Elon Musk reinstates Alex Jones’ account after holding a public vote – despite conspiracy theorist repeatedly calling the Sandy Hook school shooting a hoax.
Numerous Twitter accounts associated with Alex Jones were permanently suspended from Twitter in 2018 and he has not been on the platform since.
The X owner insisted last November that he would not allow the conspirator back on the platform, citing his own sense of loss after the birth of his own child.
‘My firstborn child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat. “I have no sympathy for anyone who would use the death of children for gain, politics or fame,” he wrote.
But he changed his mind, citing freedom of expression, after nearly 2 million X users voted 70:30 to allow the Infowars founder to regain access to his account.
“The people have spoken and so it will be,” Musk said.
Elon Musk reinstates conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ story after holding public vote – despite repeatedly calling Sandy Hook school a hoax
Elon Musk reinstates conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ story after holding public vote – despite repeatedly calling Sandy Hook school a hoax
Jones spent a decade claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in which 20 children and six staff members were shot, was a hoax.
He finally admitted it wasn’t a hoax shortly before he was ordered to pay more than $1 billion in damages to the victims’ families after losing a pair of high-profile lawsuits that he plans to appeal.
The decision to allow him back on the platform sparked anger among other users.
“I hope everyone remembers that Elon Musk is abandoning a man who owes $1.1 billion to Sandy Hook parents even after trying to bail his way out through bankruptcy because of his lies on social media ‘, tweeted mental health campaigner Ryan Shead.
“X is about to be filled with a lot more hate.”
“Sandy Hook families should sue Musk for supporting the propagandist who terrorized their families,” singer Ricky Davila added.
Musk’s first child, Nevada Alexander, was born in 2002, two years after Musk and his first wife Justine married. He died of cot death at ten weeks old after taking a nap.
Piers Morgan was among those who begged Musk not to change his mind.
“Elon, you were right about Alex Jones the first time,” he tweeted on Saturday.
“Remember what he did to those poor Sandy Hook parents, just to exchange their terrible grief for his vile lies… and please don’t let him back.”
Hours after 26 people were shot dead at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, Jones began making false claims that the killings had not happened.
He claimed Sandy Hooks was an “operation” set up by the government to take away Second Amendment rights and promote stricter gun control laws.
Relatives of the victims testified during the trials that they were harassed and threatened by Jones’ believers, who made threats and even personally confronted the grieving families, accusing them of being “crisis actors” whose children never existed.
Sandy Hook families won nearly $1.5 billion in judgments against Jones last year during a defamation lawsuit for repeatedly promoting the false theory.
But the families have yet to see a cent of the money the jury awarded them after Jones, 49, filed for bankruptcy protection last December.
Jones has spent more than $1.5 million on legal and professional fees and has urged his fans to donate to him and shop on the Infowars website so he can continue doing his show and pay his legal fees.
The amount of money Jones owes Sandy Hook families could grow even larger.
A lawsuit is still pending in Texas, filed by the parents of 6-year-old Noah Pozner, one of the children killed in the attack. A trial date has not yet been set.
Musk tweeted that he “continues to strongly disagree with what he said about Sandy Hook.”
‘But we are a platform that believes in freedom of expression, right?
“If people vote him back, it will be bad for X financially, but the principle is more important than the money.”
After Musk announced the survey results, Morgan ironically tweeted: “Great to have this calm, rational human being here again.”