Elon Musk’s X reinstates controversial conspiracy theorist, gun-violence denier Alex Jones

Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has reinstated the account of controversial US right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, following a poll organized by Elon Musk that garnered close to 2 million votes. Approximately 70 per cent of the votes were in favour of reinstating Jones, prompting Musk to respond, “The people have spoken and so it shall be.” Jones’ account, with the username @RealAlexJones, accumulated around 1 million followers immediately after reappearing on the platform. Jones’ original Twitter account and website, Infowars, were permanently banned by the platform’s previous owners on September 6, 2018, for violating its behaviour policies. Since then, Jones has faced legal consequences, including being ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in damages for falsely claiming that relatives of victims in the Sandy Hook school shooting were crisis actors. Other infamous diatribes of Jones include an episode on Infowars in which he claimed that the Obama-led administration was administering special chemicals in the water supply of certain cities to emasculate men and “turn them gay” in order to push their left-wing agenda. He has also accused former first lady and Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton of being a paedophile, who murdered and ate children. After Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the platform underwent several changes, including a name change to X, policy revisions, and the reinstatement of previously suspended accounts, including that of former US President Donald Trump. Musk has emphasized that content moderation decisions would involve a content moderation council with diverse viewpoints. In a separate incident in November, Musk faced backlash from advertisers, including Comcast and Walt Disney, who paused their advertisements on X after Musk endorsed a post falsely claiming that Jewish people were promoting hatred against white people. Musk later expressed regret for his comments and pledged to work with the Anti-Defamation League to learn more about combating antisemitism. (With inputs from agencies)