CHICAGO – Dana White isn’t in the business of policing opinions.

The UFC president said women’s bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey (6-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) was expressing hers when she retweeted a video linked to the Sandy Hook truther movement, which calls the shooting a government conspiracy.

“Ronda didn’t go out and say the Sandy Hook thing is a hoax,” White said. “She tweeted a video that had 20 million views. Twenty million other people watched that video, too. That’s all she did.”

Rousey’s tweet, which added “extremely interesting must watch video” to the link, was widely seen as a PR blunder and, at best, highly insensitive to the victims of the school shooting this past month in Connecticut.

She at first defended her right to voice questions about the matter, only to remove the link hours later. Her manager, Darin Harvey, subsequently told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that she meant no disrespect to the victims.

With ex-welterweight champ Matt Hughes hired on Thursday to help implement a code of conduct among Zuffa fighters, Rousey’s tweet was broached with White while meeting with a small group of reporters following a pre-fight news conference for Saturday’s UFC on FOX 6 event.

“Maybe she’s a conspiracy theorist,” White said of the champ, who is set to headline UFC 157 opposite Liz Carmouche next month in Anaheim, Calif. “Maybe she thinks guys didn’t walk on the moon, either.”

A section devoted to fighters’ conduct in Zuffa’s standard contract states they shall conduct themselves “in accordance with commonly accepted standards of decency, social conventions and morals,” and “shall not become involved in any situation or occurrence or make any statement which will reflect negatively upon or bring disrepute, contempt, scandal, ridicule, or disdain to Fighter, the Identity of Fighter or any of Fighter’s Affiliates, ZUFFA or any of its officers, managers, members, employees, or agents.”

But White draws a line between stating opinions and beliefs and behaving offensively.

“Some people believe in God,” he said. “I don’t, and I’ve been public that I don’t. Everybody is going to have their own opinions. If I got crucified and beat down because I don’t think there’s a god, c’mon man – this is America and everyone is going to have their own opinions.”

White said the promotion remains focused on setting the right example for its athletes as to what they should and shouldn’t say.

In the age of social media, that’s an ever-present threat.

Matt Erickson contributed to this report on-site in Chicago.