Twitter explains why it’s not banning InfoWars’ Alex Jones
Boss Jack Dorsey said the controversial conspiracy theorist is yet to break any of the social network’s rules.
Twitter is not planning to suspend accounts belonging to InfoWars or its founder, Alex Jones, because it says they have not broken the social network’s rules.
Company boss Jack Dorsey explained why Twitter did not intend to follow other platforms, such as Facebook and YouTube, which recently banned some of the conspiracy theorist’s content.
“We didn’t suspend Alex Jones or Infowars yesterday,” Mr Dorsey wrote in a series of tweets on the social network.
“We know that’s hard for many but the reason is simple: he hasn’t violated our rules.
“We’ll enforce if he does. And we’ll continue to promote a healthy conversational environment by ensuring tweets aren’t artificially amplified.”
Mr Dorsey said Twitter had decided not to take one-off action over Mr Jones “to make us feel good in the short term” but will instead hold him to the same standards as everyone else.
“If we succumb and simply react to outside pressure, rather than straightforward principles we enforce (and evolve) impartially regardless of political viewpoints, we become a service that’s constructed by our personal views that can swing in any direction,” the Twitter chief executive continued.
“Accounts like Jones’ can often sensationalise issues and spread unsubstantiated rumours, so it’s critical journalists document, validate, and refute such information directly so people can form their own opinions.”
Mr Jones, who has 857,000 followers on his own Twitter account alone, has faced growing scrutiny for sharing controversial views and unsubstantiated allegations.
His claim that the Sandy Hook Elementary school attack was a hoax has led to legal action against him from the families of some of the victims.
Facebook joined a growing list of tech companies to take action against Mr Jones earlier this week, following Spotify and Apple, which removed some episodes of his podcast, as well as YouTube.
However, the InfoWars app can still be downloaded from both the App Store for iOS and Google Play Store for Android.
The radio host has described the move as unfair censorship and a “concerted plan” to erase his digital identity.
