ALT-RIGHT IS ALL WRONG
It Took 50k People Blocking Advertisers and a Literal Call to Arms for Twitter to ‘Suspend’ Alex Jones
After Twitter’s defiant refusal to ban fake news purveyor and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, CNN proved he had violated the social media company’sTerms of Service. Twitter refused to join YouTube, Facebook, Spotify, and other top platform in banning Jones.
But then, as is often the case on Twitter, a movement to get Jones off Twitter sprung into action. 50,000 users blocked Twitter’s top advertisers.
Good morning! To encourage Twitter to drop Alex Jones, I just blocked the Twitter accounts of every Fortune 500 company w/ a Twitter presence. Ready to mass block Twitter’s most lucrative advertisers with me? There are three quick & easy ways. Instructions are in this thread.
— Shannon Coulter (@shannoncoulter) August 12, 2018
The same day, Jones posted a literal call to arms on Twitter’s Periscope video platform, telling supporters to get their “battle rifles” ready, as Media Matters reported Tuesday.
Twitter reportedly asked Jones to take the video down. In other words, they gave him special treatment, just as they did after CNN’s report that about 20 of Jones’ tweets violated their TOS. Twitter announced that since Jones removed the offending tweets they would take no action.
But finally, late Tuesday night, Twitter appears to have handed Jones literally the lightest form of punishment available. He can still use Twitter but cannot post to the social media platform – for a week, as CNN’s senior media reporter Oliver Darcy tweeted:
Twitter spox confirms to me that the company has limited key functions on Alex Jones’ account after determining he violated another one of network’s policies. He can still browse Twitter, but can’t tweet, retweet, etc. for 7 days. Jones also required to delete offending tweet.
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) August 15, 2018
CNN, confirming the suspension, reports Jones’ video said, “now is time to act on the enemy before they do a false flag.”
Twitter “suspending” Jones for just seven days is a slap on the wrist.
Earlier this week Jones announced that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who has been the public face of the company’s refusal to ban Jones, an “ally against globalists.”
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