Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was suspended from Twitter for a week after urging his viewers to get their “battle rifles” ready in a video posted to his personal account.
The comments, posted last Thursday, violated Twitter’s rules banning the incitement of violence. For the next seven days, Jones won’t be able to tweet or retweet, but his account will remain live.
His Infowars Twitter page, which confirmed the news, was unaffected by the suspension.
Last week, Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey said the social network hadn’t permanently banned Jones or Infowars because the accounts “hadn’t violated our rules.”
“We know that’s hard for many but the reason is simple: he hasn’t violated our rules. We’ll enforce if he does,” Dorsey wrote in a widely-criticized thread. He also called on the media to hold Jones in check, noting: “It’s critical journalists document, validate and refute such information directly so people can form their own opinions. This is what serves the public conversation best.”
CNN dug through Jones’ social media accounts shortly after Dorsey’s comments and found several examples that appeared to violate Twitter’s policies.
Jones, one of the biggest peddlers of conspiracy theories on the web, claims the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut was staged and the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were an inside job.
Many major tech companies have banned Jones and his website in recent weeks, including Google, which took down his YouTube channels, and Apple, which banned several podcasts from iTunes. Spotify, Facebook and Pinterest also nixed some of Jones’ content; Vimeo followed suit earlier this week.