Twitter admitted that the InfoWars account held by far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has violated its rules but says at least for now, it won't ban it from the platform.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey previously said InfoWars didn't break any of Twitter's rules. He tweeted Tuesday: "He hasn't violated our rules. We'll enforce if he does."
But a CNN investigation out Thursday revealed InfoWars had actually violated the policy several times by publishing content that degraded groups of people based on religion and gender identity, harassed individuals, glorified violence, and promoted conspiracy theories like Jones' claim that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
Following the investigation, a Twitter spokesperson told CNN some of the tweets were posted before Twitter's rules were as robust as they are now. Twitter says it therefore can't ban the account based on them. Some recent tweets did violate current rules. It's not clear why those didn't lead to a ban on InfoWars, but Twitter did say they could be used in case of future punitive action. All of the tweets in question have been deleted.
Twitter is one of the only remaining major social media platforms that hasn't banned Jones or the InfoWars account.
Additional reporting by Newsy affiliate CNN.
