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Twitter announced Thursday that it had permanently suspended the accounts of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his far-right media company Infowars.
“Today, we permanently suspended @realalexjones and @infowars from Twitter and Periscope,” the company tweeted on Thursday. “We took this action based on new reports of Tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior policy, in addition to the accounts’ past violations.”
InfoWars did not immediately respond for comment.
Jones had approximately 900,000 followers on Twitter, while InfoWars had around 430,000.
This latest ban comes only a few weeks after Jones was similarly kicked off Facebook and YouTube. Apple also removed Jones and Infowars’ podcasts from its platform. Twitter, meanwhile, only put Jones and Infowars in a “time out” for a week.
With the permanent ban from Twitter, Jones has now effectively been “deplatformed” by all major social media companies. While Jones is still active on some far-right websites, the bans had already taken their toll before Twitter acted. An analysis of data by The New York Times found that Jones’ audience had roughly been cut in half by the bans from Facebook and YouTube.
Twitter said that it typically does not comment on enforcement actions, such as bans and suspensions, but they decided to comment on Jones’ case because “we wanted to be open about this action given the broad interest in this case.”
The social media company said they would continue to monitor reports of abuse from other accounts associated with Alex Jones and InfoWars.
Jones made a surprise appearance in Washington D.C. yesterday, and he sat only feet behind Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey as he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Dorsey also testified to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Twitter faced mounting pressure as critics believed that the platform allowed Jones to spread misinformation, most famously the falsehood that the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School had been staged. Jones is is facing multiple defamation suits from parents of the murdered children.
Dorsey, apparently nonplussed by Jones’ presence, answered questions before the committee about concerns on censorship.
“Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules,” he said in prepared remarks.
When Dorsey departed the building, Jones followed him outside to his car and began to yell at him — though it is unclear what Jones said.