Elon Musk restored the account of right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on X after users voted for the reinstatement five years after a ban.

Jones had reposted at least several items on the platform, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday.

Musk, the owner of X, had asked his X followers whether to unban Jones late on Friday, and 70% of the votes were in favor. In the past, Musk has said that major decisions on the platform would be made by the people, though he later limited that to only paying subscribers having a vote. In a post following the completion of the poll, he said X would “abide by the will of the people.”

Jones was permanently suspended from Twitter in 2018, along with the account of his Infowars website, for breaching the platform’s abusive behavior policy and other past violations. Permanent suspension, its most severe action, removes the account from global review and prevents the person from creating new accounts.

Musk on Friday agreed with a user on X that permanent bans are antithetical to free speech, while also responding to another subscriber that Jones would not be allowed to break the law.

The talk show host filed for bankruptcy protection last year after he was ordered to pay more than $1 billion in judgments related to his comments that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax. This month, he was given clearance by a court to sell his firearms, cars, jewelry and boats on the Infowars show in order to obtain the highest value for them in covering the cost of his bankruptcy.

___

©2023 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.