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Twitter Was Going to Ban Alex Jones – Until Its CEO Stepped in and Stopped It: Report

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says he stepped in to stop the social media giant he co-founded from banning far right wing conspiracy theorist and fake news promoter Alex Jones, according to a report in Monday’s Wall Street Journal. Twitter “disputes” the claim.
“Last month, after Twitter’s controversial decision to allow conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to remain on its platform, Mr. Dorsey told one person that he had overruled a decision by his staff to kick Mr. Jones off, according to a person familiar with the discussion,” The Journal reports. The paper also says Dorsey intervened to allow white supremacist Richard Spencer to be reinstated on Twitter.
In August, Twitter came under fire from its users and even from some employees for not joining many of the top social media platforms in banning Alex Jones.
Jones peddles fake news, and is behind the promotion of horrific and damaging stories, including his repeated claim that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, in which 20 young children and six school officials were murdered, was a “false flag” operation – a hoax – and child actors were used.
So when Facebook, YouTube, iTunes, Spotify and others banned Jones, Twitter claimed he had not violated its terms of service, the “rules of the road” that outline acceptable behavior. Only after CNN highlighted several tweets that clearly violated Twitter’s TOS did the social media platform suspend Jones – and only for one week.
(Ironically, perhaps, Jones’ tweets, had he published them on his own sites, would have violated his own terms of service, theoretically forcing him to ban himself.)
“Any suggestion that Jack made or overruled any of these decisions is completely and totally false,” Twitter’s chief legal officer, Vijaya Gadde, said in a statement. “Our service can only operate fairly if it’s run through consistent application of our rules, rather than the personal views of any executive, including our CEO.”
Dorsey will testify on Capitol Hill Wednesday. Part of his time will be spent answering to Republicans who falsely are claiming social media companies are censoring conservatives. In reality, right wing voices, and publications including Fox News, are thriving on platforms like Facebook.
Some on Twitter, hearing the news that Dorsey allegedly said he stepped in to prevent the ban of Alex Jones, expressed outrage:
Jack. Is. A. Nazi. https://t.co/Jbe2sIGUV1
— Joel Wertheimer (@Wertwhile) September 3, 2018
Being nice is not acceptable when your platform is weaponized by nation-states.
You can either be decisive and stand for your morals or get run-over trying to be the bastion of free-speech that doesn’t exist. https://t.co/RXUQy3MvZp
— Brad Sams (@bdsams) September 3, 2018
He’s one of them https://t.co/31HyAnHsL5
— David Greenwald (@davidegreenwald) September 3, 2018
It increasingly strikes me that @jack is a great payments CEO and a not-so-great communication network CEO. A sober Board of Directors at Twitter would take a look at the decisions and results of the past few years — and strongly suggest that Jack pick the payments co full time. https://t.co/VFWXCBhmb4
— Mike Dudas (@mdudas) September 3, 2018
#BanJack https://t.co/2DrVetW7Vw
— matt | d’andre swift fan acct (@MattHasTheMusic) September 3, 2018
Hey @jack , I have three questions:
1) Why are you supporting people who spread hatespeech and violate the terms of @Twitter ?
2) Do you secretly believe in the ideology of white supremacists?
3) What will you do to make Twitter a safe space & combat fake news and hatespeech? https://t.co/1i53e9CcMD
— NΛDIR ΛSLΛM (@nadiraslamart) September 3, 2018
Image by JD Lasica via Flickr and a CC license
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