The bell finally tolled for Alex Jones, with most platforms — including Facebook, Apple, Spotify, and YouTube — finally ousting him so he can go shirtlessly caterwaul his Sandy Hook denial conspiracies someplace else. But Twitter opted not to ban Jones or InfoWars, with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey (pictured above) defending their decision on the same day it was revealed Jones’ lawyer is seeking to make the home addresses of Sandy Hook parents public. So that is some amazing timing, or perhaps, as Seth Rogen has said, “the dude simply does not seem to give a f*ck.”
To put this in further perspective, Neil Heslin, the father of a 6 year old killed at Sandy Hook, has said, “I lost my son. I buried my son. I held my son with a bullet hole through his head.” If you’re the CEO of a company — watching Jones use a national platform to label the shooting a hoax and calling Neil Heslin and the other grieving parents “crisis actors” — and you don’t consider that a violation of the rules (while other people are banned for incredibly minor things like obvious parody accounts or saying they would throw a chess board at Nancy Pelosi if she breaks into their house), you may have lost the plot. Many people on Twitter pointed out the arbitrary reasons they’ve been disciplined by Twitter while Dorsey makes excuses for Jones and his ilk:
https://twitter.com/AmeliaMangan/status/1027085489004666880
You guys were suspending people for changing their screen name to "Elon Musk" https://t.co/IRzZ9YqZot
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) August 8, 2018
TWITTER: Alex Jones’ spread of Sandy Hook misinformation and harassment of many does not violate our rules
ALSO TWITTER: Don’t u dare make a gluten joke we will lock ur shit pic.twitter.com/MzQ3vAa0Eh
— Alpha Male (real) (@SortaBad) August 8, 2018
I got suspended for calling you a slut. Nobody violates twitter rules when they call me a slut. https://t.co/NvzFUhqniy
— Hanamichels (@HanaMichels) August 8, 2018
https://twitter.com/sarahgailbrand/status/1027115426482933761
I got banned for a full week for pointing out the Duke of Edinburgh is very old, and for 48 hours for insulting Jamie Oliver https://t.co/evAO5ybwKr
— bog witch (@isawfireworks) August 8, 2018
https://twitter.com/DavidKlion/status/1027038415961903106
Facebook: We have banned Infowars
Apple: We have banned Infowars
Twitter: Your account has been banned for tweeting “Sandy Hook really happened you idiot” at @UnJewTheMedia
— Jason O. Gilbert (@gilbertjasono) August 6, 2018
ALEX JONES: muslims, (((globalists))), and ancient druids are working together to poison the air with chemtrails to commit white genocide
ME: god you guys are dipshits
TWITTER: you have been banned for hateful conduct
JACK: this is a good system— Wild Geerters (@steinkobbe) August 8, 2018
ALEX JONES: Sandy Hook is a hoax, children were not murdered
TWITTER: this doesn't violate our rulesTWITTER USER: I want to fuck Tony The Tiger
TWITTER: this violates our rules pic.twitter.com/EldqVENFuG— Marty Lawrence (@TeaAndCopy) August 8, 2018
Others joked about invoking “slippery slope” arguments, citing Niemöller poetry, saying “both sides” are the same, or believing that doing nothing isn’t in itself a political stance.
But banning Alex Jones is a slippery slope to banning all other thumb-shaped screaming mutants who harass the parents of murdered children
— Jess Dweck (@TheDweck) August 6, 2018
https://twitter.com/TheSpiderDork/status/1026955533830377472
https://twitter.com/lukeoneil47/status/1026462111432679424
https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1026839703729958912
https://twitter.com/muhmentions/status/1026921569854074882
https://twitter.com/pixelatedboat/status/1027028802868670464
first they came for Alex Jones — oh, hold up, whoops I apparently have this wrong [checks historical record] ahh, here it is: First Alex Jones sent an army of banshee dipshits to terrorize the parents of dead children — yeah, there you go, that's it
— Jason Linkins (@dceiver) August 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/casersatz/status/1026954551444815872
Things heated up when the official Twitter Safety account dropped a couple of questionably-worded updates:
https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1026979630249533440
https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1027035239980433408
So if someone Tweets that Jack Dorsey presides over Satanic child-rape-slaughters at Twitter HQ, you don't know how to be the "arbiter" of that "truth"? Calling Sandy Hook a fake is not a viewpoint, for God's sake. https://t.co/YdveFr1Oy8
— Jeff Greenfield (@greenfield64) August 8, 2018
https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1026979628475248640
wait… this is… literally an official statement explicitly saying that bigotry is fine on twitter? that’s no surprise to anyone who’s been on here ever, but seeing it officially declared to be okay, direct from twitter is… unbelievable https://t.co/NIvzGpHD04
— demi adejuyigbe (@electrolemon) August 9, 2018
People were definitely angry.
