Twitter removes more accounts affiliated with Infowars

[October 23, 2018]    (Reuters) - Twitter Inc confirmed on Monday it has removed more accounts affiliated with Infowars, the website of U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Alex Jones of Infowars talks to the media while visiting the U.S. Senate's Dirksen Senate office building as Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testifies before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 5, 2018. REUTERS/Jim Bourg/File Photo

The company confirmed a CNN report, which said Twitter permanently suspended 18 accounts, partly because of their attempts to help Infowars and Jones circumvent the ban placed on them by Twitter in September.

Last month, Twitter permanently banned Jones and Infowars from its platform, saying in a tweet that the accounts had violated its behavior policies.

Twitter had said back then that it would evaluate any reports regarding other accounts potentially associated with Jones and Infowars.

Tech companies like Apple Inc, Google parent Alphabet Inc and Facebook Inc have also recently banned Infowars and content produced by Jones while payments processor PayPal Holdings Inc had ended its business relationship with the website in September.

Jones, whose conspiracy theories include that the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax, hosts the syndicated radio program "The Alex Jones Show."

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair)

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