Elon Musk reinstates Alex Jones’ X account following public poll

Social media platform X has shown the account of United States conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to have been reinstated after a poll organised by owner Elon Musk backed his return after a ban of nearly five years.

“The people have spoken and so it shall be,” Musk posted in reply to a poll on Saturday on whether to reinstate the Jones account.

Close to 2 million votes were cast by the time the poll closed, with about 70 percent voting in favour of Jones’ return.

X did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment asking for confirmation of the same. Alex Jones also could not be immediately contacted.

Alex Jones’s account with username “@RealAlexJones” now shows his last post from September 6, 2018, the same day the social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, permanently banned his account and website Infowars from its platform, saying that the accounts had violated its behaviour policies.

The ban came weeks after Apple, Alphabet’s YouTube, and Facebook took down podcasts and channels from Jones, citing community standards.

Since Musk’s takeover of the platform, it has reinstated previously suspended accounts including that of former United States President Donald Trump.

Figure of controversy

Alex Jones, who has promoted conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook school shooting, was ordered last year to pay nearly $1.5 billion in damages to relatives of the victims for falsely claiming they were actors who staged the shooting as part of a government plot to seize Americans’ guns.

In October, a judge ruled that Jones could not use bankruptcy protection to avoid paying $1.5 billion of debt.

Relatives of the school shooting victims testified at the trials about being harassed and threatened by Jones’ believers, who sent threats and even confronted the grieving families in person, accusing them of being “crisis actors” whose children never existed.

Jones is appealing the judgments, saying he didn’t get a fair trial and his speech was protected by the First Amendment.

Courtesy: TRTWorld and agencies