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submitted 11 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has had his account on X - formerly Twitter - reinstated by Elon Musk.

Musk asked users to vote in a poll whether or not to lift a Jones ban pre-dating his ownership of the platform, signalling he would honour the result.

Around 70% of roughly two million respondents voted to lift the ban.

Jones is most notorious for falsely claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, in which 20 children and six adults died, was "staged".

He was ordered to pay $1.5bn (£1.32bn) in damages to family members of the victims, after courts found he had caused them to be subjected to harassment and death threats with his false claims.

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[-] Uniquitous@lemmy.one 22 points 11 months ago

I see we're still reporting on X as if it retained any kind of importance or significance. Quaint.

[-] Telorand@reddthat.com 3 points 11 months ago

Thank you. Tired of hearing about this clown, as if doing alt-right shit is novel. It's only newsworthy when he does something progressive by accident.

[-] Nougat@kbin.social 18 points 11 months ago

Musk has a great deal of control over:

  • Satellite internet
  • Low Earth orbit launches
  • Electric vehicle charging infrastructure
  • Social media

His choices impact world events whether you "hear about this clown" or not. Ignoring him doesn't change that.

[-] Telorand@reddthat.com 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Okay, but "asshole let's asshole onto his platform of assholes" isn't any of those things, nor is it somehow surprising and novel and therefore worthy of the bytes needed to convey this "news."

ETA: What is the purpose of an article like this? It's certainly not to convince people like us, so it must be either for people who don't stick Elon in the "malignant asshole" category by default, and/or it's ragebait.

If someone in the former category thinks Alex Jones being let back on is the last straw and not the litany of other transgressions, then they and these authors deserve each other.

[-] chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 11 months ago

It's for us who listen to Knowledge Fight to get a preview of what's coming up.

[-] Telorand@reddthat.com 3 points 11 months ago

Hello, fellow Wonk.

this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
318 points (91.6% liked)

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