InfoWars On Social Media: Twitter Finally Suspends Alex Jones, But Only For A Week

After weeks of pleas for Twitter to take action against notorious right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his InfoWars platform, the social media website on Tuesday decided to impose a punishment. For seven days, Jones cannot tweet, retweet, like or use his verified Twitter page for anything except reading tweets, according to reports.

The suspension is due to a video Jones streamed from Periscope, Twitter’s built-in streaming software, in which he appears to incite violence with “battle rifles” in the face of supposed left-wing media bias against Jones and InfoWars.

Jones deleted the tweets but a CNN investigation Thursday uncovered how he had a history of violating Twitter rules.

Earlier this month, Twitter told International Business Times that Jones would not be suspended or banned unless the site found he was explicitly violating rules.

Twitter's stance generated controversy given that it came in the wake of several other social platforms banning Jones.

Spotify kickstarted the process at the beginning of August by removing his podcast from its streaming service, not long after adding it. Apple followed by removing several InfoWars podcasts from the iTunes service and then Facebook deleted a handful of pages belonging to Jones. Later, YouTube removed his personal channel.

On Tuesday night, Twitter said it would more heavily enforce its rules against suspended users who started tweeting from different accounts. On Wednesday morning, Jones Periscoped himself talking about his suspension from the still-active InfoWars account.

Twitter did not immediately respond to IBT when asked whether or not that act violated Twitter’s rules.

Jones founded Texas-based InfoWars in 1999. The website, which has drawn more than six million unique global visitors a month, has been a lightning rod for criticism, particularly for espousing unsupported claims that include the government manipulating the weather and that millions of undocumented immigrants vote in elections.

Perhaps his most contentious claim was that the Sandy Hook school shooting, in which 20 elementary school children were killed, was a hoax perpetrated by crisis actors. Jones has been accused of using his fanbase to harass the parents of Sandy Hook victims, leading to legal action against the podcast host.