mr Jones late on Dec 8, and 70 per cent of the votes were in favour.
In the past, Mr Musk has said that major decisions on X, formerly known as Twitter, would be made by the people, though he later limited that to only paying subscribers having a vote. In a post following the completion of the poll, he said X would “abide by the will of the people”.
Mr Jones was permanently suspended from Twitter in 2018, along with the account of his Infowars website, for breaching the platform’s abusive behavior policy and other past violations.
Permanent suspension, its most severe action, removes the account from global review and prevents the person from creating new accounts.
Mr Musk on Dec 8 agreed with a user on X that permanent bans are antithetical with free speech, while also responding to another subscriber that Jones would not be allowed to break the law.
The talk show host filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022 after he was ordered to pay more than US$1 billion (S$1.3 billion) in judgments related to his comments that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
In December, he was given clearance by a court to sell his firearms, cars, jewellery and boats on the Infowars show in order to obtain the highest value for them in covering the cost of his bankruptcy. BLOOMBERG
