Twitter temporarily restricts Alex Jones' account

Source: NBC News

August 16, 2018 at 13:22

"Infowars" host Alex Jones arrives at the Travis County Courthouse in Austin, Texas, on April 17, 2017.Tamir Kalifa / Austin American-Statesman via AP file

The move comes after other high profile tech companies like Apple, Facebook and YouTube have moved to remove Jones' content from their platforms.

Twitter on Tuesday put temporary limits on the account of Alex Jones, a move that marks the latest restriction by a Silicon Valley company on the controversial conspiracy theorist and radio host.

Twitter confirmed to NBC News that Jones’ Twitter account was put in "read-only mode" as of Tuesday, meaning that he can browse Twitter posts but can’t interact with them and can’t tweet himself. The restrictions, which were earlier reported by the tech news site CNET, are scheduled to last seven days.

The company said that Jones, who runs the website Infowars, violated a Twitter policy and was required to delete an offending tweet that contained a video in which he told his listeners to get “battle rifles” ready.

Watch Lester Holt's interview with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on NBC Nightly News on Wednesday night.

Facebook, YouTube and Apple earlier this month took steps to remove Jones from their services. Since then, Jones has been railing against these companies, claiming that he is being censored for his political views.

Jones has been criticized for conspiracy theories including falsely claiming that the 2012 mass killing at Sandy Hook Elementary School was staged. Jones is being sued for defamation related to the claim. The claims have also led to the harassment of people in the Sandy Hook community.