Twitter Permanently Bans Alex Jones, Infowars

On Monday, Twitter Inc. confirmed that it has permanently removed 18  more accounts affiliated with Infowars, the website of U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Background 

Twitter is an American online news and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as “tweets". Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams and launched in July of that year. 

Alex Jones is a controversial conspiracy theorist who has a strong right-wing base and has claimed that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax. Jones was part of the media firestorm which labelled President Obama a “Kenyan” and “Socialist Muslim”. Jones also enjoys popularity amongst conservative voters who are protective of the fifth amendment rights. 

InfoWars is a website founded by Jones which has peddled rumours, conspiracy theories and unfounded claims targeted on members of the Democratic Party. Most of his theories are dismissed by mainstream politicians but it is reported that President Trump was an avid listener of Jones’ radio show. Jones’ content has been banned from Apple’s podcast services, Facebook, YouTube and Periscope. Google was reported to have “suppressed” content from Jones, as per his own accusations. Twitter had partially banned Jones in May 2018 for inciting conspiracy theories but restrained from blocking him completely. 

Analysis 

The social media company announced that it has permanently banned the controversial conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones and the account of his Infowars show. The company confirmed a CNN report, which said that Twitter has permanently suspended 18 accounts, partly because of their attempts to help Infowars and Jones circumvent the ban placed on them by Twitter in September.  It said it would continue to monitor reports about other accounts potentially associated with Mr. Jones or Infowars, and will “take action” if it finds any attempts to circumvent the ban. 

On Thursday, Twitter reported that it had "permanently suspended" conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his website, Infowars, for sharing a series of tweets and videos that violate its policies against abuse, including verbal attacks on a reporter that Jones live-streamed outside of a congressional hearing the previous day. Last month, Twitter permanently banned Jones and Infowars from its platform, saying in a tweet that the accounts had violated its behaviour policies. It added that the removals were in addition to five Infowars affiliated accounts that had been already been banned. 

Jones’ presence on the platform had caused some users to try to take action. Tens of thousands of Twitter users blocked major brands en masse until Jones was removed from the platform, an effort that was intended to limit advertisers’ reach and affect Twitter’s bottom line. 

Alex Jones and Infowars, which he launched in 1999, had their accounts permanently suspended by Twitter last month. Infowars, however, had been using affiliated accounts to get around the ban and promote its content, according to a Daily Beast report last week. These included the accounts of Infowars’ “Real News” show, the Infowars store and “News Wars,” which promoted videos by Infowars. All of these accounts, and several others, were mentioned in the Daily Beast article and were included in the Twitter purge on Monday. 

On September 11, Jones was suspended from Twitter for one week after he posted a video in which he said "Now is time to act on the enemy before they do a false flag." But Twitter did not ban him from its platform at the time, even after YouTube, Apple and Facebook each kicked him off. Twitter also said that it "will take action" if, in the future, it discovers other accounts being used to get around the ban of Jones and InfoWars. 

Assessment 

Our assessment is that Infowars has been inciting racially and ethnically charged sentiments amongst its follower, which is both illegal and immoral. We feel that though this would be a violation against Jones’ right as an American citizen, tweets and videos posted that incite unlawful behavior and violates behaviour policies laid down by companies like Twitter. 

We believe that through this move, Twitter will stand vindicated of its recent promise to ensure that its platform was more transparent, safer and better place. This move can be seen as a part of a larger pivot by the tech industry to transform into a more humane, grown up version of itself. We also  believe that this is one of the largest enforcement actions taken to curb conspiratorial news by a technology company to date.