To understand who Alex Jones is, imagine a mix of Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson. Can you imagine? And now multiply by ten, because this character is a fan of Alexander Dugin, the creator of the “Russian world” and appeared on the broadcast of the propaganda channel “Tsargrad”.

Who is Alex Jones?

In 2018, Twitter, like many other social networks and services, blocked Jones’ page and his InfoWars program for spreading misinformation and harassing people. This project started as a simple website, launched in 1999, and later evolved into a YouTube video blog popular with conspiracy theorists and Republicans. InfoWars specializes in fake news and conspiracy theories, which have popped up quite a bit over the years. His site appeared to have “reprinted” more than 1,000 pieces of material from Russian propaganda source Russia Today. In addition, he promoted pseudoscientific reports on medical issues (such as the harms of vaccination), myths of shadowy elites determined to wipe out 80% of the world’s population, and claims of deception by the US government regarding the events of 9/11.

But the most famous and disgusting incident happened in 2012. Then there was a mass shooting at Sandy Hook school in America. Adam Lenza first killed his mother, a primary school teacher, at home, and then drove his car to the school where she worked. After entering the building, he started shooting with Glock and SIG Sauer pistols. His victims were twenty children (all between 6 and 7 years old) and seven adults. After the police arrived, the criminal shot himself.

But in the end, the problems did not end there Alex Jones announced to his supporters that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax, the victims’ relatives were actors, and the victims never existed. He did not leave this story for a long time. It came to a point that Jones’ loyal supporters, especially those who believed in the new conspiracy theory, began to persecute the relatives of the murdered children and the teachers. Some even resorted to physical violence. Families had to move many times but still ended up in a new place.

As a result, in 2018 some of the world’s leading advertisers requested that their ads be removed from the InfoWars YouTube channel. These include Nike, 20th Century Fox, Expedia, the Mormon Church, Alibaba and the National Rifle Association. Ultimately, YouTube and Facebook blocked Jones’ accounts, and he moved the podcast to the Spotify platform. Jones later registered a new YouTube account. However, on August 6, 2018, Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Spotify deleted all of its pages. The Vimeo service also joined them.

Would you be surprised to learn that Donald Trump came to Jones’ defense? The former US president tweeted in support of Jones and InfoWars and criticized Facebook’s policies. And of course, plenty of photos of Jones with his pal Tucker Carlson, whose show isn’t too far removed from the InfoWars stories, are available online.

Alex Jones’ employees accused their former employer of sexual harassment, anti-Semitism and racism.

But let’s get back to the Sandy Hook shooting. While covering the trial against Alex Jones last year, the media included testimonies from victims of persecution. They said it all started shortly after the incident in 2012.

• Erica Lafferty, the daughter of the slain school principal, said at first people told her it was a hoax and that her mother was never dead. But then rape threats started coming to her home.
• Other families described ongoing death threats, personal harassment and malicious comments on social media.
• Some, as mentioned earlier, moved to escape the violence. Among them is Erica Lafferty, who changed her place of residence five times and even stopped going to markets and other public places.
• One of the families established a foundation in memory of their daughter Aviel, who was killed when she was six years old. Soon the foundation’s email addresses were flooded with messages that Avielle never existed and that her parents, Hansel and Jeremy Richman, were actors raising money through publicity for a fake shooting. In 2019, the girl’s father committed suicide, and followers of Alex Jones came to his grave “to find evidence of his death.” In 2022, the persecution was still ongoing and probably still hasn’t stopped. Unlocking Jones in X could galvanize them with new power and inflict new pain on Avielle’s mother.
• The father of another murdered child, 6-year-old Ben Wheeler, said that twice people came to his house, demanding to see Ben and insisting that the child was actually alive. They called the man a “crisis actor” and cited as the main evidence the fact that even during his student years he made an amateur film for his studies.

Alex Jones insisted he was innocent but at one point said: “He now realizes that it is irresponsible to claim that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax and now believes it is 100% true.”. We are unlikely to know whether this was genuine repentance or simply an attempt to avoid punishment.

Jones was given large fines. Only one family condemned $50 million. Another received only 4 million. While the total compensation payable to victims of the conflict was set at $1.5 billion (initially $965 million and later $473 million), Jones stated in court that any amount exceeding $2 million would bankrupt his company. It is surprising that the trio of dreamers (Jones, Carlson and Musk) managed to stuff “freedom of speech” everywhere under the guise of the right to carry propaganda and disinformation to the masses.) This is what happened in the end: Free Speech Systems later declared bankruptcy.

Vox Populi, Vox Dei

Last Saturday, Elon Musk posted a poll on page X asking whether Jones should be brought back to the platform. Nearly 70% of nearly 2 million respondents voted for restoration.

“Reintroducing Alex Jones to this platform? Vox Populi, Vox Dei” (Latin for “The voice of the people is the voice of God”).

Already on Sunday, Musk wrote: “The people have spoken and so it will be”. A few hours later, Jones’ posts resurfaced on the platform. And in the evening both took part in the joint Space (audio broadcasts on X).

Today, the results of such a vote are unlikely to be considered fair, because Musk has gathered around him a suitable audience that shares his interests and views. So the answer to your question was already known.

Some users said they would leave the platform if Jones was reinstated.