Facebook, Google and Apple have each taken steps to remove conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from their platforms, marking a significant shift in the approach taken by big tech companies to the radio host.

Facebook on Monday announced that it had unpublished four pages belonging to Alex Jones for repeatedly violating the company's standards with inflammatory posts about transgender people, Muslims and immigrants, among other infractions.

Facebook said in a blog post that pages belonging to Jones have continued to post content that went against its community standards. Facebook unpublished the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Alex Jones Page, the Infowars Page and the Infowars Nightly News Page.

Jones and Infowars had a combined total of more than 2.5 million followers on Facebook across their pages.

"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," the statement said in part.

YouTube, the other platform on which Jones had a sizable following, followed suit on Monday, terminating Jones' main account, which had 2.4 million subscribers.

"All users agree to comply with our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines when they sign up to use YouTube," a YouTube spokesperson said in an email. "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."

Earlier, Apple and Spotify both removed Jones' podcasts from their respective platforms. Infowars' apps are still available for download in Apple's App Store.

Jones confirmed on Twitter that he had been banned by Facebook, Apple and Spotify.

"What conservative news outlet will be next?" he tweeted.

Twitter remains one of the last major platforms to take action against Jones. A spokesperson for Twitter said Infowars is not in violation of Twitter and Periscope rules and noted that replies to Jones are often filled with people rebutting what he is saying in real-time.

Infowars did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Paul Joseph Watson, an editor-at-large for Infowars, said on Twitter that Facebook's move was "political censorship" and "a culture war."

Facebook and other tech giants have been under growing pressure to crack down on the spread of misinformation across their platforms. Facebook in particular chose to give a boost to mainstream publishers and take action against some people and pages that repeatedly violated its rules. At the same time, Facebook has been criticized by conservatives for what they perceive as a liberal bias against conservative outlets.

Infowars emerged as a flashpoint in the debate with some journalists and activists pushing for Facebook to take action. Facebook resisted, with John Hegeman, the head of Facebook’s News Feed, telling journalists in early July that the company would be leaving Infowars to its own devices, according to New York Magazine.

Jones has the ability to appeal Facebook's decision, according to the blog post. However, if Jones doesn't appeal or his appeal fails, his page will be permanently removed from the site.

Jones had been warned that repeated violations of Facebook's community standards would result in having his pages unpublished. Last week, Facebook removed four videos on four of Jones' pages for violating its hate speech and bullying policies, according to a statement put out by the media platform. It also banned Jones' profile from posting to the social network for 30 days.

Facebook uses a "strike" system to determine if a page should be removed from its site altogether, according to the statement. It said when a page "surpasses a certain threshold of strikes, the whole Page is unpublished." Facebook does not disclose how many strikes will result in a page being unpublished.

The move by Facebook is the latest crackdown on Jones, who has recently had content removed from other platforms. Last week, YouTube removed four videos posted by Jones and issued a warning that more violations could result in a ban from the video platform.

Jones is known for falsely claiming the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School was staged by actors. Those claims have resulted in harassment directed at Sandy Hook families and supporters. Families of Sandy Hook victims have filed lawsuits against Jones for defamation.

Spotify had also recently come under pressure for hosting Jones' podcasts.

“We take reports of hate content seriously and review any podcast episode or song that is flagged by our community," a Spotify spokesperson told NBC News in an email. "Due to repeated violations of Spotify’s prohibited content policies, The Alex Jones Show has lost access to the Spotify platform."</s>Apple, Facebook and Spotify have responded to the growing backlash against Alex Jones, the right-wing conspiracy theorist behind InfoWars, by removing his podcasts and pages from their platforms.

Apple’s removal of five of six InfoWars podcasts was first reported by BuzzFeed Sunday night. Monday morning, Facebook announced that it, too, had unpublished four pages related to Jones and InfoWars. And a Spotify spokesman confirmed Monday that “The Alex Jones Show has lost access to the Spotify platform.”

