The Alex Jones Channel is InfoWars’ most subscribed on YouTube.
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Infowars podcasts produced by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones were removed from iTunes and Apple Podcasts Sunday, reports BuzzFeed News.
In a statement to BuzzFeed, Apple confirmed that Jones’ podcast has been removed from the service for violating its guidelines on hate speech. Five of the six podcasts that Infowars creates will no longer be available for download or streaming, including the daily Alex Jones Show podcast.
Jones has been widely panned for constantly promoting conspiracy theories surrounding the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut.
The removal comes in the wake of YouTube placing a 90-day ban on Jones’ Infowars channel (which he later subverted) and Facebook placing a ban on Jones’ personal page on July 27. In both cases, Jones was able to skirt around those bans either by streaming his shows to his own separate channels or using an account associated with his network. Music streaming service Spotify also began removing some of Jones’ podcasts last week, though many remain available to stream.
All three companies have faced continued media pressure to completely drop Infowars content from their services. In particular, Facebook has struggled with criticism from the public and the media over its fake news policies and refusing to outright ban Infowars in the past month. A Facebook spokesperson recently told CNET that at least one of his channels is close to a permanent ban.
With Apple outright deleting Alex Jones’ and Infowars’ podcasts from its services to fight back against misinformation, the pressure will only mount on other tech giants — such as Facebook, Spotify and even Twitter — to make similar moves.
CNET reached out to Infowars for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
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