The tycoon Elon Musk has decided to reactivate the account of the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on his social network this Sunday. Twitter suspended her in 2018 due to her persistent hoaxes and misinformation, which resulted in multimillion-dollar fines for defamation. Musk initially promised to keep him out, but eventually decided to reinstate him. Jones tweeted this Sunday announcing a two-hour interview with Elon Musk on X, the new name of the network where the joke spreader has 1.2 million followers.
Twitter decided to permanently suspend Jones' account in 2018 for violating the company's “abusive behavior policy.” The decision followed a defamation lawsuit against Jones for spreading the false report that the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 20 children and six educators died, was a hoax.
Jones repeatedly falsely claimed that the shooting never actually happened but was instead staged to enforce stricter gun control laws. The Infowars founder, who has spread other conspiracy theories, was ordered to pay millions of dollars in compensation to the parents of victims who Jones said faced threats and harassment from those who believed they were fakes. He was ordered to pay almost $1.5 billion. Jones has appealed the verdicts, arguing that he did not receive a fair trial and that his speech was protected by the First Amendment, which enshrines freedom of speech. Musk's decision to rehire Jones comes the week of the anniversary of the shooting.
The billionaire had already indicated on Thursday that he planned to be reinstated when he announced a vote to finalize his decision. “Given that this platform is set to become a global town square, permanent bans should be extremely rare,” he wrote, suggesting that users themselves would take it upon themselves to correct him if he spread false news again. 70% of the minimum number of X users who voted voted in favor of reactivating Alex Jones' account.
Advertisers have left Twitter over concerns that their ads will appear next to hate or misinformation messages after Musk lifted content moderation policies that limited them. Musk himself has spread false reports and conspiracy theories. He spread false news about the attack on Paul Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi's husband.
Most recently, he sparked outrage with his own tweets when he responded to a message from a user who accused Jews of hating white people and showing indifference to anti-Semitism. The embassy subscribed to the replacement conspiracy theory that Jews are supporting “hordes of minorities” who are “flooding” the country to replace whites. This conspiracy theory was the same one that motivated the deadly Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in 2018. “You told the honest truth,” Musk tweeted.
Two weeks ago, at a conference in New York, he apologized if that message had promoted anti-Semitism: “I'm very sorry,” he said. “Looking back, I shouldn’t have responded to that particular message,” he added. But at the same event, he confronted the advertisers who had chosen to flee the toxic content on their social network. “Will someone try to blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Fuck you! Fuck you! “Is it clear?” he said. Companies that have recently stopped or suspended advertising on the social network include IBM, Apple, Disney, Sony, Warner, Paramount and Lionsgate.
After buying Twitter last year, Musk said he would grant “amnesty” to suspended accounts. First, the comedian Kathie Griffin, the writer Jordan Peterson and the conservative satirical publication The Babylon Bee were reinstated. Then, after another vote, to former President Donald Trump; Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, after two suspensions for anti-Semitic posts last year; and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was banned from the social network for violating its Covid misinformation policies.
He made these decisions personally, although he had previously said, to reassure advertisers, that he would await the opinion of an advisory board before making relevant decisions about changes to the content moderation policy. “No major decisions will be made about content and accounts will not be reset before the council meets,” he said. Then he changed his mind.
On the other hand, in contrast to its self-proclaimed absolutism of freedom of expression, it not only bows to the censorship demands of authoritarian governments, but has also decided to silence critical or annoying voices. For example, it has blocked the account of software developer Travis Brown, who tracks his private plane, or the account of Aaron Greenspan, founder of the public and legal database PlainSite, a critic of Musk and Tesla.
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