Civil Rights attorney Sherrilyn Ifill is walking away from X, formerly known as Twitter. The decision came after Elon Musk reinstated the account of Alex Jones, controversial right-wing radio host and conspiracy theorist. Ifill said a post she saw honoring the memory of Ana Grace Márquez-Greene, one of the first graders killed in the Sandy Hook massacre, was the confirmation she needed to take her social media commentary elsewhere.
Among the many conspiracy theories he has pushed, Jones told audiences that the 2012 shooting that killed 20 students and six teachers at a Connecticut elementary school was a hoax put on by advocates of stricter gun laws. A judge ordered Jones to pay over $1.1 billion in defamation damages to the families of the victims.
“Alex Jones tortured these families who suffered the unimaginable,” Ifill wrote on X on December 10. “He has monstrously led a campaign of gaslighting and assault on the spirit of Sandy Hook families & desecrated the memory of those murdered children. He is a ghoul. His return to this site completes its utter degradation. We are in a war for the human soul.”
Since Elon Musk purchased the platform formerly known Twitter last year, he has reinstated the suspended accounts of controversial figures — including former President Donald Trump and Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene — while positioning himself as a champion of free speech. The billionaire said he would set up a “content moderation council with diverse viewpoints” to make decisions about banned accounts.
Musk said he decided to restore Jones’ account after a poll he posted on Saturday revealed that 70 percent of the nearly 2 million respondents wanted to see him back on the platform.
“The people have spoken, and so it shall be,” Musk posted the next day.
But the head-scratching decision was a complete 180 from a November 2022 post from Musk saying that after experiencing the death of his own child, he would never let Jones back on the platform.
“My firstborn child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat. I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame.”