YouTube pulls Alex Jones' channel
Alex Jones' day of reckoning continues.
YouTube just became the latest platform to remove Jones' account for violating its policies. The Alex Jones channel, which had more than 2 million subscribers, was yanked from YouTube Monday.
"This account has been terminated for violating YouTube's Community Guidelines," reads a message posted to the top of the page where his account used to be.
YouTube's move comes on the heels of similar actions from other major platforms. Facebook pulled four pages belonging to the InfoWars host earlier in the day, and Apple removed several of his podcasts from iTunes and its Podcasts app Sunday night. YouTube had previously warned Jones with several "strikes," but hadn't delivered an outright ban.
Now, YouTube has removed not just the Alex Jones channel, but all InfoWars channels, including InfoWars Live and InfoWars News.
The site had come under increasing pressure in recent months to take action against Jones, who is known for spreading conspiracy theories and encouraging the harassment of victims of mass shootings. But up until now the Google-owned video service has resisted a full-on ban, which is a relatively rare occurrence on YouTube. The company typically prefers to punish users who break its rules by removing their ability to monetize their channels and removing their videos from YouTube's home page or recommendations.
But, faced with mounting public pressure, and repeated violations by Jones, YouTube pulled the plug on InfoWars, soon after Facebook and Apple did the same.
In a statement, a YouTube spokesperson said the company removes accounts that repeatedly violate its policies.
"All users agree to comply with our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines when they sign up to use YouTube. When users violate these policies repeatedly, like our policies against hate speech and harassment or our terms prohibiting circumvention of our enforcement measures, we terminate their accounts."
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With the YouTube ban, Twitter becomes one of the last major platforms still available to the talkshow host and conspiracy theorist. On Monday, he took to Twitter-owned Periscope to rail against "being banned from the internet." He urged his supporters to buy his supplements and make memes about the YouTube ban.
Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.
