Alex Jones returns to X after Musk restores his account: 'The people have spoken and so it shall be'
Musk has a history of supporting free speech and asking the public for their input, which has been on full display since he bought X.
Infowars host Alex Jones is back on X, formerly Twitter, the platform's owner Elon Musk said Sunday after a user poll showed overwhelming support for restoring Jones' account.
"Reinstate Alex Jones on this platform? Vox Populi, Vox Dei," Musk posted Saturday on X, using the Latin phrase translating to, "The voice of the people [is] the voice of God," along with a poll for users to decide whether to allow Jones back on.
More than 70% of the nearly 2 million users polled voted in favor of allowing Jones back on X, and Musk posted early Sunday morning in response: "The people have spoken and so it shall be."
Musk said that Jones cannot use the platform to break the law, but that "freedom of speech is otherwise meaningless" if people are not allowed to say things that are widely detested.
Jones and Infowars were permanently banned in 2018 for what Twitter at the time called "abusive behavior" after he posted a 10-minute video of him berating CNN journalist Oliver Darcy.
Jones' first post on X was a repost from influencer Andrew Tate, who had said, with typos: "To show respect to Alex Jones for his triumphant return and to show respect to Elon being a hero - tell a globalist to get f***ed today. Ill do exactly that and put all the video on http://rumble.com. Were so back."
Musk has a history of supporting free speech and asking the public for their input, which has been on full display since he bought X, which was known as Twitter at the time, in October 2022.
In November 2022, Musk reinstated former President Donald Trump's X account following a poll.