Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is reportedly considering allowing Alex Jones, the bombastic host of InfoWars, back onto X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Jones appeared on former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show, which was shown on X on Thursday, prompting calls for Jones’ return to the platform.
In a video posted on Thursday, Jones requested that Musk watch the interview and consider letting him back on the platform.
In the interview, Jones made some shocking claims — for instance, saying that one day soon he might “disappear like Obi-Wan Kenobi.”
“The more they throw against me, the more support I get, and it’s really become a historic battle,” Jones told Carlson. “If I’m completely banned and defanged and shut down and can’t operate, only then would I try to evacuate somewhere to try to keep my show on the air. But… once they disrupt and shut down something, it’s very hard to restart it.”
Getting back on X might make it more difficult for the “they” Jones is referencing to completely remove his voice.
Jones and InfoWars were removed from Twitter in 2018 when the platform concluded, at that time, that he was exhibiting “abusive behavior” on the platform. Twitter had lagged behind other tech giants such as Facebook, Spotify, and Instagram, which had removed Jones a month earlier in response to complaints by leftists.
The X user ALX posted a poll on the platform on December 7 asking simply, “Should Alex Jones (@realAlexJones) be reinstated to X?” With numbers running over 90 percent in favor of Jones’ return, ALX posted, “The people have spoken. It’s time to reinstate @RealAlexJones Vox Populi, Vox Dei.”
Musk would later answer with a poll of his own. “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.”
Currently, that poll is running more than two-to-one in favor of returning Jones to the platform.
Musk is considering allowing Jones back even after saying in 2022 that he would never allow him on the platform again, largely because Jones questioned the official narrative of the Sandy Hook mass shooting.
“My firstborn child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat,” Musk said at the time. “I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame.”
But Musk has apparently reconsidered and appears to be ready to deal with leftist backlash.
“If the people vote him back on, this will be bad for X financially, but principles matter more than money,” Musk said on Saturday.
Musk and X are already suffering the effects of a widespread advertiser boycott over accusations of antisemitism fomented by the far-left media watchdog group Media Matters. Disney, Apple, Comcast, IBM, Warner Brothers, and other corporations have suspended ad buys with X. Allowing Jones back on the platform is not likely to improve that situation.
And Jones, of course, is suffering himself after a Connecticut judge ordered him to pay nearly $1.5 billion to the families of eight children killed in the Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting in 2012. Jones promoted a conspiracy theory that the shooting had been a false flag event and not a true mass shooting. He has since filed for bankruptcy.
