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Twitter Finally Bans Alex Jones

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Alex Jones of Infowars talks to the media outside U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington

Photo: Reuters/Jim Bourg

Apple, Facebook, and others were happy to give Alex Jones a permanent ban. Jones asked his InfoWars followers to kill journalists and other enemies of his right-wing agenda. This was the last straw in a long string of abuses. Alex Jones spewed hate, conspiracy theories, and even influenced a man to storm a pizza parlor with an AR-15. Apple, Facebook, YouTube, and podcasting platforms were quick to pull Alex Jones’ channel after his latest calls for violence. Twitter, on the other hand, apparently at CEO Jack Dorsey’s request, banned Jones for only seven days. Finally, that changed.

https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1037804427992686593

Twitter’s currently fighting a Republican-lead panel that asserts the platform actually censors right-wing politicians. The platform has become rife with alt-right trolls, Russian bots, white supremacists like Richard Spencer, and conspiracy-peddling lunatics like Alex Jones. Twitter defended itself, stating that it does not take a stance on political matters. Furthermore, Dorsey proved that, when accounting for followers, conservative voices are heard as often as liberal voices. Though, seeing as a gross majority of harassment comes from the far-right, this only serves to prove that Twitter’s not doing enough when it comes to removing harassment and hate speech.

On Thursday, Twitter finally did something right, they banned Alex Jones and InfoWars permanently.

Reason for the Ban

Twitter claims Jone’s permanent ban was the result of new attacks against CNN reporter Oliver Darcy. The offense seems less severe than asking followers to “grab their battle rifles,” but it is nonetheless harassment. Perhaps it was just a final straw. Or, perhaps it’s because this happened:

Dorsey was finally on the receiving end of some of the harassment that marginalized users of his service often face, and he responded as any rational person would: he stopped elevating harassment and hate… for himself. Though Dorsey’s concern for this hate speech seems to be limited to himself, Twitter users are happy that Jones is gone. Finally, there seems to be repercussions for harassment and hate speech.

It’s just a shame that when Jones was harassing anyone else, Dorsey coudn’t care less.

Users have been quick to call out Dorsey’s hipocracy. Though, since it’s happening on Twitter, driving discussion and increasing ad revenue, he, again, couldn’t care less. Twitter has only responded to large-scale boycotts in the past. Even then, the company usually outlines new rules, but fails to enforce them.

Change Takes Action

Until Twitter users organize and once again boycott the platform, hate speech and harassment will continue to spread. Twitter will continue to allow harassers and trolls to use the platform, and no verification process will be put in place to protect users. However, Twitter is quite addictive, and, for small blogs like this one, a primary method for reaching an audience. Leaving it behind is difficult.

However, if I were to make a recommendation, it would be to delete all your old tweets using a tool like TweetDelete, then, just stop tweeting for a few days. Let Twitter become completely empty, an echo chamber for right wing trolls. Jack Dorsey would quickly change his tune, just as he did when women boycotted before over harassment we face on the platform. Unfortunately, those changes didn’t stick for very long. Perhaps that just means the boycott has to last longer?

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