Alex Jones took to Capitol Hill yesterday to listen to testimony from Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey, to argue with Marco Rubio in a hallway, and harass CNN's Oliver Darcy. It's that last interaction, which was live-streamed on Twitter-owned Periscope, that appears to have been the last straw for Twitter.
Here is a video of the interaction:
Then, just 24 days after Alex Jones caught a 7-day ban, Twitter announced that they have permanently suspended Alex Jones for violating their abusive behavior policy. This included not only his personal @realAlexJones account but also his @infowars 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. https://t.co/gckzUAV8GL
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) September 6, 2018
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 Safety (@TwitterSafety) September 6, 2018
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.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) September 6, 2018
This is, of course, almost two months after Jones was banned from both Youtube and Facebook.
At the time of his permanent vacation from Twitter, the account @realAlexJones had nearly 900,000 followers.
It is worth noting that while some will see this as the "tech elite" silencing conservative voices, or an attack on Jones' first amendment rights, Infowars.com Terms of Service speaks directly to the rules that people are decrying as unfair:
"It is not censorship if you vilate the rules and your post is deleted. All civilizations have rules and if you violate them you can expect to be ostracized from the tribe."
It appears that Jones' time in the Twitter tribe has ended.
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