Jones is perhaps most famous for spreading the conspiracy theory that the 2012 mass school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax. He is facing defamation lawsuits by parents of the children who were killed in that shooting. More recent theories presented by Jones and Infowars include a supposed upcoming civil war started by liberals, and accusing special counsel Robert Mueller of being involved in a child sex ring.

Both Facebook and Spotify had removed selected videos and podcast episodes from InfoWars, respectively, last week.

In a blog post Monday, Facebook said it has unpublished the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Alex Jones Page, the InfoWars Page and the Infowars Nightly News Page for “repeated violations of Community Standards and accumulating too many strikes.” It took further action beyond last week’s removal of videos from each of the four pages after more reports about the content on those pages, the company said.

“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,” Facebook said. At Facebook, unpublishing is the first step toward removing a page; it gives pages a chance to appeal while the page is unavailable on the platform.

Apple told BuzzFeed: “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.”

The company has not responded to a request for comment Monday about why one InfoWars podcast, “RealNews with David Knight,” remains on iTunes.

The decisions by Apple, Facebook and Spotify will put a big dent in the reach of Jones and InfoWars. As of the first quarter of 2018, 54 percent of the U.S. podcast audience of more than 23 million adults used Apple’s iOS, according to a report by Nielsen. Facebook has more than 2 billion users, 240 million of them in the United States. And Spotify has 180 million users worldwide.

Facebook’s move follows its recent controversial stance that it would not ban InfoWars because of fake news, saying it didn’t want to violate the site’s right to free speech. In its blog post Monday, Facebook emphasized that its removal of the Jones and InfoWars pages were removed because of violations of its community standards, and were not related to false news.

Jones tweeted Monday: “We’ve been banned completely on Facebook, Apple, & Spotify. What conservative news outlet will be next?” He urged his followers to retweet the link to InfoWars’ own site, saying they’d be helping InfoWars fight censorship. He also retweeted an InfoWars editor’s claims of “coordinated big tech censorship.”

While Apple, Facebook and Spotify have limited Jones’ reach for now, he still has 826,000 followers and is verified on Twitter. A couple of weeks ago, YouTube removed four videos by Jones, but his YouTube channel, which has more than 2.4 million subscribers, remains on the site.</s>Facebook has unpublished four pages belonging to conspiracy theorist and far-right radio host Alex Jones for "repeatedly posting content over the past several days" that violated the social media platform's community standards.

The company announced the move in a blog post published Monday morning, explaining that pages belonging to Jones have continued to post content that went against its community standards. Facebook unpublished the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Alex Jones Page, the Infowars Page and the Infowars Nightly News Page.

"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," the statement said in part.

Facebook's ban comes shortly after Apple and Spotify both removed Jones' podcasts from their platforms.

Infowars did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Paul Joseph Watson, an editor-at-large for Infowars, said on Twitter that Facebook's move was "political censorship" and "a culture war."

Facebook and other tech giants have been under growing pressure to crack down on the spread of misinformation across their platforms. Facebook in particular chose to give a boost to mainstream publishers and take action against some people and pages that repeatedly violated its rules. At the same time, Facebook has been criticized by conservatives for what they perceive as a liberal bias against conservative outlets.

Infowars emerged as a flashpoint in the debate with some journalists and activists pushing for Facebook to take action. Facebook resisted, with John Hegeman, the head of Facebook’s News Feed, telling journalists in early July that the company would be leaving Infowars to its own devices, according to New York Magazine.

Jones has the ability to appeal Facebook's decision, according to the blog post. However, if Jones doesn't appeal or his appeal fails, his page will be permanently removed from the site. Jones and Infowars had a combined total of more than 2.5 million followers on Facebook across their pages.

