Twitter
Permanently Bans Alex Jones, Infowars
6
September, 2018
One
day after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey appeared on Capitol Hill to tell
lawmakers how his company doesn't discriminate against conservatives,
the company permanently banned Infowars host Alex Jones from the
platform for insults hurled at CNN's Oliver Darcy on Wednesday.
Twitter
told the Daily Beast that the final straw
was when Jones said of Darcy and CNN:
"Look at this right here. Goes around policing and calling for censorship, and then claims that Trump's wrong - there's no censorship of conservatives. You are incredibly shameful man. You're just - look at you. You are literally an anti-American, anti free speech coward. You're going to go down in the history books as the criminal news network.
This is one of the main people right here who thinks we have no memory. Who sits there and lobbies. Sits there and lobbies people to take other news off... when CNN is the fakest WMD gulf Arab state dictatorship-funded... unbelievable." -Alex Jones
"Those
are the eyes of a rat," Jones added.
“Today,
we permanently suspended @realalexjones and @infowars from Twitter
and Periscope. We took this action based on new reports of Tweets and
videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior policy, in
addition to the accounts’ previous violations,” the company
posted on its Safety account.
Today, we permanently suspended @realalexjones and @infowars from Twitter and Periscope. We took this action based on new reports of Tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior policy, in addition to the accounts’ past violations. help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-p…
As we continue to increase transparency around our rules and enforcement actions, we wanted to be open about this action given the broad interest in this case. We do not typically comment on enforcement actions we take against individual accounts, for their privacy.
Twitter
added that it will continue to take further action "regarding
other accounts potentially associated" with Jones or Infowars,
and will "take action if content that violates our rules is
reported or if other accounts are utilized in an attempt to
circumvent their ban."
We will continue to evaluate reports we receive regarding other accounts potentially associated with @realalexjones or @infowars and will take action if content that violates our rules is reported or if other accounts are utilized in an attempt to circumvent their ban.
Prior
to confronting Darcy, Jones got into a verbal
altercation with
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) outside the Senate Intelligence Committee
hearing on internet censorship.
The
exchange begins with Jones condemning Silicon Valley tech giants for
"shadow banning people en masse," to which Rubio deflects
to foreign government interference in the US political process.
After
Jones says "thank God" Trump is addressing conservative
censorship, Rubio then says "I don't know who you are, man"
to which Jones replies "he plays dumb."
“He’s
not answering,” said Jones, adding: “The Democrats are doing
what you say China does.”
“I don’t know who
you are, man,”
responded Rubio. “I
don’t really go on your website.”
“That’s why you
didn’t get elected. You’re a snake,”
Jones fired back, touching the senator’s shoulder to keep his
attention. “Marco
Rubio the snake. A little frat boy here.”
After Jones put his hand on Rubio's
shoulder, the Florida Senator said “Don’t
touch me again, man ... I’m
asking you not to touch me again.”
When Jones then asked whether he'd
be arrested, Rubio said "You're
not gonna get arrested man, I'd take care of it myself,"
suggesting he would engage Jones physically.
Following
the exchange, which included Jones proclaiming "The Democrats
are raping the Republicans!" and "You're a little gangster
thug," Rubio walked away, telling the remaining reporters "You
guys can talk to this clown."
Jones
shot back: "Go back to your bath house!" adding "There
goes Rubio...Little punk."
Jones
was in Washington, DC to "face his accusers" as Twitter CEO
Jack Dorsey sat next to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg as the Silicon
Valley execs testified on censorship and foreign interference on
their platforms.
His suspension comes on
the heels of a seven day "timeout"
after he tweeted a link to a video in which he said "now is time
to act on the enemy before they do a false flag."
Shortly after the
temporary suspension Jack Dorsey told NBC
News' Lester
Holt that he had resisted internal pressure to ban Jones amid a
seemingly coordinated multi-platform blacklisting by YouTube,
Facebook, iTunes, Spotify, Pinterest, Linkedin and others.
EXCLUSIVE: Twitter CEO @jack Dorsey on Alex Jones’ "timeout":
"Any suspension, whether it be a permanent one or a temporary one, makes someone think about their actions and behaviors."@lesterholtnbc has more tonight on @NBCNightlyNews.
“Whether
it works within this case to change some of those behaviors and
change some of those actions, I don't know,”
Dorsey said. “But this is consistent with how we enforce.”
Jones was banned or restricted from using the services of at least 10 tech companies this month, including Facebook and YouTube. Twitter had been the most high-profile holdout, until it announced on Tuesday that Jones was suspended from posting for seven days.
Dorsey later clarified on Twitter that he was "speaking broadly about our range of enforcement actions" with regards to the company's use of timeouts.
...
in a follow-up question on weighing the importance of Twitter’s rules versus its moral obligation, Dorsey said the company has “to put the safety of individuals first in every single thing that we do, and we need to enforce our rules and also evolve our rules around that.” -NBC News
"I don’t assume
everyone will change their actions. Enforcement
gets tougher with further reported violations,"
Dorsey said over Twitter.
And
now - as midterm season ramps up, the very influential Alex Jones and
his empire has been all but put out of business.
EXCLUSIVE:
ALEX JONES
RESPONDS TO TWITTER
BAN
This
is what happens when you confront your accusers
Alex Jones was permanently banned from Twitter Thursday afternoon, a day after he faced his accusers in Washington, DC, who were lobbying to have him silenced online.
Watch his statement on the ban below as he gives Owen Shroyer of the War Room the exclusive:
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