Facebook cracks down on Alex Jones: Suspends him for 30 days and removes 4 videos

According to a statement from a Facebook spokesperson, conspiracy theorist and InfoWars host Alex Jones has been banned from the platform for 3o days, due to violations of the social media giant’s community guidelines.

“Our Community Standards make it clear that we prohibit content that encourages physical harm [bullying], or attacks someone based on their religious affiliation or gender identity [hate speech],” the spokesperson told Mashable.

Facebook also took down four videos that originated on InfoWars and other Jones-related pages.

“We reviewed the content against our Community Standards and determined that it violates,” the spokesperson said.

The 30-day ban comes on the heels of a crackdown on Jones from YouTube, which gave the InfoWars channel another strike for promoting “child endangerment and hate speech.”

“We apply our policies consistently according to the content in the videos, regardless of the speaker or the channel,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday.

“We also have a clear three strikes policy and we terminate channels when they receive three strikes in three months,” the statement continued.

Jones and his media outlets are notorious for sharing unfounded conspiracy theories and misinformation. Among the most reprehensible were his claims that the 2012 massacre of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut was a “false flag” operation and employed “crisis actors” to play the role of grieving parents and traumatized children.

InfoWars also applied similar conspiracy theories to the school shooting in Parkland. Florida. In a video posted to its YouTube channel, an InfoWars report claimed that survivors of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were actors.

Facebook’s head of news feed John Hegeman previously argued that “just being false” does not violate the platform’s community standards. A company spokesperson later added that “we just don’t think banning pages for sharing conspiracy theories or false news is the right way to go,” according to The Guardian.

Jones, who has accused social media platforms of censoring conservatives and alternative media, will likely use Facebook’s action as a talking point to boost his censorship claims.

“It actually benefits Jones,” ThinkProgress founder Judd Legum tweeted. “It doesn’t meaningfully impact his ability to reach people (removing some old videos) and gives him a new outrage to inflame his fans.”

Featured image via screen grab/YouTube

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.