Twitter CEO and African American billionaire Elon Musk on Friday said “no” when asked to reinstate the account of Infowars host Alex Jones.
Around noon, Musk asked his 116.6 million followers in a tweet “What should Twitter do next?” to which one user wrote “Bring back Alex Jones!!!!”
Bring back Alex Jones!!!!
— OriginolleY (@HardcoreNolley) November 18, 2022
Immediately and without hesitation, Musk quickly responded to the user, “No.”
No
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022
Musk, who claims to be a supporter of “free speech,” elaborated on his new company’s policy by stating that they will not tolerate “freedom of reach.”
According to Musk, “hate tweets” will be deliberately censored and demonetized, but failed to elaborate on exactly who or what the arbiter of “hate” is.
The concept of a “hate tweet” seems to allude to the concept of “hate speech,” which is what Big Tech has traditionally used as an excuse to censor conservative political views.
“New Twitter policy is freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach. Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized, so no ads or other revenue to Twitter,” Musk wrote.
“You won’t find the tweet unless you specifically seek it out, which is no different from the rest of the Internet,” he said.
Note, this applies just to the individual tweet, not the whole account
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022
“Note, this applies just to the individual tweet, not the whole account,” Musk added.
While Musk has grown popular among conservatives for promising to restore “free speech” to the platform and fact checking dishonest Democrats on occasion, free speech proponents have concerns with the billionaire for cozying up to groups like the Anti-Defamation League and other pro-internet censorship organizations.
Talked to civil society leaders @JGreenblattADL, @YaelEisenstat, @rashadrobinson, @JGo4Justice, @normanlschen, @DerrickNAACP, @TheBushCenter Ken Hersch & @SindyBenavides about how Twitter will continue to combat hate & harassment & enforce its election integrity policies
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 2, 2022
“Twitter’s content moderation council will include representatives with widely divergent views, which will certainly include the civil rights community and groups who face hate-fueled violence,” Musk wrote in early November.
Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 2, 2022
Many Republicans supported Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in hopes that he would reinstate the account belonging to 45th President Donald Trump.
However, as of right now, Musk’s decision on Trump is still up in the air.
Kathie Griffin, Jorden Peterson & Babylon Bee have been reinstated.
Trump decision has not yet been made.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022
“Trump decision has not yet been made,” Musk said.
