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Twitter suspends far-right figure Alex Jones for a week

Washington: Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said his Twitter account had been suspended for a week, the latest online platform to take action against the activist.

By AFP
August 15, 2018

Washington: Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said his Twitter account had been suspended for a week, the latest online platform to take action against the activist.

Twitter suspended the personal account of Jones, who operates the Infowars website that has disputed the veracity of the September 11 attacks, the Sandy Hook school massacre and other events.

Jones said in a video message late Tuesday that Twitter was "suspending, and may shut down completely" his account.

Media reports said Jones´s account was in read-only mode for seven days, allowing him to browse but not to tweet or retweet.

Twitter did not immediately respond to an AFP query on Jones´s account.

Jones claimed that the move came "because I violated rules in a video that I shot last night saying that Trump should do something about the censorship of the internet."

In a Periscope video on Monday, Jones told his supporters "it´s time to act on the enemy before they do a false flag... So, people need to have their battle rifles and everything ready at their bedsides and you got to be ready because the media is so disciplined in their deception."

His Infowars account on Twitter was not affected, and was actively tweeting about the move on Wednesday.

Infowars tweeted that the suspension "comes after an intense and obsessive campaign by a CNN reporter who appears to be spending every waking hour trying to get Jones banned."

Apple, Facebook, Spotify and YouTube have all banned Jones on the grounds that he engages in hate speech.

Twitter chief Jack Dorsey drew criticism last week for continuing to allow Jones to use the platform, arguing that he had not broken Twitter´s rules.

Among the conspiracy theories Jones has peddled are charges that the US government was behind numerous terrorist attacks, including the September 11, 2001 strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Several days ago, Facebook removed four videos Jones posted that the group said violated its policy on hate speech.

Jones responded by posting more content on other pages, prompting the social media giant to suspend his four main pages.

Facebook stressed that it was the violent language used by Jones, rather than his conspiracy theories, that prompted the move.