Alex Jones Return to X Sparks Fury and Cheers

Alex Jones' return to X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday was met with a mix of anger and fanfare this weekend on social media.

Jones' account was restored after Elon Musk, who acquired the social media platform in October 2022 for $44 billion, asked his followers on X on Saturday whether Jones, a conspiracy theorist known for spreading hoaxes and misinformation about September 11, 2001, and the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, should have his account reinstated in a poll.

"I vehemently disagree with what he said about Sandy Hook, but are we a platform that believes in freedom of speech or are we not?" Musk posted Saturday. "That is what it comes down to in the end. If the people vote him back on, this will be bad for X financially, but principles matter more than money."

Jones, whose account was banned in September 2018 for violating the platform's abusive behavior policy, recently issued a video message urging Musk to allow him back on ahead of an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, which was broadcast on X on Thursday.

"Elon Musk says he's a free-speech absolutist, but still hasn't let me back on Twitter with my own channel," Jones said. "I'm not even mad at Elon Musk, I understand he's done as much as he thinks he can. But I hope Elon will watch this interview and actually hear from me why I was really banned on Twitter before he bought it, not for the false reasons he's given."

Meanwhile, Musk's poll received nearly 2 million votes in 17 hours, with more than 70 percent of responders answering "yes," in support of the controversial Infowars host.

"The people have spoken and so it shall be," Musk posted in response to the results. Jones' account was restored in the early hours on December 10.

Newsweek has reached out to Jones via email for additional comment about his reinstatement to X.

In November 2022, soon after former President Donald Trump's account was restored, Musk said he would never allow Jones back while citing the conspiracy theories he had made about the Sandy Hook massacre, in which 20 children and six adults were killed. These claims included that the shooting never happened and that grieving parents were crisis actors.

Musk noted the death of his first-born child as the reason and posted at the time, "I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame."

Meanwhile, relatives of the Sandy Hook shooting victims sued Jones, winning nearly $1.5 billion in judgments against him. They testified at the trials about being harassed and threatened by Jones' followers, who allegedly sent threats and confronted the grieving families. They said Jones' believers accused them of being "crisis actors" whose children never existed.

Jones is appealing the judgments, saying he didn't get fair trials and his speech was protected by the First Amendment.

On Sunday, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, was one of the first to welcome Jones back to X by writing, "Welcome back @RealAlexJones!"

Conservative political consultant and commentator Roger Stone wrote that Jones being back on X is a "pivotal moment in history."

American-British media personality, businessman, and former professional kickboxer, Andrew Tate, called Musk a "hero" for reinstating Jones to X. Tate himself has been banned from several social media platforms due to his derogatory remarks about women and LGBTQ+ people.

Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, drew a line between "defamation" and "free speech" regarding Jones.

"Defamation is not free speech, which is why judges in different state have come to the same conclusion: Alex Jones violated his victims' First Amendment rights and he owes them $1.5 billion," she wrote.

Former Representative Alex Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican, posted, "With Alex Jones back, every advertiser still on this platform needs to leave."

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed in the 2018 Parkland High School shooting in Florida, wrote that Musk was a "threat to democracy."

In response to Jones' return to X, journalist Kara Swisher wrote that she was going to donate money received from Musk's creator payment system to the Sandy Hook Foundation.