Following Apple’s removal of Alex Jones’ podcasts from the iTunes Store, both Facebook and YouTube made the decision to remove the conspiracy theorist and popular alt-right figure, along with his Infowars network, from their respective platforms on August 6th. While Facebook cited hate speech violations for its removal of four InfoWars-related pages, YouTube said Jones circumvented a prior 90-day live-streaming ban by using other channel owners’ accounts, leading to its permanent ban.
The decision to remove Infowars is sure to have profound effects on how technology companies moderate their platforms in the future, as well as how conservative voices and fringe groups on the internet perceive their ongoing culture war with Silicon Valley. Here are the latest developments in the ongoing Infowars saga.
Tim Cook says Apple didn’t coordinate Alex Jones ban with other tech companies
Shutting down suggestions that Silicon Valley wants to censor conservatives
Twitter’s fear of making hard decisions is killing it
What the Alex Jones controversy and its move to limit third-party apps have in common
Twitter users are protesting Alex Jones with a viral block list
More user-powered innovation on Twitter
Why Facebook banned Alex Jones — and Twitter didn’t
Facebook knows the end of this story, and Twitter is still catching up
Twitter’s case for keeping Alex Jones is falling apart
A simple Twitter search finds more evidence of broken rules
Twitter won’t punish Alex Jones for his past Twitter behavior
What some call hate speech was legal under Twitter’s old rules, its head of safety says
Apple crushed Alex Jones — then tossed him a lifeline
Why Apple might be getting more credit for banning Infowars than it deserves
Apple and Google haven’t banned Infowars apps, and their downloads are booming
‘Infowars WILL NOT be silenced’
How Alex Jones lost his info war
Misinformation is fine — but hate speech isn’t
There aren’t many platforms left for Alex Jones and Infowars
But that doesn’t mean his voice is gone completely
YouTube deletes Alex Jones’ channel for violating its community guidelines
The channel had more than 2.4 million subscribers
Apple removes Alex Jones podcasts from iTunes for hate speech
Apple, Facebook, and Spotify have all removed content made by Jones in the last fortnight
Facebook removes Alex Jones pages, citing repeated hate speech violations
The pages glorified violence and dehumanized immigrants, Muslims, and transgender people, says Facebook
How conspiracy sites keep outsmarting big tech companies
Facebook and YouTube never anticipated a site like Infowars
Alex Jones hit with 30-day Facebook suspension for bullying and hate speech
Only Jones’ personal profile is affected, not his official channels, including InfoWars
YouTube issues a new strike against Alex Jones’ channel over hate speech and child endangerment
The video site removed four of Jones’ videos on Tuesday
