Elon Musk reinstates Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' X account
Elon Musk reinstated Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, five years after he was banned from the social media site.
The reinstatement comes the same week as the 11-year anniversary of the mass shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead on Dec. 12, 2012.
Jones and his platform Infowars have long fueled false information about the horrific shooting that rocked the nation, including that it was a hoax and staged.
He has faced several lawsuits from the families of victims, including for defamation for spreading false claims about the tragedy. Sandy Hook families also say believers of Jones' false claims have harassed and threatened them in the years since the shooting.
Banned for "abusive behavior"
Jones was banned from X, in 2018 for violating the platform's "abusive behavior policy." The ban was thought to be permanent, before Musk took over the platform in 2022. Infowars accounts were also banned from Twitter.
Lawsuits: Alex Jones was supposed to pay victims $1.5 billion. Why is he spending $93K a month on himself?
Musk previously said he would keep the ban in place, until last week when he publicly began toying with the idea of reinstating Jones' account.
In response to someone who asked if Musk could reinstate Jones, he replied: "Will consider. In general, since this platform aspires to be the global town square, permanent bans should be extremely rare. Also, if he does say something false on this platform, then @CommunityNotes will correct him, whereas that would not be the case elsewhere."
Musk then held a poll asking X users whether to reinstate Jones' account.
Will consider. In general, since this platform aspires to be the global town square, permanent bans should be extremely rare.
Also, if he does say something false on this platform, then @CommunityNotes will correct him, whereas that would not be the case elsewhere.
Let’s hold…— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 7, 2023
More than 70% of those who took the poll voted to reinstate Jones' account, and on Sunday morning, Musk posted: "The people have spoken and so it shall be."
As of Sunday, the Infowars account on X was still banned.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Elon Musk reinstates conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' X account
