Elon Musk reinstates Alex Jones and Infowars on X / Twitter

Alex Jones is back on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Last week, Elon Musk expressed the possibility of bringing Jones back to the platform following an interview the conspiracy theorist did on Tucker Carlson’s show, which was directly uploaded to X. Musk then conducted a poll over the weekend to gauge public opinion, and the majority voted in favor of reinstating Jones to the social media platform, over five years after he was permanently suspended.

Following the poll results, Musk responded, “The people have spoken and so it shall be.” Shortly after, Alex Jones’ account was reinstated.

Tweet may have been deleted

On Monday, the official account for Alex Jones’ website, InfoWars, was also reinstated on the platform.

Reinstatement of Controversial Accounts on X

Alex Jones is not the only controversial individual Musk has brought back to the platform following previous suspensions before Musk acquired the company.

In a recent X Spaces audio chat, featuring Alex Jones and other previously suspended users including Andrew Tate, an influencer facing rape and human trafficking charges, and Laura Loomer, a right-wing conspiracy theorist known for her 2018 protest at Twitter’s New York headquarters, Musk showcased the platform’s diverse range of reinstated users.

Among the attendees in the Spaces chat were the Krassenstein brothers who were previously suspended in 2019 for allegedly manipulating the platform with fake accounts and have since been reinstated under Musk’s ownership.

Following the acquisition of Twitter, Musk held a poll last year which led to the reinstatement of former president Donald Trump and other users such as right-wing commentator Jordan Peterson and U.S. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who were suspended under various Twitter policies which have since been removed under Musk.

Significance of Alex Jones’s Return

Alex Jones gained notoriety for supporting Donald Trump and for his controversial claims about the Sandy Hook school shooting, ultimately losing a series of lawsuits to the parents of the victims. While Jones has become a more mainstream figure, his return to the platform signals a shift in Musk’s previous stance against his reinstatement, citing Jones’s previous use of child tragedy for political gain.

Tweet may have been deleted

Musk’s complete reversal on Jones’s return, amid an advertiser boycott that could potentially harm the company, has attracted attention. Whether Jones’s return will further impact advertisers remaining on the platform remains to be seen.

For more on this topic and related discussions, you can explore:

Extremism researcher Jared Holt noted, “Looking at the state of conservative discourse in the mainstream, there is no function that Jones offers that is not filled already by a hundred commenters. It would be bad, but purely symbolic at this point. He is a shell of who he used to be.”

The return of Alex Jones to the platform may or may not affect advertisers, but it does highlight Musk’s evolving approach to controversial reinstatements, a shift from his previous firm stance against it.

Feel free to explore similar content on: