Over the weekend, Elon Musk restored Alex Jones’s X account and welcomed the conspiracy-theorizing radio show back to the platform by having a live interview with him. Throughout Musk’s hour-and-a-half-long chat, Jones attributed his fabulist reputation to “the media and PR firms” and complimented Musk for letting him come back to X and share his tale.
In 2018, Jones was suspended from the then-Twitter platform due to his alleged “abusive behavior,” which included drawing comparisons between a CNN reporter and “the Hitler Youth.” He was already well-known at the time for disseminating false information regarding the Sandy Hook school tragedy, which claimed falsely that 20 children and six adults had died, or that it was a scheme orchestrated by the government. After propagating the hoax, he was later found to be guilty of defamation and compelled to pay more than $1 billion. Jones, who was once found in contempt of court for disobeying a judge’s instructions, has been trying unsuccessfully to file for bankruptcy for the past year to avoid paying the fine.
Jones would not be permitted to rejoin the platform, according to Musk, who had previously declared that he would show “no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics, or fame.” However, it was over a year ago, and in the intervening period, Musk has persisted in accepting extreme right-wing viewpoints at X and endorsing unsettling conspiracy theories. Musk now states that Jones is free to use the platform as long as he complies with all legal requirements.
Musk pressed Jones to elaborate on his remarks about Sandy Hook during their live audio call on X. Musk remarked, “That’s not cool at all, denying the murders of children.” “So, could you please clarify what you said and the current status of that situation?”
Court documents contain those responses, which attest to Jones’s actual denial of the child killings and support the argument that the families were merely playing actors. Rather, Musk let Jones alter the narrative. Jones then went on to fabricate his account of his remarks regarding Sandy Hook, stating that he had mostly been reporting on things said by “professors” and “school safety people.”
Subsequently, during the call, a variety of speakers from the very online circuit joined Musk and Jones. These speakers included Vivek Ramaswamy, a Republican candidate for president, Michael Flynn, a conspiracy theorist and former Trump advisor, US Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL), podcast host and venture capitalist Jason Calacanis, and influencer Andrew Tate, who was charged with human trafficking and rape earlier this year.
It was “eye-opening” to get to know Jones, and Ramaswamy encouraged his return to X. “About Jones, there are individuals who have committed errors, made incorrect statements, and made perfectly valid remarks that no one else was voicing,” he stated.
Jones argued about the concept of “globalists” and used parts of the conversation to attack them. He also mentioned “world government” and “social credit scores.” But for the most part, he was all praise for Musk. Jones declared, “I’m not kissing ass here.” “Elon, you’re winning big on all fronts, dude.”
Less than a month has passed since Musk supported tweets endorsing antisemitic conspiracy theories and white nationalist ideas, yet Jones has already been unbanned. As a result of his comments, X saw yet another wave of advertisers leave, which Musk attributed to the media disregarding his “clarifications” from his perspective.
Jones attempted to make parallels between Musk and himself, arguing that both men were being unfairly singled out for their previous statements. “It seems like they distort your words, take a small detail and twist it, then say you have to apologize and just keep hammering it,” Jones remarked.
Musk has been courting X’s far-right influencers more and more while claiming to support free expression and candid discussions. In the process, he has begun to support and advocate for some of their concepts. He referred to the antisemitic “great replacement” theory as the “actual truth” in November in response to a tweet that supported it.
By the time Calacanis interrupted the X audio conversation and demanded that Jones repeat his remarks about Sandy Hook, Jones and Musk had had enough. “I’m not going to live in Groundhog Day,” Jones declared, declining to address his comments anymore. Later, Musk said, “It was responded… People will ultimately grow weary of you responding to the question, in my opinion.
