Batshit Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones Has Been Banned From A Bunch Of Huge Platforms
He'll probably have a show on Sky News by the end of the week.
Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been banned from Facebook, Apple, Youtube and Spotify, in a huge moment for the platforms, which have previously been reluctant to ban him because of free speech concerns.
To give you an idea of some of Jones’ greatest hits: he thinks the Sandy Hook massacre was fake, that the US government was responsible for 9/11, that the moon landings were faked, a “jewish mafia” controls Uber and the US health care system, and that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are actual demons.
So, yeah. The tech giants all said that Jones was being removed from their platforms due to his consistent use of hate speech.
Apple was the first tech company to make the move. It banned Jones in response to a segment on his show where he threatened US special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
“That’s a demon I will take down, or I’ll die trying,” Jones said, before making a pistol shape with his hands. “It’s not a joke. It’s not a game. It’s the real world. Politically. You’re going to get it, or I’m going to die trying, bitch. Get ready.”
As part of its ban, Apple removed the Alex Jones Show and War Room, two popular podcasts hosted by Jones.
By Monday, Facebook and YouTube had followed suit after facing weeks of pressure for giving a conspiracy nut a huge platform that he used to spread blatantly false and damaging information. Facebook banned four pages: the Alex Jones Channel page, The Alex Jones page, the Inforwars Nightly News page, and the Infowars page.
The ban now means that Twitter is the largest platform that still allows Jones to tweet and broadcast his show.
Jones told The Washington Post that he believed that mass ban was “a counter-strike against the global awakening”. In a string of text messages, he said that Apple and Google were colluding with the Chinese government and mainstream media to reduce his outreach.
So I guess he would be a perfect Sky News guest?
Here are all the tech gaints’ statements.
Apple
“Apple does not tolerate hate speech, and we have clear guidelines that creators and developers must follow to ensure we provide a safe environment for all of our users,” Apple said. “Podcasts that violate these guidelines are removed from our directory making them no longer searchable or available for download or streaming. We believe in representing a wide range of views, so long as people are respectful to those with differing opinions.”
YouTube
“All users agree to comply with our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines when they sign up to use YouTube. When users violate these policies repeatedly, like our policies against hate speech and harassment or our terms prohibiting circumvention of our enforcement measures, we terminate their accounts.”
“As a result of reports we received, last week, we removed four videos on four Facebook Pages for violating our hate speech and bullying policies. These pages were the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Alex Jones Page, the InfoWars Page and the Infowars Nightly News Page. In addition, one of the admins of these Pages – Alex Jones – was placed in a 30-day block for his role in posting violating content to these Pages.”
“Since then, more content from the same Pages has been reported to us — upon review, we have taken it down for glorifying violence, which violates our graphic violence policy, and using dehumanising language to describe people who are transgender, Muslims and immigrants, which violates our hate speech policies. All four Pages have been unpublished for repeated violations of Community Standards and accumulating too many strikes.”