Alex Jones, the right-wing conspiracy theorist who founded InfoWars, has returned to X. The reinstatement came after Elon Musk ran a poll to determine whether Jones should be returned to the platform. Of the nearly 2 million votes, 70.1% voted to reinstate Jones. Furthermore, Jones has been off of X since 2018 when most social media platforms banned him. Most platforms cited some sort of term of service violation in regard to Jones' defamation cases related to the 2012 Sandy Hook shootings. That case recently wrapped up earlier this year.
However, Musk did appear to temper fears that Jones could bring down more legal trouble for X. "He cannot break laws," Musk wrote after announcing that Jones would be unbanned. Jones is yet to make a post on the site after being unbanned. While many of Elon's fanboys celebrated the move, it was another shift toward the right for many moderate Twitter users. It's been a common theme across Musk's tenure as owner.
Musk's Anti-Semitism Drives Advertisers Off X
Furthermore, Jones' unbanning comes as Musk struggles to retain advertising revenue on the site. Back in November, Musk's positive response to an anti-Semitic conspiracy caused major problems for X. Musk openly embraced an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory as "the actual truth". Additionally, this led Apple, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, IBM, Oracle, Paramount, and Xfinity to name a few companies to leave the site. More advertisers have since left the site,
Earlier this week, Musk was seen replying "the actual truth" to a post promoting an anti-semitic conspiracy. The conspiracy in question that Jewish communities are "supporting hordes of minorities" that are "flooding" into Western nations to replace white people. The conspiracy theory is a version of the Great Replacement Theory. The notion is used by white supremacists to justify their opposition to multiculturalism and immigration. Furthermore, advertisers have told multiple outlets that they do not wish to see their products advertised alongside Neo-Nazi content that Musk now appears to be actively promoting.
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