Jones had been warned that repeated violations of Facebook's community standards would result in having his pages unpublished. Last week, Facebook removed four videos on four of Jones' pages for violating its hate speech and bullying policies, according to a statement put out by the media platform. It also banned Jones' profile from posting to the social network for 30 days.

Facebook uses a "strike" system to determine if a page should be removed from its site altogether, according to the statement. It said when a page "surpasses a certain threshold of strikes, the whole Page is unpublished." Facebook does not disclose how many strikes will result in a page being unpublished.

The move by Facebook is the latest crackdown on Jones, who has recently had content removed from other platforms. Last week, YouTube removed four videos posted by Jones and issued a warning that more violations could result in a ban from the video platform.

Jones is known for falsely claiming the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School was staged by actors. Those claims have resulted in harassment directed at Sandy Hook families and supporters. Families of Sandy Hook victims have filed lawsuits against Jones for defamation.

Spotify had also recently come under pressure for hosting Jones' podcasts.

“We take reports of hate content seriously and review any podcast episode or song that is flagged by our community," a Spotify spokesperson told NBC News in an email. "Due to repeated violations of Spotify’s prohibited content policies, The Alex Jones Show has lost access to the Spotify platform."</s>"The Alex Jones Show" and other content produced by the far-right site Infowars has been removed from Apple, Facebook and Spotify.

Facebook said on Monday that four pages belonging to Jones were removed for violating the social network's policy against hate speech. Also on Monday, the entirety of hundreds of episodes of "The Alex Jones Show" had been removed from music streaming service Spotify.

Those takedowns came just hours after Apple late Sunday removed all episodes of the show hosted by Jones and four other Infowars-related podcasts from Apple's iTunes and Podcast apps.

The cumulative actions represent the largest efforts yet against Jones, a conspiracy theorist who most famously promoted the idea the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting never happened and was staged. Several families affected by the shooting, and an FBI agent who responded to the attack, have sued Jones for defamation. He is seeking to have the cases dismissed.\

However, Jones has lately been on the radar of social media and streaming services. Spotify removed several episodes of 'The Alex Jones Show' last week, citing violations of its policy against hateful speech. Online sentiment had been building against Spotify for days after subscribers found the episodes' listing on the service.

Earlier this month, Facebook faced criticism for Infowars' remaining on the social network, despite its crackdown on the spread of fabricated news. And, two weeks ago, YouTube removed four of Jones' videos from his channel on the video sharing site and suspended him from broadcasting live for 90 days saying the channel violated the company's graphic content policy.

Apple's move Sunday to remove five of six Infowars-related podcasts including "The Alex Jones Show" and "War Room" from its directories -- first reported by Buzzfeed News -- seemed to serve as a domino effect. "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," the company said in a statement.

"Podcasts that violate these guidelines are removed from our directory making them no longer searchable or available for download or streaming," Apple's statement said. "We believe in representing a wide range of views, so long as people are respectful to those with differing opinions.”

Links to "RealNews with David Knight" by Infowars remains on Apple's podcast apps.

Similarly, Facebook said it removed four of Jones' page for repeatedly posting content that included "hate speech that attacks or dehumanizes others," the network said in a post on its website.

After removing four videos, one each on four of Jones' pages -- the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Alex Jones Page, the InfoWars Page and the Infowars Nightly News Page -- violating "our hate speech and bullying policies, Facebook continued to get reports from users," it says.

Those pages were ultimately taken 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," Facebook says. Jones was placed on a 30-day block "for his role in posting violating content to these pages," the company said.

Facebook said none of its actions were due to false news found on Infowars-related sites.

The cumulative actions by the tech companies was hailed by Infowars' detractors with one person hailing "a little courage shown by our tech titans. ... Its good to see companies step up when people so flagrantly propagate falsehoods."

Infowars has so far declined comment on the situation. But during his commentary show Monday morning on Infowars, host David Knight talked about the situation, saying, "So the censorship continues and it escalates."

