On Monday, August 6, 2018, YouTube removed Alex Jones’s YouTube channel citing violations of YouTube’s Terms of Service and Community Guidelines.
YouTube’s removal of Alex Jones’s channel follows Apple’s removal of five InfoWars podcasts (Jones is the host of the podcast and owner of the InfoWars site.) and Facebook’s removal of four of Alex Jones’s pages. Last week, a number of InfoWars podcasts were removed from popular music streaming service Spotify, only for the removal to be broadened on Monday when all episodes of the InfoWars podcasts were removed.
A spokesperson for YouTube provided the following comment to media outlets: “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.”
YouTube implements and counts “strikes” against channels for posts violating the YouTube Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. A channel with one strike is suspended from live streaming for ninety (90) days. Jones’s channel received a strike in July when it posted four (4) videos violating YouTube’s policies against child endangerment and hate speech. Jones attempted to circumvent the ninety (90) day ban by live streaming on other channels. YouTube terminated Jones’s channel as a result.
Additional Reading
YouTube bans Alex Jones, following Facebook and Apple’s lead, Ars Technica (August 6, 2018)
