Should these InfoWars videos be allowed on Facebook?
Facebook has removed four pages associated with InfoWars and its controversial founder Alex Jones for repeated violations of its policies.
The social media platform said in a statement Monday that it had \”unpublished\” the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Alex Jones Page, the InfoWars Page and the Infowars Nightly News Page.
The company said Monday that more content from the pages had since been reported, and it had decided to remove them for \”repeated violations of community standards and accumulating too many strikes.\”
\”Upon review, we have taken itdown for glorifying violence … and using dehumanizing language to describe people who are transgender, Muslims and immigrants, which violates our hate speech policies,\” said Facebook.
The pages displayed the following message when accessed Monday: \”Sorry, this content isn\’t available right now.\”
InfoWars did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside business hours.
The website is notorious for spreading demonstrably false information and conspiracy theories on a host of issues. It has suggested that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax, and that the September 11 terrorist attacks were an inside job orchestrated by the US government.
\”While much of the discussion around InfoWars has been related to false news … none of the violations that spurred today\’s removals were related to this,\” it said in a statement.
Facebook is not the only social platform to take steps against InfoWars. BuzzFeed News reported on Sunday that Apple (AAPL) had removed five podcasts associated with InfoWars from iTunes and its podcast app.
\”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,\” it said in a statement provided to BuzzFeed News.
\”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.\”
Apple confirmed the accuracy of its statement to CNN.
— Oliver Darcy contributed reporting.
CNNMoney (London) First published August 6, 2018: 6:56 AM ET
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