Facebook, Apple Purge InfoWars for ‘Hate Speech’

The Masters of the Universe at Facebook and Apple have censored InfoWars pages and podcasts on their platforms, both claiming Alex Jones and company engage in “hate speech.”

Following the recent suspension of Alex Jones’ Facebook page and the removal of InfoWars podcasts from Spotify, Facebook has permanently removed multiple InfoWars pages from its site while Apple has taken steps to remove InfoWars podcasts from its podcast directory.

Facebook has removed the following InfoWars pages from their platform: the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Alex Jones Page, the Infowars Page and the Infowars Nightly News Page. A blog post related to Facebook Community Standards discusses the decision to remove InfoWars related pages stating:

So what happened with InfoWars? They were up on Friday and now they are down?
As a result of reports we received, last week, we removed four videos on four Facebook Pages for violating our hate speech and bullying policies. These pages were the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Alex Jones Page, the InfoWars Page and the Infowars Nightly News Page. In addition, one of the admins of these Pages – Alex Jones – was placed in a 30-day block for his role in posting violating content to these Pages.

Since then, more content from the same Pages has been reported to us — upon review, we have taken it down 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.

All four Pages have been unpublished for repeated violations of Community Standards and accumulating too many strikes. While much of the discussion around Infowars has been related to false news, which is a serious issue that we are working to address by demoting links marked wrong by fact checkers and suggesting additional content, none of the violations that spurred today’s removals were related to this.

Facebook’s decision comes shortly after Apple removed a number of InfoWars podcasts from its podcast directory. The company removed the Alex Jones Show along with five other podcasts produced by the organization, its entire lineup except for Real News with David Knight which remains active in the Apple podcast directory.

An Apple spokesperson discussed the removal with BuzzFeed News stating: “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. Podcasts that violate these guidelines are removed from our directory making them no longer searchable or available for download or streaming. We believe in representing a wide range of views, so long as people are respectful to those with differing opinions.”

Paul Joseph Watson tweeted about the suspension, describing it as “political censorship.”

A reminder that Facebook banned Infowars after lobbying by both CNN and Democratic Congressman Ted Deutch (D-FL).

This isn't "just a private company," this is political censorship.https://t.co/JHKP1vnQ3k

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) August 6, 2018

In another tweet, Watson warned other conservative news outlets that they could be next.

Facebook has permanently BANNED Infowars.

For unspecified "hate speech". They didn't even tell us what the offending posts were.

This sets a chilling precedent for free speech.

To all other conservative news outlets – you are next.

The great censorship purge has truly begun. pic.twitter.com/v7Yo9hI0q3

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) August 6, 2018

Now that Facebook has banned Infowars, it will be very interesting to see which conservative news outlets and commentators speak out and which ones remain complicit in silence.

Whatever you think of Infowars, they're coming for you next.

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) August 6, 2018

The official WikiLeaks account described the ban as a “global anti-trust problem,” and stated that alongside “San Francisco cultural imperialism, reduces political diversity.”

Infowars says it has been banned by Facebook for unspecified 'hate speech'. Regardless of the facts in this case, the ability of Facebook to censor rivial publishers is a global anti-trust problem, which along with San Francisco cultural imperialism, reduces political diversity. https://t.co/xb5oY2JHzy

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 6, 2018