Elon Musk restores X account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ after user poll
- Close to 2 million votes were cast by the time the poll closed, with about 70 per cent voting in favour of Jones’ return
- The platform formerly known as Twitter permanently banned Jones and his website Infowars in 2018, saying the accounts violated its behaviour policies
Social media platform X reinstated the account of US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones after a poll of the site’s users backed his return, X owner Elon Musk said on Sunday.
“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 per cent voting in favour of Jones’ return.
In a post following the completion of the poll, he said X would “abide by the will of the people.”
The move poses new uncertainty for advertisers, who have fled X over concerns about hate speech appearing alongside their ads.
Musk, who has described himself as a free speech absolutist, said the move was about protecting those rights. In response to a user who posted that “permanent account bans are antithetical to free speech,” Musk wrote, “I find it hard to disagree with this point.”
Since Musk’s takeover of the platform, it has reinstated previously suspended accounts including that of former US President Donald Trump.