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Alex Jones has been reinstated by YouTube, and he shared his comeback video on Wednesday, September 24. The far-right radio host and conspiracy theorist spoke about multiple news items on his show, Infowars.
Jones was suspended by numerous platforms, like YouTube, Facebook, among others, in 2018 due to allegedly violating their guidelines. He was banned for alleged hate speech and inciting violence. Hence, his podcast, The Alex Jones Show, was also removed from multiple channels like Spotify and iTunes.
In July 2018, Jones was banned from YouTube for child endangerment and hate speech. However, his channel tried to shift viewers to other channels. A YouTube spokesperson then told NPR in a report published on August 6, 2018:
"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."
However, the account appears to have been reinstated now. There has been no statement on it by either Jones or YouTube so far.
Multiple platforms banned Alex Jones' account or show in 2018
YouTube wasn't the only platform to have banned Jones' account for allegedly violating its guidelines. Numerous other platforms either banned his entire account or his podcasts.
Apple banned Jones and the Infowars podcast from iTunes, stating:
"Apple does not tolerate hate speech. We believe in representing a wide range of views, so long as people are respectful to those with differing opinions."
Facebook, meanwhile, removed five pages related to Alex Jones or Infowars, and stated:
"We believe in giving people a voice, but we also want everyone using Facebook to feel safe. It's why we have community standards and remove anything that violates them, including hate speech that attacks or dehumanizes others."
Facebook had already given the radio show host multiple warnings for alleged breaches of guidelines before the eventual ban. They removed four videos from Jones' page and also gave his account a 30-day suspension. However, they noted:
"Since then, more content from the same pages has been reported to us — upon review, we have taken it down 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."
Spotify had also removed multiple episodes of The Alex Jones Show from its platform, stating:
"We take reports of hate content seriously and review any podcast episode or song that is flagged by our community."
Jones' team, on the other hand, had slammed these bans and called them "big tech censorship". Notably, all these bans came just three months before the midterm elections in November. Referencing that, Jones' organization stated:
"Mega Purge! Spotify has now completely banned Infowars too. Apple, Facebook, Spotify all within 12 hours of each other. This isn't enforcement of [terms of service], it's coordinated big tech censorship. This is real election meddling."
Notably, Twitter (now X) had also banned Jones' account. However, new owner Elon Musk reinstated it in December 2023 after running a poll, where around 70% users voted in favor of the decision.
