Twitter had been the one social media holdout after Apple, Facebook and Google’s YouTube all mostly barred Alex Jones — the right-wing conspiracy theorist and creator of InfoWars — last month for spreading hate speech. But no longer. On Thursday, Twitter said it would permanently suspend Jones’s account, as well as the account for InfoWars, reports The New York Times. Twitter cited messages Jones had posted within the previous 24 hours that violated its policies, which prohibit direct threats of violence and some forms of hate speech, but do allow deception or misinformation.
“Today, we permanently suspended @realalexjones and @infowars from Twitter and Periscope,” the company posted on its Safety account, according to The Times. “We took this action based on new reports of Tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior policy, in addition to the accounts’ past violations.”
Today, we permanently suspended @realalexjones and @infowars from Twitter and Periscope. We took this action based on new reports of Tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior policy, in addition to the accounts’ past violations. https://t.co/gckzUAV8GL
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) September 6, 2018
Twitter’s chief executive, Jack Dorsey, had previously defended Twitter’s decision to leave Jones’s content up, despite other social media taking action in August. Jones was temporarily suspended after he posted comments that appeared to foment violence.
On Thursday, Jones broadcast through the Periscope account of @WarRoomShow, which is the name of an online video show hosted by an InfoWars colleague. In the broadcast, he said, “They’re scared of us. They’re scared of the populist movement.”
He then added, “They know their bans of not just me but millions of other people have angered folks, so they’re moving aggressively,” according to The Times.
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