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Dorsey Says InfoWars' Alex Jones Hasn't Violated Twitter's Rules

Dorsey Says InfoWars' Alex Jones Hasn't Violated Twitter's Rules

(Bloomberg) -- Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey said that Alex Jones and his show InfoWars can continue to use the service because they haven’t violated the social-media company’s policies, despite decisions by Facebook Inc. and Google’s YouTube to pull the conspiracy theorist off their platforms.

“We didn’t suspend Alex Jones or InfoWars yesterday,” Dorsey tweeted Tuesday. “We know that’s hard for many but the reason is simple: he hasn’t violated our rules. We’ll enforce if he does. And we’ll continue to promote a healthy conversational environment by ensuring tweets aren’t artificially amplified.”

Facebook and YouTube concluded that Jones’s content violates their policies on hate speech, bullying and harassment and removed him and his show from their platforms. Apple Inc. and Spotify Technology SA have taken similar actions against podcasts produced by Jones.

Technology companies have been under pressure to ban Jones for promoting misinformation, including claims the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in 2012 was staged by the government and stating the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack was an “inside job.”

Del Harvey, Twitter’s vice president of trust and safety, wrote in a blog post that the service’s policies are constantly evolving to address emerging behaviors online.

“Twitter is reflective of real conversations happening in the world and that sometimes includes perspectives that may be offensive, controversial, and/or bigoted,” Harvey wrote. “While we welcome everyone to express themselves on our service, we prohibit targeted behavior that harasses, threatens, or uses fear to silence the voices of others.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Selina Wang in San Francisco at swang533@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Andrew Pollack, Peter Blumberg

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.