Twitter Suspends Alex Jones After CNN Blacklist Campaign

Jack Dorsey and Alex Jones
Getty/Drew Angerer and InfoWars

Twitter has suspended Infowars host Alex Jones for seven days following a live broadcast in which Jones told his followers to prepare their “battle rifles” to defend themselves. The stream ironically was discussing social media censorship.

Following the purge of Infowars from multiple social media platforms, Alex Jones managed to continue to operate on Twitter with few issues — much to the displeasure of CNN. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey even previously defended the company’s decision not to blacklist Jones, stating that he had yet to break any of their rules, but it seems that a single comment from Jones in a livestream broadcast via Twitter’s Periscope app was enough for Dorsey to limit Jones’ account for at least seven days — perhaps beginning to bow to pressure from CNN.

In the Periscope broadcast, Jones warned his followers to “get your battle rifles ready by your bedside, because they’re coming,” referring to Antifa, the mainstream media, and “Chicom operatives.” Jones comments were not a call to violence but rather a call for his viewers to prepare to defend themselves. Twitter appears to have taken Jones’ comments as a threat and subsequently limited his account. Jones was forced to delete the tweet featuring the Periscope stream and for seven days can browse Twitter but cannot tweet, like, or retweet other users tweets.

A Twitter spokesperson told Breitbart News that they: “can confirm that the account currently has limited functions. We aren’t suspending the account but requiring he delete a tweet which contained a broadcast in violation of our rules.”

Left-wing media watchdog Media Matters for America have uploaded a clip from the Periscope stream in which Jones calls for his viewers to defend themselves:

Alex Jones himself has posted a video explaining himself via the official Infowars Twitter account, reiterating that he did not threaten the media and calling the story a “hoax.”

Infowars editor Paul Joseph Watson also noted in a tweet that Jones was discussing social media censorship in the Periscope stream when his account was limited. On the same day, the official InfoWars website was reportedly brought down by a DDOS attack which overwhelms a website with a massive amount of false traffic.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com

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