Michael M. Santiago
- An X user urged Elon Musk to restore the account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on the platform.
- Musk was previously adamant that Alex Jones would not return to X, but now says he'll reconsider.
- Jones, who pushed a conspiracy about the Sandy Hook mass shooting, was banned from Twitter in 2018.
Elon Musk has backtracked on his refusal to bring conspiracy theorist Alex Jones back on X — formerly Twitter — and is now considering reinstating his account via a poll decision on the platform.
An X user TheQuartering posted about Alex Jones' upcoming interview with Tucker Carlson and said: "Think about how much letting Alex Jones BACK on X would make the machine rage @elonmusk. It's time."
The billionaire responded: "Will consider. In general, since this platform aspires to be the global town square, permanent bans should be extremely rare. Also, if he does say something false on this platform, then @CommunityNotes will correct him, whereas that would not be the case elsewhere. Let's hold a poll."
He is yet to post a poll, but the decision contrasts his much firmer stance on Jones in 2022.
Musk bought X in a $44 billion deal in October 2022 and made a series of controversial changes including restoring previously banned accounts. This included rapper Kanye West, former president Donald Trump, Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate, and a string of high-profile right-wing figures.
However, the new X owner was adamant that Alex Jones would not have his account reinstated on the platform because he had "no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics, or fame."
Musk even said: "My first child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat."
Jones is the founder of a far right conspiracy theory website Infowars and pushed a false theory that the Sandy Hook school shootings were actually orchestrated by the government. He was ordered to pay $965 million in compensatory damages to the families of the victims for spreading the hoax in November 2022.
Jones was permanently kicked off X in 2018 for abusive behavior towards a CNN reporter Oliver Darcy on Capitol Hill where he shouted in his face and told him he had "the eyes of a rat." Jones posted a video of the incident to the platform.
When this was pointed out in one post on Thursday, Musk responded: "That is certainly not a valid reason for suspension."