In the past few days, Facebook, Apple, YouTube, and Spotify booted Alex Jones and his InfoWars publications from their platforms’ podcasts, pages, and channels — the most significant purge of popular content by digital overlords in recent memory.
Jones and his various sites are leading purveyors of shrieking, piss-soaked and wild-eyed anti-Semitic, racist and otherwise bigoted conspiracy theories – with a hefty side of supplements-and-bulletproof-vests peddling. Jones set off a round of debate over the responsibility of social media outlets to retaliate against hate speech last week when he addressed Russia investigation special counsel Robert Mueller on his July 24 show, imitated firing a gun, and said, “You’re going to get it, or I’m going to die trying.”
“That’s a demon I will take down, or I’ll die trying. So that’s it. It’s going to happen, we’re going to walk out in the square, politically, at high noon, and he’s going to find out whether he makes a move man, make the move first, and then it’s going to happen,” Jones said, miming a pistol with his hand. “It’s not a joke. It’s not a game. It’s the real world. Politically. You’re going to get it, or I’m going to die trying, bitch. Get ready. We’re going to bang heads. We’re going to bang heads.”
This seems as good a time as ever to remember that Jones is an avid Donald Trump supporter and promoter. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump appeared on Jones’ show, saying Jones’ “reputation was amazing,” and Jones has repeatedly bragged that he’s in close contact with the treasonous chump president.
The tech companies collectively blocked Infowars not because of these outrageous stories, but because, in Spotify’s words, Infowars “expressly and principally promotes, advocates, or incites hatred or violence against a group or individual based on characteristics.”
Jones is, without question, a rampant and overinflated fecal balloon who has repeatedly promoted a theory that the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre was faked by left-wing “elites” to promote gun control. The shooting left 26 children and adults dead at a Connecticut elementary school, and no gun control measures were debated, much less passed, as a result. A gun has been fired on school grounds nearly once a week since Sandy Hook, and still nothing has been done.
Prior to this week’s purging, Jones’ paranoia about “globalists systematically feminizing us to sell over-priced nutraceuticals so he can buy luxury watches,” as John Oliver recently put it.
In late July, Facebook had suspended the inevitable eventual Fox News host’s personal profile for 30 days for what the company said was bullying and hate speech. Following the final axe this week, Facebook said it removed a number of Alex Jones pages “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.”
Apple said, in a statement to BuzzFeed News, “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,” adding, “podcasts that violate these guidelines are removed from our directory.”
It remains unsurprising, yet no less incredible that every major social platform was unanimous in declaring Alex Jones a flagrantly Terms of Service violating cretin today, but Twitter is sticking with the notion that he hasn’t broken their rules. Just as Trump, flagrant racist, violence-inciter and frequent threatener of nuclear armageddon, has apparently never done so.
Jones has taken the news as an appropriate sobering call to introspection, a pivot-point to reflect on hisyeahfuckingright, he climbed up on his mouth-breathing Gummo cross:
What else did you expect? This is the same infected plankton who said this: “Just like the Bible says, it’s basically an intergalactic invasion into this space through people. I’m telling you, it’s what all the ancients said. It’s what they warned of. It’s what we’re dealing with. They’re demons! They’re frickin’ interdimensional invaders OK? I’ll just say it, make fun of me all you want on CNN or wherever, but everyone already innately knows this. These people are not frickin’ humans OK! Hillary Clinton is a goddamn demon!”
Good riddance, you overcooked sausage.
