Convicted conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been banned from X, formerly Twitter, for years. Owner Musk has now had his account activated again – and justifies this with a survey among his followers.
Technology billionaire Elon Musk unblocked the account of American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on the online platform X, formerly Twitter, which has been blocked since 2018. Musk had already asked his followers whether Jones should have access to the platform again – and According to the results published by Musk, the majority were in favor. “The people have spoken, and so it will be,” Musk wrote on X.
Jones, the founder of the right-wing website “Infowars”, was recently ordered to pay billions of euros in damages in several cases due to his false claims about an elementary school massacre. Jones has claimed for years that the Sandy Hook school shooting in Texas in December 2012 was staged. A young man shot 20 schoolchildren and six teachers.
Numerous blocked accounts have been unblocked again
Since Musk took over the online service, numerous accounts that were previously blocked for hate speech or spreading potentially dangerous falsehoods have been reactivated.
Musk also had former President Donald Trump's account, which was blocked after the 2021 Capitol invasion, reactivated after a fierce user survey last year. However, with one exception, Trump did not use the account again, but instead published it on his own “Truth Social” platform.
Musk has also been under pressure over X for his own controversial political statements. Critics accuse him of supporting right-wing populist positions or even right-wing extremist positions. Several large advertising clients have already turned their backs on X.