Twitter restricts far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ account for a week
Twitter is the latest social network to take action against far-right commentator Alex Jones, temporarily limiting his account after he tweeted a link to a video that violated company policies against abusive behavior.
The ban is not extensive. Jones will still be able to browse Twitter and send direct messages to his followers; however, he won’t be able to post publicly for seven days. The Twitter account for his show “Infowars” remains active.
“On Twitter we’ve been so careful,” he said in a video on the “Infowars” account, adding that Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey is “toying with us” like a cat and a mouse.
A Twitter spokesman confirmed that Jones’ account has limited functionality. “We haven’t suspended the account but are requiring tweets which contained a broadcast in violation of our rules are deleted,” he added in a statement.
The New York Times reported that Jones tweeted a link to a video calling for supporters to get their “battle rifles” ready against media and others.
Dorsey said earlier this month that Jones and his affiliate accounts would be permitted to keep using Twitter because they hadn’t violated company policies. The moves seemed at odds with those of Facebook Inc. and Google’s YouTube, which pulled the conspiracy theorist off their platforms after concluding that his content violates hate speech and harassment policies.
Twitter has been criticized in the news and by its own employees for allowing content from Jones that violates its own rules, including engaging in harassment. On Aug. 8., Del Harvey, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, wrote in a memo to employees that “Alex Jones has indeed posted inflammatory (and reprehensible) content — including accusing people impacted by Sandy Hook of being crisis actors.” She added: “We’re shifting our timeline forward for reviewing the dehumanization policy with staff and will be doing so this week.”
The Associated Press was used in compiling this report.
UPDATES:
1:40 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with additional details.
This article was originally published at 4:20 a.m.
