Ted Cruz on Alex Jones Facebook ban: ‘Who the hell made Facebook the arbiter of political speech?’

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Saturday pushed back against Facebook for banning conspiracy theorist and InfoWars founder Alex Jones, suggesting the platform was infringing on the First Amendment.

“Am no fan of Jones — among other things he has a habit of repeatedly slandering my Dad by falsely and absurdly accusing him of killing JFK — but who the hell made Facebook the arbiter of political speech? Free speech includes views you disagree with,” Cruz tweeted.

Am no fan of Jones — among other things he has a habit of repeatedly slandering my Dad by falsely and absurdly accusing him of killing JFK — but who the hell made Facebook the arbiter of political speech? Free speech includes views you disagree with. #1A https://t.co/RC5v4SHaiI

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 28, 2018

Facebook, a private company, announced Friday it had banned Jones from the platform for 30 days over content that it said violated its community guidelines. The site also removed four videos from pages run by Jones and InfoWars after they were reported to the site.{mosads}

The ban means that Jones’s personal page is suspended, barring him from posting content there or sharing content to the Infowars page, according to CNN.

Zuckerberg has faced intense criticism for months over his platform’s handling of hate speech and conspiracy theories. 

The company said earlier this month that, despite taking down videos and other content pushing hoaxes, Jones’s Infowars account doesn’t qualify for a ban from the platform.

Zuckerberg said in an interview last week that it’s difficult for the platform to ban accounts that push conspiracy theories, such as Holocaust denials, because it is “hard to impugn intent” from those users.