Far right wing self-described "free speech absolutist"(except when it comes to criticizing him) and narcissistic mogul Elon Musk has reinstated the "X" / Twitter account of the vile and sick conspiracy monger Alex Jones, after conducting a non-scientific poll. Jones' account was suspended in 2018 after multiple instances of hate speech and pushing his heinous "false flag" lie about the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre. The parents of the murdered children won a massive civil case against Jones for those lies. From Reuters:
"Social media platform X on Sunday showed the account of U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to have been reinstated after a poll organized by owner Elon Musk backed his return after a ban of nearly five years.
'The people have spoken and so it shall be,' Musk posted in reply to a poll on Saturday on whether to reinstate the Jones account. Close to 2 million votes were cast by the time the poll closed, with about 70% voting in favor of Jones' return. [snip]
Since Musk's takeover of the platform, it has reinstated previously suspended accounts including that of former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Alex Jones, who has promoted conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook school shooting, was ordered last year to pay nearly $1.5 billion in damages to relatives of the victims for falsely claiming they were actors who staged the shooting as part of a government plot to seize Americans’ guns." (our emphasis)
The unscientific poll that Musk used to cover for his desire to bring Jones back to the platform is an indicator of how the social media has become populated with hate-spewing right-wing, white nationalist and anti-Semitic users since Musk took over Twitter and lifted previous bans on them.
Musk's increasingly erratic behavior and permissive attitude toward hate speech has caused a flood of advertisers and users to leave, with monthly users down 19% since Musk took over the platform and with revenues from ads off 64% in the first 10 months of 2023. This latest depravity won't reverse those ominous numbers for Musk.
