Alex Jones is one of the most banned and silenced men in American history. He’s been taken off Twitter (now X), YouTube, Facebook, and Spotify. He has had his bank accounts shut down and faced lawsuits against his speech resulting in more than a billion dollars in damages. On top of this, many media outlets have a ban on even mentioning him to try to shut his message out of the discussion. But Jones has never committed any felonies and never called for violence. It seems an overreach to try to silence him. At the urging of users, Elon Musk has been mulling over letting him back on X to be able to have free speech.
Jack Dorsey’s Twitter banned Jones months after his mass de-platforming from other tech companies in September of 2018. The ban was over something relatively minimal in the scope of Alex Jones’ career: a video attacking CNN journalist Oliver Darcy in between congressional hearings. Twitter banned both Jones and his InfoWars business account for “abusive behavior” after Jones confronted the journalist. It seemed a thin excuse to remove him from the platform, which the social media giant had clearly wanted to do for some time.
Dorsey initially didn’t ban Jones because he said Jones “hasn’t violated our rules,” which made it clear at the time that they monitored him to try to force the issue. Liberals cheered the banning when it occurred, including Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone, who ironically accused Jones of attempting “to threaten, belittle, demean and silence individuals.”
Conservatives and libertarians, however, noticed this was the beginning of Big Tech overreach. Soon there was mass censorship surrounding the 2020 election and COVID, as sites like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook claimed they aimed to “crack down on misinformation.”
On Dec. 7, a video of Jones pleading to be allowed back on X went viral. It was shared by YouTuber Jeremy Hambly, who goes by the name "TheQuartering." He tagged Elon Musk on the video, saying, “Think about how much letting Alex Jones BACK on X would make the machine rage @elonmusk. It’s time.”
Musk replied, “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.”
That evening, Carlson hosted Jones for an hour-and-a-half-long video interview, which he posted on X. The interview demonstrated that Jones might say a lot of bombastic things but also that he has been right more often than not in his analysis of the deep state and global world order. If Alex Jones can be interviewed on X on video, one wondered, why can’t he post on the platform?
Ep. 46 The Alex Jones Interview
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) December 7, 2023
TIMESTAMPS:
2:46 Alex Jones predictions
15:07 Deplatforming
21:59 Dividing us on race
25:37 The border
28:09 Austin
32:12 New World Order
42:09 Brian Stelter demon video
50:57 Depopulation
1:07:51 Food
1:13:51 Whiskey
1:16:22 Presidential… pic.twitter.com/IsJAQDUzDc
On Dec. 9, Musk followed up on his promise to hold a poll on Jones’ suspension, letting the platform users decide his fate. He posted, “Reinstate Alex Jones on this platform? Vox Populi, Vox Dei.”
The poll garnered nearly two million responses, with over 70% of X’s users voting to allow Jones back on the platform. Free speech won the day in the poll of the people, and Musk followed up on his promise by reinstating the @realalexjones account, responding to the poll, "The people have spoken and so it shall be."
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