Elon Musk announced the reinstatement of account Alex Jones' (formerly Twitter).
Jones was banned from Twitter in 2018 for violating its “bad conduct policy,” while also facing lawsuit for spreading false claims about a tragic incident at Sandy Hook.
Despite the fact that 20 children and six teachers lost their lives in a tragic attack by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut, Jones repeatedly misled the public through his show, Infowars, by denying the incident and calling it a “set-up” (to enforce stricter gun laws).
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Although Infowars remains blocked from X, Jones' followers continue to believe his baseless accusations. They have even gone so far as to harass and threaten families who have lost loved ones, saying that the parents who lost children are actors and that they have never lost children. As a result, some of those affected have even had to move, while they have not even been able to visit the graves of their loved ones.
Relatives of the Sandy Hook victims sued Jones in Texas and Connecticut, winning nearly $1.5 billion in damages.
Users of the social platform X had been predicting Jones' reinstatement, especially since Musk made the announcement on Thursday. Indeed, the billionaire confirmed the reinstatement of Alex Jones' account on Sunday, following a poll on X that garnered nearly 2 million votes. More than 50 percent supported Jones' reinstatement.
Musk stressed that Jones “must abide by the law,” but if he spreads misinformation, X’s community notes feature will correct him.
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Jones’ first action on the platform after his reinstatement was to repost a welcome message from Andrew Tate — an influencer known for misogynistic views who has been accused of rape, human trafficking, and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women in Romania. (Tate has filed a lawsuit against his accusers.) X allowed Tate to exploit his account, and Tate has said he has made tens of thousands of dollars on X in the past.
Elon Musk, who before Alex Jones brought back Donald Trump, has portrayed himself as a champion of free speech . However, he has used his power on the X platform to suspend the accounts of people he considers to be his critics or enemies. For example, X has suspended the accounts of software developer Travis Brown , a private jet tracking account created by Jack Sweeney , and Aaron Greenspan , founder of the legal and public database PlainSite.
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Musk has faced backlash for the changes he has made to Twitter since taking control of the platform in October 2022, including the widespread rollback of account suspensions.
Recently, several major advertisers suspended their campaigns on X, after Musk promoted “anti-Semitic and racist content” on the platform.
Information source: https://www.cnbc.com/world
