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Twitter restricts Alex Jones' account for 7 days over video

By Susan McFarland
Twitter on Wednesday said it restricted the account of controversial blogger Alex Jones for seven days, due to a video the platform said violated user rules. Photo by Sean P. Anderson/Wikimedia Commons
Twitter on Wednesday said it restricted the account of controversial blogger Alex Jones for seven days, due to a video the platform said violated user rules. Photo by Sean P. Anderson/Wikimedia Commons

Aug. 15 (UPI) -- In somewhat of an about-face Wednesday, Twitter temporarily restricted the account of controversial conspiracy theorist Alex Jones -- less than a week after saying it wouldn't pull the account.

Last week, Twitter defended its decision to keep Jones' account active, despite other social media platforms, like Facebook and YouTube, removing his controversial pages.

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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said Jones hadn't violated any community rules.

A Twitter spokesperson said a video posted Tuesday by Jones -- in which he said, "Now is time to act on the enemy before they do a false flag" -- was the reason for the restriction, which the company said will last for a week.

Twitter said Jones violated a policy and was required to delete the video, which also included Jones telling listeners to get "battle rifles" ready.

Under the restriction, Jones will be able to follow other posts but not interact or make posts.

Pages for Jones and his controversial site InfoWars were barred on Facebook, Apple, Spotify and YouTube last week. Those platforms cited hate speech content violations as reasons for the purge. Among other things, Jones has claimed the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting attack, which killed 20 young children, was staged.

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Last month, Twitter said it began removing millions of suspicious or inactive accounts, including some accused of spreading phony news and politically-charged ad content aimed at influencing U.S. voter behavior.

The company has said its anti-spamming technology can identify and shutter about 10 million suspicious accounts per week.

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