Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones reinstated on X after Musk poll
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Mr Alex Jones has yet to post anything original, but has reposted two messages.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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NEW YORK - The account of United States right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, was reinstated on Dec 10, as a poll organised by owner Elon Musk
Close to two million votes were cast by the time the poll closed, with about 70 per cent voting in favor of Mr Jones’ reinstatement.
“The people have spoken and so it shall be,” Mr Musk wrote in the reply to the poll that ended on Dec 10.
Soon after reappearing on the platform, Mr Jones’ account began accumulating followers and currently has about one million. He has yet to post anything original but has reposted two messages.
Mr Jones’ account with username “@RealAlexJones” now shows that his last original post was on Sept 6, 2018, the same day the social media platform’s previous owners permanently banned his account and website Infowars, saying they had violated its behaviour policies.
The ban came weeks after Apple, Alphabet’s YouTube and Facebook took down podcasts and channels from Mr Jones, citing community standards.
Reuters could not verify if X reinstated the Infowars account.
X and Infowars did not respond to a request asking for confirmation on Mr Jones’ account. Mr Jones could not be immediately reached.
In 2022, Mr Jones was ordered to pay nearly US$1.5 billion (S$2.7 billion) in damages to relatives of victims in the Sandy Hook school shooting for falsely claiming they were actors who staged the tragedy as part of a government plot to seize Americans’ guns.
Right after Mr Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the social media platform implemented several modifications, including changing its name and revisiting its policies. It also reinstated previously suspended accounts, including that of former US president Donald Trump.
The billionaire has since sought to reassure users and advertisers that such a decision would be made with the consideration of a content moderation council composed of people with “widely diverse viewpoints”, and no account reinstatements would happen before the council convened.
Separately, Mr Musk in November cursed out advertisers that fled X over anti-Semitic content
Several companies including Comcast and Walt Disney paused their advertisements on X after Mr Musk agreed with a post that falsely claimed that Jewish people were stoking hatred against white people. REUTERS
