Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Pinterest Remove Alex Jones Podcasts, Accounts

Jones

APPLE PODCASTS and FACEBOOK are the latest Internet companies to take action against conspiracy theorist, radio and video host, and podcaster ALEX JONES.

BUZZFEED reports that five of JONES' shows were removed from the APPLE PODCASTS directory, telling BUZZFEED through a spokesperson that "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,  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.”

Meanwhile, FACEBOOK removed four pages for JONES shows, including his ALEX JONES Channel page, the ALEX JONES page, the INFOWARS page, and the INFOWARS Nightly News page.  In a press release, FACEBOOK said that "upon review, we have taken (JONES' content) 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.

"All four Pages have been unpublished for repeated violations of Community Standards and accumulating too many strikes. While much of the discussion around INFOWARS has been related to false news, which is a serious issue that we are working to address by demoting links marked wrong by fact checkers and suggesting additional content, none of the violations that spurred today’s removals were related to this."

And late MONDAY, YOUTUBE, where JONES had over 2.4 million subscribers, and PINTEREST joined the other platforms in banning JONES.  YOUTUBE said that JONES violated its Terms of Service and community standards.

Last week, SPOTIFY removed certain episodes of JONES' podcast from its podcast offerings, while STITCHER removed all JONES podcasts from its directory.  JONES and his INFOWARS and PRISON PLANET sites have promulgated baseless conspiracy theories for years, and JONES faces defamation lawsuits from parents of children murdered in the SANDY HOOK massacre for suggesting that the attack was a "false flag" faked for political reasons.  He remains syndicated to radio stations by GENESIS COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK.

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