(Earlier Alex Jones bannings were covered by The News Blender here)
The first week of August was not kind to Alex Jones. In a matter of days a number of social media and distribution websites have pulled content from Jones and Infowars:
Apple dumped five of Jones’s six podcasts from its Itunes store (the sixth being “Real News with David Knight” which is produced by InfoWars but not hosted by Jones).
Facebook, which had previously suspended Jones’s personal account and deleted four videos (The Verge), went a step further and deleted four pages owned by Jones (The Hill)
Spotify has removed some of episodes of the InfoWars podcast (but not all). Podcast distributor Stitcher has pulled Infowars from its available playlist. (Both from Billboard).
YouTube, which had previously deleted four of his videos (CNN) has dropped both the InfoWars and Jones’s personal channels (The Wrap).
Pinterest might be one of the most unexpected sites to host an InfoWars page, but it appears once Pinterest became aware InfoWars even had an account, has closed it (Mashable). I wonder what kind of recipes or craft projects Jones would have pinned, but am not sad to see him go.
I won’t be surprised to see more and more of Jones’s content being pulled from various sites. He still has plenty of videos available to stream on Amazon Prime (although a note of interest, a search for his content also brings up suggestions for “The Twilight Zone” and the complete “Monsters” series). Vimeo has both Alex Jones videos as well as “proof” Jones is actually late comedian Bill Hicks. Many sites, like Pinterest, may not even be aware they are hosting InfoWars content and, as they do, will likely follow suit.
I, for one, am glad to see his content disappear from the virtual airwaves. Not only does he spread dangerous lies, but happily fans the flames of hate which are dividing our great nation. The less his content is out there and legitimized, the better. I would be thrilled if he never won over another convert.
Unfortunately this also has a downside. Jones has his share of defenders (The Texas Observer) both in and out of the spotlight. His devotees are going to be mobilized each and every time another company removes InfoWars content. They will see Alex Jones as a martyr in the war against the “Fake News Media”. I am already seeing posts on Facebook wondering what “truth” Jones was getting too close to for the great Media Behemoth to silence him.
The InfoWars app is still available on Itunes and the Google Store (although, strangely, not through the Amazon Kindle, despite being able to watch his videos on it). We can make it harder for Jones to win over more converts but, in the end, we still have a long fight in the war against hatred and misinformation.
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