C.E.O. of Tesla, Chief Engineer of SpaceX and C.T.O. of X Elon Musk takes the stage during the New York Times annual DealBook summit on November 29, 2023 in New York City.
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Elon Musk on Sunday reinstated the account of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on X, formerly Twitter, reneging on a year-ago vow to keep Jones off the social network.
Jones was previously suspended from Twitter in 2018 for violating the company’s “abusive behavior policy.” That suspension, deemed permanent under the company’s prior management, came as Jones faced a defamation lawsuit for spreading the false claim that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
Musk’s decision to bring Jones back to X comes on the anniversary week of the Sandy Hook shooting.
Although 20 children and six educators were killed by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, Jones had falsely and repeatedly said on his show, Infowars, that the shooting never really happened, and was a staged event designed to bring about stricter gun laws.
Infowars still appeared to be banned from X as of Sunday.
Believers in Jones’ blatantly false claims would go on to harass and threaten bereft family members, in some cases physically confronting and accusing grieving parents of being crisis actors whose children had never existed, according to reports by the Associated Press. Some of those targeted had to move from their homes multiple times and could not safely visit the graves of their loved ones.
Sandy Hook victims’ relatives sued Jones in Texas and Connecticut, winning a nearly $1.5 billion judgment against him. Jones sought but did not receive personal bankruptcy protection to try to avoid paying more than $1 billion of that judgment.
Users of the Elon Musk-led X social media platform had anticipated the reinstatement of Jones since at least Thursday, when Musk said he would consider reinstating Jones.
“Since this platform aspires to be the global…
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