Twitter Suspends Alex Jones Over New Tweet
August 15 2018 - 12:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Tripp Mickle
Twitter Inc. on Tuesday suspended the far-right talk-show host
Alex Jones for violating the social media company's policies, a
reversal amid intensifying public scrutiny and criticism of Mr.
Jones's posts on the platform.
Mr. Jones will be blocked from posting on Twitter for seven days
because of an offending tweet, the company said. Twitter declined
to comment on the content that violated its policies, but in a note
to Mr. Jones it said a tweet about taking action against web
censorship included a link to a video that violated the company's
policy against targeted harassment of someone or inciting others to
intimidate or harass someone.
Mr. Jones couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
Twitter's move came more than a week after technology companies,
including Apple Inc., YouTube and Facebook Inc. removed content
from Mr. Jones or his far-right site, Infowars. The actions against
Infowars intensified a growing debate over what role tech companies
play in policing controversial content on their platforms while
they simultaneously support the principle of free speech.
The conspiracy theories promoted by Mr. Jones and Infowars have
been at the the center of the tech industry debate. Earlier this
year, parents of two children killed in the 2012 Newtown, Conn.,
elementary-school shooting massacre sued Mr. Jones, saying he
repeatedly called the shooting fake and accused them of taking part
in a hoax designed to promote gun control. Mr. Jones described the
lawsuit as frivolous.
As Apple removed links to some Infowars podcasts and YouTube
terminated some of its channels, Twitter's Chief Executive Jack
Dorsey said his company didn't remove Mr. Jones or Infowars because
neither had violated the platform's policies.
"We're going to hold Jones to the same standard we hold to every
account, not taking one-off actions to make us feel good in the
short term, and adding fuel to new conspiracy theories," Mr. Dorsey
said in a tweet last week. He later added that it was critical that
journalists "document, validate and refute" accounts like those of
Mr. Jones, which "can often sensationalize issues and spread
unsubstantiated rumors."
As of late Tuesday, Mr. Dorsey hadn't Tweeted about Mr. Jones's
suspension.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 14, 2018 23:47 ET (03:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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