Censorship of Alex Jones ratchets up

Jones has been saying much the same thing for two decades so why the hate of him now?  Partly to help Dems in the mid-terms and partly as just another sign of increasing media intolerance of dissent in the age of Trump.

And if conspiracy theories about the 9/11 events disqualify him from being heard, what are we to make of the fact that in some polls, two thirds of Democrat voters also believed that 9/11 was a put-up job?

Apple Inc, YouTube, Facebook Inc and Spotify all took down podcasts and channels from U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, saying on Monday that the Infowars author had broken community standards.

The sweeping moves are the broadest actions yet by internet companies that have suspended or removed some of the conspiracy-driven content.

Since founding Infowars in 1999, Jones has built a vast audience. Among the theories he has promoted is that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington were staged by the government.

Facebook said it removed the pages "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."

Infowars editor-at-large Paul Joseph Watson said in a tweet that the broad take-downs amounted to censorship and were intended to help Democrats in the national election this fall.

"Infowars is widely credited with having played a key role in electing Donald Trump. By banning Infowars, big tech is engaging in election meddling just three months before crucial mid-terms," Watson wrote on the Infowars Web site.

Only one program provided by Infowars, "RealNews with David Knight," remained on Apple's podcasts platforms on Monday. BuzzFeed earlier reported that Apple had removed the library for five of Jones's six Infowars podcasts, including the shows "War Room" and the daily "The Alex Jones Show."

Music and podcast company Spotify said on Monday that it had now removed all of Jones's Infowars programs from its platform, after last week removing some programs.

A representative said that Spotify took seriously reports of hate content. "Due to repeated violations of Spotify's prohibited content policies, The Alex Jones Show has lost access to the Spotify platform," the representative said.

Facebook had earlier suspended the radio and Internet host's personal profile for 30 days in late July from its site for what the company said was bullying and hate speech.

SOURCE