InfoWars' Pinterest page goes offline after Mashable inquiry
It's hard out there for conspiracy-theory peddling, dietary-supplement hawking, tormentors of grieving parents. But hope shines eternal in the human breast, and for Alex Jones that breast was starting to look a lot like Pinterest. Until Mashable emailed the social-sharing platform, that is.
Following a rough 24 hours for Alex Jones' InfoWars that saw the removal of his YouTube channel, getting five podcasts booted from Apple's iTunes, and the loss of four Facebook pages, the man who is perhaps best known for claiming the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax perpetrated by so-called "crisis actors" continued to peddle his vile nonsense on a platform associated more with wedding planning than hate.
Yup, InfoWars had a Pinterest page. It was linked right there on the InfoWars homepage, tucked between the @realalexjones Twitter link and a link to a now-defunct Spotify page.
We say had, because during the process of writing this story — and shortly after Mashable reached out to Pinterest for comment — it went offline.
Clicking through, which you can no longer do but we wouldn't have recommended anyway, showed a collection of the same garbage that got InfoWars kicked off other major tech platforms. There were links to sketchy supplements ("From the food and water that you drink to the air that you breathe.. there is information out there to help guide your health back to the highway of freedom"), more Sandy Hook disinformation ("EXPOSED: MEDIA CAUGHT IN HUGE SANDY HOOK TRIAL LIE..."), and rants about Hollywood and pedophilia.
It was your pretty standard trash, neatly pinned and shining bright on Pinterest.
We reached out to Pinterest in an attempt to determine if the company would ever ban Alex Jones or InfoWars from its platform, but received no response as of press time. We also contacted InfoWars to find out how the site planed to use its Pinterest account following the recent spate of social-media bans, but likewise received no response.
And then, the InfoWars Pinterest page mysteriously went offline. To be clear, as Pinterest has not responded to our request for comment, we do not know for certain that the company removed the InfoWars page. The timing, however, suggests the page is not down for maintenance.
"Oof! Looks like the page is broken," read the https://www.pinterest.com/infowarspins page for a short time today. "We'll look into it!"
Loading the page now simply shows a Pinterest home page without the error message.
Pinterest does, after all, have a set of Community Guidelines which suggest InfoWars wasn't a great fit for the site. For example, one such guideline reads "We remove attacks on private people or sharing of personally identifiable information."
InfoWars is known for leading the harassment of the parents of Sandy Hook victims.
It seems InfoWars is running out of digital megaphones. Because when even Pinterest turns against you, all you have left is small, no-name platforms like ... Twitter.
UPDATE: Aug. 6, 2018, 1:33 p.m. PDT: In an emailed statement provided to Mashable, a Pinterest spokesperson confirmed the company removed the InfoWars Pinterest page.
"Consistent with our existing policies, we take action against accounts that repeatedly save content that could lead to harm. People come to Pinterest to discover ideas for their lives, and we continue to enforce our principles to maintain a safe, useful and inspiring experience for our users."
UPDATE: Aug. 6, 2018, 2 p.m. PDT: A Pinterest spokesperson followed up to emphasize that "multiple people reported this account to us."
Topics Social Media Pinterest
