Originally Published: 09 DEC 23 14:52 ET

Updated: 09 DEC 23 15:14 ET

By Clare Duffy, CNN

New York (CNN) — Elon Musk says he may restore conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, pending the results of an unscientific poll of his followers.

The move comes after Musk previously said he would not lift the ban on Jones, despite some users’ requests, because of his false claims about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

In a post on X Saturday, Musk said he disagreed with Jones’ comments about Sandy Hook but asked, “are we a platform that believes in freedom of speech or are we not?”

“If the people vote him back on, this will be bad for X financially, but principles matter more than money,” Musk said. The poll asking Musk’s followers whether Jones should be reinstated showed Jones’ return winning by a healthy margin as of Saturday afternoon.

Musk has aggressively defended what he calls his “free speech” stance, telling advertisers in an interview last month to “go fk yourself” even as he apologized for his post boosting the antisemitic conspiracy theory. Musk last week also called for the firing of Disney CEO Bob Iger after the entertainment giant — previously one of the platform’s largest brand partners — pulled its ad dollars from X last month.

Twitter permanently suspended Jones and other accounts linked to his website, InfoWars, in September 2018, citing abusive behavior and following similar moves by YouTube, Apple and Facebook. Twitter’s ban came one month after Jones had been temporarily suspended after he posted a video saying, “Now is time to act on the enemy before they do a false flag.”

The-CNN-Wire

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