Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, Chief Engineer of SpaceX, and CTO of X, formerly Twitter, has reinstated the account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on the social media platform. This decision contradicts Musk's previous vow to keep Jones off the platform. Jones was suspended from Twitter in 2018 for violating the company's "abusive behavior policy" after spreading false claims about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
The shooting, which occurred on December 14, 2012, resulted in the deaths of 20 children and six educators. Jones repeatedly stated on his show, Infowars, that the shooting was a hoax designed to push for stricter gun laws. Believers in Jones' conspiracies harassed and threatened the families of the victims, accusing them of being crisis actors. Some families had to move multiple times for their safety and were unable to visit the graves of their loved ones.
Jones was sued by Sandy Hook victims' relatives and ordered to pay a nearly $1.5 billion judgment. He sought personal bankruptcy protection to avoid paying a significant portion of the judgment but was unsuccessful. Infowars remains banned from the X platform.
Users of X had anticipated the reinstatement of Jones since Elon Musk mentioned the possibility on Thursday. Musk stated that permanent bans on the platform should be extremely rare, as it aims to be a global town square. Musk confirmed the reinstatement after launching a poll on X, in which over half of the nearly 2 million votes favored bringing Jones back.
Jones' first activity on the platform was to repost a welcome-back message from Andrew Tate, an influencer currently on trial for rape, human trafficking, and forming a criminal gang. X has allowed Tate to monetize his account, generating tens of thousands of dollars.