Why Twitter refuses to ban InfoWars’ Alex Jones

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has insisted that American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s tweets do not violate the social media platform’s rules, following growing calls for a ban on the controversial media figure.

Jones, creator of the InfoWars far-right news website and multiple talk shows, has been banned from several major platforms, including YouTube and Facebook, in recent days for promoting “hate speech and violence”, The Guardian says. 

He has “built a vast audience” peddling theories that include claims that the 9/11 attacks were staged by the US government and that the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012 was “faked by left-wing forces to promote gun control”, the newspaper says. 

But despite Jones’s reputation as a promoter of fake news, Dorsey said in a tweet that he would not be kicked off the platform. 

The internet tycoon said Twitter will take action if Jones does break their content policy, but that in the meantime, “we’ll continue to promote a healthy conversational environment by ensuring tweets aren’t artificially amplified”.

“Accounts like Jones’ can often sensationalise issues and spread unsubstantiated rumours”, Dorsey added, “so it’s critical journalists document, validate, and refute such information directly so people can form their own opinions.”

Dorsey’s comments were met with a backlash from other Twitter users, who accused the company chief of passing the buck when it comes to handling fake stories. 

Although Jones remains on Twitter despite the purge of InfoWars content on other major sites, the platform has banned British far-right activist Tommy Robinson. The former English Defence League (EDL) leader was ordered off in March, “as part of a wider crackdown on hateful and abusive content”, the BBC reports.

This week Robinson revealed that his Instagram account had been blocked, and said he feared that Facebook “will soon close us down” as well.