Piers Morgan, himself no stranger to being called out, de-platformed and canceled, has absolutely zero tolerance for the return of Alex Jones to Elon Musk’s X.
The British TV host had a trio of guests on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” to debate whether Musk was correct to reinstate the account of the defamation-liable conspiracy theorist: YouTuber Count Dankula, journalist Glenn Greenwald and progressive activist Nomiki Konst.
Dankula went first, arguing that Jones has every right to say whatever he so chooses, even if it comes across as “hate speech”; Greenwald was slightly more nuanced, suggesting that Jones deserves to be on X as long as he doesn’t break any speech laws on the platform itself – and besides, he noted, there are far worse actors running wild out there.
Konst, meanwhile, opened with a broad swipe at Greenwald, saying that Musk “has no problem giving Russian bots the boost that some of these guests on the show – uh … with the free speech rights, but does not give people of color and women the same rights, so this is not an equal playing field.” She did not add anything that clarified what she was getting at.
Jones lost a civil defamation lawsuit last year and was ordered to pay nearly $1 billion in damages to the families of eight Sandy Hook shooting victims and an FBI agent. The plaintiffs said Jones’ claims on his Infowars show that the mass school shooting was a “false flag” and that the parents of victims were “crisis actors” inspired waves of harassment and threats.
But it was Jones’ conduct on then-Twitter, not just the Sandy Hook matter, that ultimately got the Infowars host banned from it and other platforms in 2018. After several Twitter “strikes,” including calling David Hogg a “crisis actor,” he was ultimately banned for berating CNN reporter Oliver Darcy.
Earlier this week, Musk ran a poll on X, asking whether Jones should be allowed back. The result was yes – vox populi, vox dei.
“I think he’s completely right in doing it,” Dankula said. “It’s Elon Musk’s company, so if he wants Alex Jones back on the platform then he absolutely can [be]. … If we’re saying ‘Oh this guy is not allowed to say his conspiracy theories’ or whatever you want to call them, because some crazy guy out there might do something mental, then nobody can talk about anything at all.”
With her turn, Konst continued to hammer the X “algorithm”: “Number one, they’re not the government, number two, they’re not following the United States free speech laws,” she said. “If [Musk] wants to be an equal playing field, free-speech absolutist, then clean up the algorithm, make it completely transparent and democratized and let people like me and people of color and smaller accounts have the same uh, effect.” She did not provide any context connecting those comments to the matter of Jones’ reinstatement.
Turning to Greenwald, Morgan said the Sandy Hook defamation judgment alone should be enough to justify keeping Jones from posting on X. But Greenwald said if it’s not on X, it doesn’t count:
“The issue, Piers, what they do on the platform,” Greenwald said. “We have all kinds of terrible people using social media … we have people who defame all the time, like [Konst], who I just heard in my ear tried implying – though she wasn’t courageous enough to say who she meant – that one of the people on this panel is promoted by … .”
That’s where Konst began talking over Greenwald, though nothing she said illuminated her point, or clarified where she was going with her previous statements.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m hearing a voice in my ear because I’m not actually done talking yet,” a visibly annoyed Greenwald said, before continuing on about how social media companies shouldn’t punish people for off-platform behavior.
“Right,” Morgan said. “But on this – Alex Jones did use Twitter to amplify his disgusting lies about Sandy Hook, and he will now be able to monetize all of his conspiracy theories to his heart’s content on X,” Morgan said. “This is a guy at the center of the biggest defamation case in recent times, who hasn’t paid any of his dues to these people. Twitter would be justified in banning him.”
As Greenwald began to reiterate his rebuttal, Konst interjected: “Glen – what about Nazis? I mean, you’ve defended Nazis in the past, because you’re a free speech absolutionist, as a lawyer, so why is that some people get more power when it comes to free speech, more rights when it comes to free speech, but others don’t?” It could not be immediately determined which Nazis or free speech “powers” Konst might have been referencing.
Being the host of “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” Morgan then took the last word:
“Personally, there has to be a line with people like Jones who commit atrocious defamations are not held remotely accountable for it and are then welcomed back like free speech heroes,” he said. “They’re not free speech heroes – he’s a hate speech monster – for me.”
Watch the entire exchange in the clip above.