If Alex Jones doesn’t violate your rules, you need better rules.
— Mike Monteiro, cisgender male (@monteiro) August 6, 2018
Have you considered adding a new rule against users who harass the parents of dead kindergartners so much that they have to go into hiding? https://t.co/IoYRLZZKqG
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) August 8, 2018
Here's the thing, @jack. If someone's posts break the rules of YouTube, Facebook, Apple, Pinterest and Spotify, but the same posts do not break @Twitter's rules, the problem is your rules. https://t.co/PdMTA80bk0
— #CEASEFIRE 🇵🇸✡️🇦🇫🧠🏳️⚧️ (@JShahryar) August 8, 2018
Good Website Dot Jpeg pic.twitter.com/mWFkjDygGi
— Cody Johnston (@drmistercody) August 8, 2018
@jack Keep up the great (money making) work (money making)! It's (making money) the most important (money making) service (making money) you can do (enabling evil). I know your folks must be proud (rich). https://t.co/HL61OPTeKY
— david cross✍ (@davidcrosss) August 8, 2018
One part of Dorsey’s stance that people found especially egregious was him saying it was up to journalists to refute the endless flow of “unsubstantiated rumors” from accounts Twitter could easily ban.
Twitter: Come for the psychotic conspiracy theorists harassing school shooting survivors, stay for the CEO blaming the problem on journalists for some reason
— Jason O. Gilbert (@gilbertjasono) August 8, 2018
Alex Jones
WATER IS TURNING FROGS GAYJack
Journalists please refute thatJournalists
But we have better things to do-Jones
RONALD MCDONALD STATUES ARE FREAKIN PAEDOPHILES SENT BY HILARY CLINTONJack
Its critical you debunk that, journalists, 7 million people have seen it https://t.co/fzxQqvmnWm— James Felton (@JimMFelton) August 8, 2018
“It’s not our job to fact check what gets published on our platform, that’s up to the journalists (who all got fired because we killed their revenue model)”
— pixelatedboat aka “mr tweets” (@pixelatedboat) August 8, 2018
https://twitter.com/max_read/status/1027167362880073730
Everything else aside, offloading this responsibility to journalists and expecting that to fix things is a gross misunderstanding of How Things Work Now https://t.co/9JtokvWmzb
— Brandon Wall (@Walldo) August 8, 2018
https://twitter.com/pixelatedboat/status/1026999506775068672
https://twitter.com/socarolinesays/status/1027019457112301568
https://twitter.com/brfreed/status/1026997600229253120
https://twitter.com/jonlovett/status/1027008008344096768
This led to people spreading some unsubstantiated rumors of their own:
.@jack did Sandy Hook. Your move, journalists
— Sean T. Collins is seantcollins.bsky.social now (@theseantcollins) August 8, 2018
https://twitter.com/vs_cointelpro/status/1027001211797626881
Alex Jones eating 40 jars of DNA Force Plus and transforming like Tetsuo before destroying Facebook headquarters
— Big Supernaturals (@UweBollocks) August 6, 2018
[checks in on Infowars] pic.twitter.com/3dCsK6Utym
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) August 6, 2018
I heard a rumour that Facebook didn't really kick InfoWars off the site. Alex Jones deleted it himself. It's a false flag attack and he's just a crisis actor. Don't be fooled.
— Dave Gorman (@DaveGorman) August 7, 2018