this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
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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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[–] vitamin@infosec.pub 138 points 11 months ago

This asshole always uses a poll as a cover when he does something shitty. "I want nazi's back on the site but it will be unpopular.... better poll my alt-right nazi fans! Heh, heh. I'm so clever."

[–] brawleryukon@lemmy.world 113 points 11 months ago
[–] Jaysyn@kbin.social 71 points 11 months ago (26 children)

If you're still on Twitter, you're a fascist sympathizer, full stop.

[–] squiblet@kbin.social 22 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Some people are just oblivious. Take my dad, for instance. He told me last week “so Twitter is now called ‘X’!” Uh, yeah, thanks.

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[–] Marketsupreme@lemm.ee 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Um idk about this blanket statement

[–] Corgana@startrek.website 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Ehhh Twitter has been pretty friendly to anti-democracy types for years now. January 6th was literally organized on the app and that was way before Musk. At this point I have an extremely hard time believing any regular Tweeter who claims ignorance.

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[–] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 67 points 11 months ago (1 children)

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/twitter-users-vote-elon-musk-quit-ceo-poll-rcna62332

A year ago next Monday, Musk asked "Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll". The votes came in, 57.5% to resign, 42.5% to stay. If you're wondering how much he care about polls where he hasn't pre-ordained the outcome.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

He did step down... he hired a CEO to run day to day.

He was going to do it either way though

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Also, don't think that CEO doesn't do whatever the fuck he wants, it's a puppet

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Probably true, but it wasn't the best choice of example to use above against him.

Edit: misread comment about CEOs gender, you were referring to Elon so I removed the correction.

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[–] Cranakis@lemmy.one 66 points 11 months ago (1 children)

"Let's see, how can I make it even shittier.....?" -Elon

[–] squiblet@kbin.social 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Next, he should hire Andrew Tate for a management position

[–] aphlamingphoenix@lemm.ee 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is that guy out of Romanian prison yet?

[–] squiblet@kbin.social 5 points 11 months ago

I believe he’s been under home detention for a while.

[–] Lifecoach5000@lemmy.world 51 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Coincidence that he just also appeared as a guest on Tucker’s show for the first time ever? I think Alex is getting some kind of push somehow/somewhere to spew his bile back into the limelight.

[–] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 36 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I’m sure it’s for the 2024 election… the right is drumming up the crazies to get out and vote for the orange traitor.

[–] Lifecoach5000@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

Hmmm I wonder if we’ll see Trump guest on Infowars like he did for the 2016 election.

[–] Catma@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

I mean if it happens he is going to have to pay the Sandy Hook families the money he owes. Dude is still on the hook for a cool billion with 2 trials to go.

[–] Cqrd@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 11 months ago

He's been getting a lot of love from Russia, and the GOP and Russia are best friends

[–] RealFknNito@lemmy.world 43 points 11 months ago (1 children)

There we go. Now it's officially Truth Social as run by Elon Musk. He could have just bought the actual Truth Social for way less.

[–] ripcord@kbin.social 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

But he got a huge huge audience, which is what the other platforms lack. It was a realy good move if your goals are to try to move social media massively to the right, shut down conversations you don't like, etc.

It may have been expensive, but way cheaper than buying or starting a new platform and trying to get that size of an audience and apparent lock-in/addiction.

[–] rckclmbr@lemm.ee 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I'm convinced he did it for the '24 election. He lost a lot on Twitter, but he stands to gain a lot more if trump wins.

Remember that last election, all major social media sites released a "fact check" on content at the last minute, completely hijacking Trumps strategy of lying about everything.

[–] LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world 38 points 11 months ago

Freedom of hate speech

[–] rbesfe@lemmy.ca 30 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Good, now advertisers have even less reason to spend money on that platform

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[–] SatanClaws@lemmy.world 24 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

On the one hand, it is sad to see what Twitter has become. On the other hand, it is a bit funny, as Truth Social is more likely to fail the more X takes on their userbase. Which is hurting Trump right in the wallet.

[–] EurekaStockade@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Twitter has always sucked and destroying it at his own expense is the one good thing Musk has done. He should buy Facebook next.

[–] Uniquitous@lemmy.one 22 points 11 months ago (6 children)

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

[–] jennwiththesea@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

I appreciate the heads up that we're going to be hearing from Alex Jones again soon, regardless of who, exactly, has chosen to platform him again. This is awful. He's a hateful, horrible person, and I don't look forward to the conspiracy theories he's going to create again.

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[–] TrendigOsthyvel@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago

Just keep adding more water to the ship, please!

[–] garibaldi_biscuit@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago

Xcho chamber

[–] bender223@lemmy.today 20 points 11 months ago

Smells like desperation 😤

[–] Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Sometimes I scroll YouTube shorts when I'm bored, and there will always be at LEAST one Alex Jones short that pops up, despite my only engagement being to quickly downvote it and skip it. It drives me crazy

[–] circuscritic@lemmy.ca 26 points 11 months ago (10 children)

Clicking on the short is engagement.

Downvoting is engagement.

Commenting how much you hate, disagree, or feel stupider for watching, is engagement.

Scrolling past the clip and entirely ignoring it, is not engagement.

So... Don't engage, and remember:

Being happy reduces engagement.

Being angry increases engagement.

The algorithm doesn't care how you feel, just how long it can keep your attention.

[–] Sharpiemarker@feddit.de 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

The lack of engagement? Believe it or not, still engagement!

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[–] schwim@reddthat.com 14 points 11 months ago

I love anything that further sinks the site.

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