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Facebook removes 4 pages from InfoWars and Alex Jones

Posted at 6:21 AM, Aug 06, 2018
and last updated 2018-08-06 08:21:53-04

By Charles Riley, CNN Money

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The social media platform said in a statement Monday that it had “unpublished” the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Alex Jones Page, the InfoWars Page and the Infowars Nightly News Page.

Facebook removed four videos from the pages last week after determining that they violated its hate speech and bullying policies. It also suspended the personal profile of Jones.

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 it down for glorifying violence … and using dehumanizing language to describe people who are transgender, Muslims and immigrants, which violates our hate speech policies,” said Facebook.

Related: Facebook suspends personal profile of InfoWars founder Alex Jones

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.

For weeks, Facebook has suffered a public relations crisis over how it handles misinformation and false news on its platforms. The company said the removal of the four pages on Monday was unrelated.

“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.

Related: Facebook and Instagram now reveal how much time you spend in each app

Facebook is not the only social platform to take steps against InfoWars. BuzzFeed News reported on Sunday that Apple 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.