Twitter finally dropped the banhammer on Alex Jones and the Infowars accounts on Twitter. After initially avoiding banning Jones from the platform because they claimed he hadn’t violated any of their rules, and then giving him a one-week suspension shortly thereafter, the company has moved to permanently ban Jones from the platform after a Congressional hearing wrapped up.
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
We will continue to evaluate reports we receive regarding other accounts potentially associated with @realalexjones or @infowars and will take action if content that violates our rules is reported or if other accounts are utilized in an attempt to circumvent their ban.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) September 6, 2018
Alex Jones and the Infowars accounts weren’t the only ones affected. According to black Twitter user, Hotep Jesus, Infowars contributor Paul Joseph Watson was also suspended for 12 hours.
Paul Joseph Watson under suspension#AlexJones #Infowars pic.twitter.com/KPve1JkQI8
— Hotep Jesus RIP POPSON (@VibeHi) September 6, 2018
Back on August 6th, Facebook, Apple, Spotify, and YouTube all decided to ban Alex Jones and Infowars from their platforms on the same day. Two days later Disqus also banned Infowars and the site’s affiliated channels. Several days after that Vimeo also banned Infowars.
Twitter, meanwhile stated that at the time Alex Jones hadn’t violated the terms of use and so they wouldn’t be banning him like all the others. Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, stated that they didn’t want to succumb to outside pressure and that if that happened then the service would be dictated by their personal views rather than the service standards.
Accounts like Jones’ can often sensationalize issues and spread unsubstantiated rumors, so it’s critical journalists document, validate, and refute such information directly so people can form their own opinions. This is what serves the public conversation best.
— jack (@jack) August 8, 2018
But it appears as if that stance has changed and now Twitter has officially banned Alex Jones and Infowars from the platform.
This is no surprise given that Twitter employs tools such as shadowbans, which prevent others from seeing content from certain users.
