United States: Business tycoon Mr. Elon Musk has invited right-wing American conspiracy theorist Mr. Alex Jones back to X after a poll.
After nearly 70 percent of respondents to an unscientific poll on X supported Mr. Jones’ return, he was reinstated on Sunday. Mr. Jones had been ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in damages for defaming the families of the Sandy Hook school shootings in the US.
Mr. Jones released a video teaser shortly after being reinstated, promoting a conversation he had with Mr. Musk and kickboxer-turned-influencer Mr. Andrew Tate at X Spaces.
A poll asking users if Jones’s account should be reinstated more than five years after it was permanently banned for breaking Twitter’s abusive behaviour policy was posted on Saturday by Mr. Musk, who has positioned himself as an absolutist in the field of free speech, was posted.
After the majority of the nearly 2 million respondents voted “yes,” the billionaire owner of X declared, “The people have spoken and so it shall be.”
The decision comes at a time when X was being criticised for supposedly helping spread false information and extremist content more widely after being acquired by Mr. Musk last year.
A number of well-known companies have abandoned the platform in recent months, including Apple, Disney, IBM, and Lions Gate Entertainment, on the grounds that it has fostered hatred and anti-Semitism.
X has refuted allegations of inciting hatred, and last month he sued Media Matters, a liberal activist organisation, over a report revealing that advertisements for well-known companies had appeared next to material endorsing Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
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