On Dec. 10, 2023, a number of online users shared reports that Alex Jones’ X account had been reinstated by X owner Elon Musk around five years after it was banned on the platform then known as Twitter.
Jones, along with his InfoWars channel, was indeed banned in 2018 for violating Twitter’s rules on abusive behavior.
The decision to reinstate him took place after Musk posted a poll on X, asking users to vote on whether to bring Jones back to the platform. More than 70% of respondents called for Jones’ return.
@RealAlexJones returned to X soon afterwards by sharing a post by Andrew Tate, another controversial internet personality who was charged with rape and human trafficking in Romania in June 2023. Prior to his return to X, Jones’ last post was in September 2018.
Tate’s post stated, “To show respect to Alex Jones for his triumphant return and to show respect to Elon being a hero - tell a globalist to get fucked today.”
(Screenshot via Twitter)
Jones generated controversy in 2012 by falsely claiming that the Sandy Hook school shooting that took place the same year was a hoax. In 2018, Twitter’s decision to ban Jones and InfoWars came a day after Jones live-streamed a moment when he aggressively accosted a CNN reporter on Capitol Hill.
In November 2022, Musk said he would not reinstate Jones on X, citing his controversial Sandy Hook claims. “I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame,” he tweeted at the time. However, he changed his tune by December 2023, writing on X after reinstating Jones that he “vehemently” disagreed with Jones’ Sandy Hook views but “are we a platform that believes in freedom of speech or are we not?”
Jones himself posted a video on X, discussing his return to the platform. He also spoke to Musk, who asked him about Sandy Hook in a virtual X space, hours after Jones' controversial return was announced. Jones apologized again for the comments saying he was only trying to play “devil’s advocate” and did not believe the shooting was staged.