Facebook removes Alex Jones pages for hate, bullying

Major tech companies have begun to ban right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from their services, reflecting a more aggressive enforcement of policies against hate speech following protests on social media.

Facebook has taken down four pages belonging to Jones, including two featuring his “Infowars” show, for violating its hate speech and bullying policies. Over the past several days, both Apple and Spotify have also removed material published by Jones. Twitter has faced similar calls, but has so far taken no action against Jones.

Facebook said in a statement Monday that it has also suspended Jones’ account for 30 days because he repeatedly violated the company’s community standards against hate speech that “attacks or dehumanizes others.” Facebook did not immediately respond Monday asking what would happen after the 30 days are up, and why it hadn’t taken action earlier. The 30-day suspension of Jones himself appears to have gone into effect in late July.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a message for comment Monday. YouTube said in a statement that when users violate its policies against hate speech and harassment, “we terminate their accounts.” But the company did not give specifics on Jones or Infowars.

It’s unclear why the companies are cracking down on Jones now, after allowing him to publish for years. Facebook has been under fire recently for not banning Jones, but as recently as July 12 it tweeted that it sees pages “on both the left and right pumping out what they consider opinion or analysis – but others call fake news.”

“We believe banning these Pages would be contrary to the basic principles of free speech,” Facebook posted in response to a question from CNN reported Oliver Darcy, who had been pressing the company on why it continued to allow “Infowars” on its platform.

On Monday, the company said that it “unpublished” the four pages after receiving reports that they contained content “glorifying violence” and used “dehumanizing language” to describe Muslims, immigrants and transgender people.

Facebook is the latest tech company to take action against Jones following social-media backlash. BuzzFeed News reported Sunday that Apple has removed five of Infowars’ six podcasts from its iTunes and Podcast apps for violating hate speech guidelines.

Apple said it “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.”

Last week, music streaming service Spotify removed some episodes of “The Alex Jones Show” podcast for breaching its hate content policy.

Jones says his shows, which are broadcast on radio, YouTube and other platforms, reach at least 70 million people a week.

Among his claims is that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, which left 20 children and six adults dead, was a hoax. Families of some of the victims have sued him for defamation and he now acknowledges that the shooting occurred but says his claims were free speech.

Last month, the parents of one of the children killed in the shooting wrote an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calling on him to ban “conspiracy groups and anti-government provocateurs” that use social media to call the massacre a hoax and harass and threaten the families of the victims.

“Our families are in danger as a direct result of the hundreds of thousands of people who see and believe the lies and hate speech, which you have decided should be protected,” wrote Lenny Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, the parents of Noah, who was six years old when he died at Sandy Hook.

Brent Bozell, the president of the nonprofit Media Research Council, whose stated mission is to “to expose and neutralize the propaganda arm of the Left: the national news media,” called the crackdown in Infowars a “slippery slope.”

“(It’s) a dangerous cliff that these social media companies are jumping off to satisfy CNN and other liberal outlets,” Bozell said in a statement. “Social media sites are supposedly neutral platforms, but they are increasingly becoming opportunities for the left and major media to censor any content that they don’t like.”

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AP Business Writer Kelvin Chan contributed to this story from London.

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