X unblocks conspiracy theorist Jones’ account

Convicted conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been banned from X, formerly Twitter, for years. Owner Musk has now activated the account again – and justifies this with a poll among his followers.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has reactivated the account of American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on the internet platform Musk, the majority was in favor. “The people have spoken, and it will be so,” Musk wrote in X’s letter.

Jones, founder of the right-wing website Infowars, was recently ordered to pay billions of dollars in damages in several cases over his false claims about an elementary school massacre. Jones has claimed for years that the December 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Texas was staged. A young man shot 20 students and six teachers.

Many blocked accounts have been opened again

Since Musk took over the online service, many accounts that were once banned for hate speech or spreading potentially dangerous lies have been reactivated.

Musk also reactivated the account of former President Donald Trump, which was banned after the storming of the Capitol in 2021, following a close poll of users last year. However, with one exception, Trump never used the account again, instead posting on his own platform, Truth Social.

Musk has also come under pressure on X for his controversial political statements. His critics accuse him of supporting right-wing populist or even far-right positions. Many major advertising clients have now turned their backs on X.