Twitter finally puts Jones’ account on timeout
Weeklong penalty is light compared to other tech firms
NEW YORK — Twitter is joining other prominent tech companies in muzzling Alex Jones, the right-wing conspiracy theorist who’s used their services to spread false information.
Twitter had been resisting the move despite public pressure, including some from its own employees. But the holdout lasted less than two weeks.
“They seem to be reacting to the backlash they received when so many other companies in Silicon Valley ended up taking action,” said Keegan Hankes, research analyst for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, who focuses on far right extremist propaganda online. “It’s illustrative of a broader trend of reactive enforcement” by the companies, he added.
Late Tuesday, Twitter said it had “limited” Jones’ personal account for seven days because he had violated the company’s rules. Jones won’t be able to tweet or retweet, though he will be able to browse Twitter. The company would not comment on what the offending post said.
But in a video posted Wednesday to the Twitter account of Jones’ “Infowars” show, Jones said the company suspended him and may shut him down completely because he violated its rules by posting a “video I shot last night saying (President Donald) Trump should do something about the censorship of the internet.” Later Wednesday, Twitter put the Infowars account on the same seven-day timeout as Jones, apparently for posting the same video.
Paul Joseph Watson, the editor-at-large for Infowars, posted a screenshot of a Twitter notice that said Jones had his account “temporarily limited” because he violated its rules against “targeted harassment of someone, or (inciting) other people to do so.”
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had originally defended his company’s decision not to ban Jones, tweeting that Jones “hasn’t violated our rules” but if he does “we’ll enforce.”
“We’re going to hold Jones to the same standard we hold to every account, not taking oneoff actions to make us feel good in the short term, and adding fuel to new conspiracy theories,” Dorsey tweeted on Aug. 7, after the other companies took action against Jones.
Also Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission shut down a pirate radio station that served as the flagship outlet for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
The Austin American-Statesman reported that the FCC also has fined the station's operators $15,000 — a fine the FCC says in a lawsuit the operators are refusing to pay.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Austin alleges Liberty Radio operated on a channel without a license since at least 2013.