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Elon Musk let followers decide: US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones unblocked on X
Elon Musk at an event in New York at the end of November
© Michael M. Santiago / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP
It was five years US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was banned from X, then still Twitter. Now platform boss Elon Musk is letting him return – at the request of users.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has reactivated the account of US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on the online platform X, formerly Twitter, which has been blocked since 2018. The founder of the right-wing website Infowars was recently sentenced to pay billions in damages in several cases because of his false allegations about a massacre at a US elementary school. Jones had claimed for years that the December 2012 shooting was staged by actors. A 20-year-old shot 20 schoolchildren and six teachers.
Elon Musk let his followers vote on the unlocking
Musk had previously asked his followers whether the conspiracy theorist should be given access to the platform again. According to the results published by Musk, a majority were in favor. Since Musk took over the online service, numerous accounts that were once blocked for hate speech or spreading potentially dangerous falsehoods have been reactivated.
Musk also had ex-President Donald Trump’s account, which was blocked after encouraging his rioting supporters during the storming of the Capitol in January 2021, reactivated last year after a close poll among users. However, with one exception, Trump has not yet used the account again, but instead posts on his own platform “Truth Social”.