Alex Jones speaks to the media outside Waterbury Superior Court during his trial on Sept. 21 in Waterbury, Connecticut. Photo: Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images
Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones won't be let back on Twitter, according to Elon Musk, despite the reinstatement of former President Donald Trump.
Driving the news: Musk's takeover of Twitter brought a host of changes and upheaval to the platform. On Friday, Musk tweeted, "What should Twitter do next?"
- "No," Musk replied to a user who wrote back, "Bring back Alex Jones!!!!"
- In response to another Twitter user calling for Jones' reinstatement on Sunday, Musk replied, "My firstborn child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat. I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame."
- On Friday night Musk initiated a poll on his Twitter feed asking whether Trump should be reinstated. Trump's account was reinstated on Saturday following the poll's results where a slim majority wanted the former president back on the platform.
State of play: Jones responded to Musk's initial snub in a video posted to the conservative social media platform Rumble on Friday.
- “Now, do I blame Elon Musk for this? No, ladies and gentlemen. And quite frankly, I don’t care if I get brought back to Twitter," Jones said.
- "I care about any of these big tech platforms going back to free speech and back to where the Internet was four years ago, before this reign of surveillance and censorship. Because this isn’t just censorship. They’re surveilling everything you say in live time, not just on Twitter, but Google, Facebook, all of it in live time," Jones said.
- “This is criminal,” he said.
The big picture: Trump was permanently suspended from Twitter days after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, in what the social media platform said was a response to the "risk of further incitement of violence."
- Jones was permanently suspended from the platform in 2018 for abusive behavior.
- Jones, primarily through his website and radio show Infowars, for years falsely claimed the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax.