Elon Musk Restores X Account Of Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones

Elon Musk has restored conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s X account, citing a poll on the social media network formerly known as Twitter that favored the Infowars host, who has frequently dubbed the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting a fabrication.

It adds to the uncertainty for advertisers who have departed X due to concerns about hate speech showing alongside their ads, and it is the latest polarizing public figure to regain access to their banned account.

On Saturday, Musk released a poll asking if Jones should be restored, with 70% of those who voted in support. Musk tweeted early Sunday, “The people have spoken, and so it shall be.”

Jones’ messages were available again a few hours later, and he retweeted a post praising his video game. In 2018, he and his Infowars broadcast were permanently banned for abusive behavior.

Musk, who has defined himself as a free speech absolutist, stated that the decision was made to safeguard those rights. Musk remarked in response to a user who stated that “permanent account bans are antithetical to free speech,” “I find it difficult to disagree with this point.”

The wealthy Tesla CEO also stated that Community Notes, X’s crowd-sourced fact-checking tool, “will respond rapidly to any AJ post that needs correction.”

Elon Musk Restores X Account Of Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones

It’s a significant change for Musk, who said he would not allow Jones back on the platform despite repeated requests. Musk said last year, referring to the death of his first kid, “I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics, or fame.”

Jones has often stated on his show that the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, which murdered 20 children and six educators, did not occur and was staged to tighten gun restrictions.

Many of the victims’ relatives sued Jones in Connecticut and Texas, earning over $1.5 billion in damages. A judge determined in October that Jones could not use bankruptcy to avoid paying more than $1.1 billion of that obligation.

Elon Musk Restores X Account Of Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones

During the trials, relatives of the school shooting victims claimed that Jones’ supporters had harassed and threatened them. They had sent threats and even spoken to the bereaved families in person, accusing them of being “crisis actors” whose children didn’t exist.

Jones is appealing the verdicts, claiming that he did not get a fair trial and that the First Amendment protected his speech.

Restoring Jones’ account comes as Musk has seen a spate of prominent firms, including Disney and IBM, pull their ads from X following a report by the leftist advocacy group Media Matters alleging that ads were showing alongside pro-Nazi content and white nationalist messages.

They were especially frightened after Musk endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory in response to a post on X. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, eventually expressed regret and traveled to Israel, where he visited a kibbutz under attack by Hamas militants and spoke with prominent Israeli officials.

Elon Musk Restores X Account Of Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones

However, he has also stated that advertisers are participating in “blackmail” and, using obscenity, effectively advised them to leave.

“Don’t advertise,” Musk said in an on-stage interview at The New York Times DealBook Summit late last month.

Musk announced last year that he would grant “amnesty” to suspended accounts and has since reinstated former President Donald Trump; Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, following two suspensions for antisemitic posts last year; and far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was kicked off the platform for violating its COVID-19 misinformation policies.

Trump, who was banned for supporting the Capitol insurgency on January 6, 2021, has his social media site, Truth Social, and has only tweeted once since regaining access to X.

SOURCE – (AP)