Earlier today, Infowars channel was permanently banned from Youtube for violating their Terms of Service around hate speech. The move to ban Alex Jones’s channel came on the heels of Apple’s Itunes and Facebook doing the same.
Youtube released a statement explaining their thinking behind this move. “All users agree to comply with our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines when they sign up to use YouTube. 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.”
Jones, who was furious over Facebook, Apple and Youtube’s decision, took to Twitter’s Periscope service to express his grievances. “Fuck you, Zuckerberg,” Jones shouted into his iPhone while driving. Twitter is the last major platform allowing Jones and Infowars to disseminate their message.
damn Alex Jones is not happy about being banned from facebook pic.twitter.com/b9GJdg4yp7
— PeterNorway (@classiclib3ral) August 6, 2018
After these bans, many social media users are sent information to Bernard Media, speculating if “Prison Paul” Joseph Watson will be the next big account to be removed. “Paul is Alex Jones right-hand man and spreads the same conspiracies and propaganda that Jones does to a multi-million viewer audience. In some cases, his messaging is even more hateful, especially when directed at Islam.”
Watson is famous for claiming, “Islam is at war with the west,” while spreading misinformation that countries like Sweden are being over-run by “Radical Islamic rapists and murderers.” These videos often times get over 1M views. At the time of writing this article, Watson has 1.3M subscribers on Youtube, 666K followers on Facebook and close to 1M Twitter Followers.
Online extremism experts speaking with Bernard Media are especially concerned about Watson’s online influence. “Paul was one of the top Twitter accounts studied by the Quebec City Mosque killer before his mass shooting. The rampant islamophobia Watson spreads is of serious concern and has had real world consequences. His removal should be examined closely.”
Watson status on social media is an open, on-going investigation. Updates will be provided accordingly.
