The longtime InfoWars host is back on X.
Elon Musk’s social media platform X has restored Alex Jones’s account, years after the InfoWars host was permanently suspended when the site was known as Twitter.
The move followed after Mr. Musk held a poll on X asking users if Mr. Jones should be reinstated on the platform. About 70 percent of respondents voted yes.
“The people have spoken and so it shall be,” Mr. Musk wrote on Dec. 10.
Hours after the poll was conducted, Mr. Jones’s account was again visible, and he had re-posted a comment about his new video game. His account, which has begun to accumulate followers, currently has about 1 million. He has yet to post anything original.
Mr. Jones’s account with username “@RealAlexJones” now shows his last original post was on Sept. 6, 2018, the same day that the social media platform’s previous owners permanently banned his account and his website, InfoWars, saying they had violated its behavior policies.
It’s unclear if the InfoWars X account was reinstated.
Mr. Musk, who has said he’s a free speech absolutist, wrote that the move was about protecting free speech. He has previously said that permanent suspensions should be used sparingly.
In response to an X user who wrote that “permanent account bans are antithetical to free speech,” Mr. Musk wrote, “I find it hard to disagree with this point.”
Right after Mr. Musk’s takeover, the social media platform implemented several modifications, including changing its name and revisiting its policies. It also reinstated previously suspended accounts including that of former President Donald Trump, who was suspended in early 2021, but the 45th president has posted only once on X, instead opting to use his own Truth Social platform.
Mr. Musk has since sought to reassure users and advertisers that such a decision would be made with the consideration of a content moderation council composed of people with “widely diverse viewpoints” and no account reinstatements would happen before the council convened.
By Jack Phillips