And one of the site's editors Paul Joseph Watson addressed the action taken by Facebook in a post on Twitter saying, "this sets a chilling precedent for free speech. To all other conservative news outlets — you are next."

Also commenting on the situation was Wikileaks, which tweeted this comment that Wikileaks called Facebook’s “the ability of Facebook to censor rival publishers is a global anti-trust problem, which along with San Francisco cultural imperialism reduces political diversity.”</s>After drawing criticism for promoting hate, Apple, Facebook and YouTube are among the major tech companies which have initiated action against right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. The 44-year-old has come under fire for his right-wing propaganda and hate speeches. Jones is the founder of InfoWars, a platform he uses to promote his content.

Jones has reacted to his “censorship” on Twitter, the only platform which has not taken action against him. In response to being banned on the internet, he said, “All I can say is that we’ve been shadowbanned and quite frankly it’s only made us stronger.”

“The truth will set you free. That’s why they hate Infowars. They don’t want you to be free. Understand this: The censorship of Infowars just vindicates everything we’ve been saying. Now, who will stand against Tyranny and who will stand for free speech? We’re all Alex Jones now,” he added.

Alex Jones, 44, created the media platform Infowars in Austin, Texas in 1999. The channel, which airs programmes on the radio and on social media platforms, promotes conspiracy theories and unverified news. It has a reach of about 10 million monthly listeners. Jones hosts a programme called ‘The Alex Jones Show’ on the platform.

Other hosts are Owen Shroyer, Anthony Cumia, Mike Cernovich, Roger Stone, Paul Joseph Watson, David L. Knight, Gerald Celente, Lionel, and Telly Blackwood.

Jones has promulgated several conspiracy theories that have riled the public, including one on how the 9/11 twin tower attacks were carried out by the US government and the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting being a “hoax”.

He has been criticised for spreading false information to make money. There are several cases against Jones, including defamation and copyright infringement, as well as allegations of sexual harassment.

Social media platforms have come under fire for hosting Infowars content. Despite years of users flagging its programmes, it is unclear why action has been initiated now. Facebook has taken down four of Jones’ pages and two of his Infowars shows. The company said it violated its standards of hate speech that attacks or dehumanizes others, reported The Associated Press.

Apple has deleted Infowars’ podcasts from its platform. “We take reports of hate content seriously and review any podcast episode or song that is flagged by our community,” a spokesperson was quoted as saying by Reuters.

YouTube, meanwhile, responded to the controversy saying it terminates accounts that violate its policies against hate speech and harassment.

The other companies that have withdrawn access to his programmes are Pinterest and Spotify. Twitter has not commented on these developments.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App</s>Talk about a rough Monday morning. Pundit Alex Jones found his radio and video show, and other content produced by the far-right site Infowars, expunged from Apple, Facebook, Spotify and YouTube.

The cumulative actions represent the largest efforts yet against Jones, a conspiracy theorist who most famously promoted the idea that the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting never happened and was staged. Several families affected by the shooting, and an FBI agent who responded to the attack, have sued Jones for defamation. He is seeking to have the cases dismissed.

Facebook said on Monday that four pages belonging to Jones were removed for violating the social network's policy against hate speech. Also on Monday, the entirety of hundreds of episodes of "The Alex Jones Show" had been removed from music streaming service Spotify.

Those takedowns came just hours after Apple late Sunday removed all episodes of the show hosted by Jones and four other Infowars-related podcasts from Apple's iTunes and Podcast apps.

And later Monday, YouTube removed Jones and Infowars' channels from the video sharing service, with some pages labeled with the declaration the account was terminated for violations of community guidelines.

Jones has lately been on the radar of social media and streaming services. Spotify removed several episodes of 'The Alex Jones Show' last week, citing violations of its policy against hateful speech. Online sentiment had been building against Spotify for days after subscribers found the episodes' listing on the service.

