Alex Jones Banned by Major Social Media Platforms

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars podcast have been banned and removed from Apple, Facebook, and YouTube after he was cited for repeated violations of hate speech regulations and for promoting violence.

Spotify has also made the decision to completely remove “The Alex Jones Show” from its platform.

On Sunday, Apple removed five of the six Infowars podcasts on its Podcast app, and released a statement after the ban saying, “Apple does not tolerate hate speech. We believe in representing a wide range of views, so long as people are respectful to those with differing opinions.”

Apple, however, did not remove his Infowars app from the App Store after it was introduced last month and have not given a statement as to why they allow the app to stay.  The Infowars app is the 33rd most popular app in Apple’s App Store, according to App Annie.

Jones and his Infowars podcast are known for being a right-wing site that gives out false information and crazy conspiracy theories such as his theory that the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax and accused Sandy Hook families of faking their family members’ death.

Facebook and Youtube warned Jones previously about his hate speech and glorifying violence on his show that accumulating “strikes” by violating the services’ community standards.

The Alex Jones Channel Page, The Alex Jones Page, The Infowars Page, and The Infowars Nightly News Page were all  removed from Facebook on Monday after they suspended him last month for bullying policies.

“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 dehumanizing language to describe people who are transgender, Muslims and immigrants, which violates our hate speech policies,” according to a Facebook statement.

YouTube terminated a channel that had 2.4 million subscribers, which erases all past videos and restricts him from creating new ones.

On Monday Jones did a livestream, saying he is a victim of oppression and censorship.

He also tweeted that people should “Understand this: The censorship of Infowars just vindicates everything we’ve been saying. Now, who will stand against Tyranny and who will stand for free speech? We’re all Alex Jones now.”

Jessica Watson
Author:
I attend the University of Alabama Birmingham and I am also a writer for a college women's magazine called Her Campus UAB. One of the proudest moments of my life was volunteering for Project Homeless in Birmingham. One thing I can't live without is Nextflix and one of my favorite shows is Stranger Things. When I am not watching Netflix, I like studying astrology and online shopping.