Elon Musk has said that Infowars host Alex Jones will not be returning to Twitter. Musk said that he has “no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame”.
According to The Telegraph:
Elon Musk will not allow Alex Jones, the American conspiracy theorist, to return to Twitter, in a decision that appeared to be motivated by the death of his first-born child.
Jones said that the Sandy Hook massacre, in which 20 children and six teachers were shot dead in 2012, was a hoax and called the parents of the victims “crisis actors”. He kept peddling the lies for years, and has been ordered to pay $1.5 billion in damages to the families of the victims.
Mr Musk, who rarely speaks about the passing of his 10-week-old son, Nevada, from sudden infant death syndrome in 2002, said he has “no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame”.
Twitter permanently suspended Jones’s account and that of his Infowars website in September 2018 and Mr Musk’s decision to rule out his return revealed the extent to which the billionaire has taken the running of the site into his own hands.
After acquiring Twitter, Mr Musk pledged to set up a content moderation council to assess such decisions, but has personally overseen the reinstatement of accounts belonging to Donald Trump, Jordan Peterson and Kanye West – apparently without any oversight.
However, Mr Musk made it clear that there is no place for Jones.
He was asked: “Is it time to let Alex Jones back on Twitter, Elon Musk? If not, why not?”
The SpaceX and Tesla founder replied: “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
When challenged again by Kim Dotcom, the controversial internet tycoon who is still facing extradition to the US over his MegaUpload file–sharing website, Mr Musk was unmoved, saying: “My firstborn child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat.”