Earlier this month, Facebook faced criticism for Infowars' remaining on the social network, despite its crackdown on the spread of fabricated news. Prior to its action Monday, YouTube removed four of Jones' videos from his channel two weeks ago and suspended him from broadcasting live for 90 days saying the channel violated the company's graphic content policy.

Apple's move Sunday to remove five of six Infowars-related podcasts including "The Alex Jones Show" and "War Room" from its directories -- first reported by Buzzfeed News -- seemed to initiate a domino effect. "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," the company said in a statement.

"Podcasts that violate these guidelines are removed from our directory making them no longer searchable or available for download or streaming," Apple's statement said. "We believe in representing a wide range of views, so long as people are respectful to those with differing opinions.”

Links to "RealNews with David Knight" by Infowars remains on Apple's podcast apps.

Similarly, Facebook said it removed four of Jones' page for repeatedly posting content that included "hate speech that attacks or dehumanizes others," the network said in a post on its website.

After removing four videos, one each on four of Jones' pages -- the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Alex Jones Page, the InfoWars Page and the Infowars Nightly News Page -- violating "our hate speech and bullying policies, Facebook continued to get reports from users," it says.

Those pages were ultimately taken 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," Facebook says. Jones was placed on a 30-day block "for his role in posting violating content to these pages," the company said.

Facebook said none of its actions was due to false news found on Infowars-related sites.

When asked why YouTube took action because Jones and Infowars, the site sent this statement to USA TODAY: "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."

The cumulative actions by the tech companies were hailed by Infowars' detractors with one person applauding "a little courage shown by our tech titans. ... Its good to see companies step up when people so flagrantly propagate falsehoods."

Jones, during his show on Infowars.com, said he would have to remove the site's links to social media because Infowars' content there "is all gone. They blew it all away in the middle of the night."

Also on the site, a preview of the Monday "Alex Jones Show' topics said: "Facebook permanently banned Infowars while Apple removed entire Infowars libraries from iTunes under the guise of 'hate speech'," he said. "The war on your mind is in full swing as globalists remove outlets of liberty and truth, starting with the tip of the spear: Alex Jones."

Jones posted a separate note on Twitter asking, "What conservative news outlet will be next?"

Also commenting on the situation was Wikileaks, which posted a pair of tweets, at first critiquing Facebook's action as a power play, tweeting that “the ability of Facebook to censor rival publishers is a global anti-trust problem, which along with San Francisco cultural imperialism reduces political diversity.”

After YouTube's action, Wikileaks blasted all four companies saying, "The empire strikes back: Apple, Spotify, Facebook and Google/Youtube all purge Infowars/Alex Jones."

The international, non-profit organization, well-known for the July 2016 release of a trove of Democratic National Committee emails, questioned whether the takedowns were the right move. "Yes, Infowars has frequent nonsense, but also a state power critique. Which publisher in the world with millions of subscribers is next to be wiped out for cultural transgression?"

Some commenters on Twitter posted concerns about the potential harm of squelching voices, even if Jones' and Infowars had in the past fueled conspiracy theories such as

 Pizzagate -- a far-fetched falsehood that Hillary Clinton operated a child sex ring at a Washington D.C. pizza restaurant, where in December 2016 a man fired his weapon off inside the pizza shop. Jones last year apologized to the restaurant owner.

"I don’t support Alex Jones and what InfoWars produces. He’s not a conservative. However, banning him and his outlet is wrong," said Brent Bozell, founder and president of the Media Research Center, a non-profit conservative group that monitors liberal trends in the media.

"It’s just the beginning," Bozell said in a statement. "We are rapidly approaching a point where censorship of opposing voices is the norm. That’s dangerous.”</s>"The Alex Jones Show" and other content produced by the far-right site Infowars has been removed from Apple, Facebook and Spotify.

Facebook said on Monday that four pages belonging to Jones were removed for violating the social network's policy against hate speech. Also on Monday, the entirety of hundreds of episodes of "The Alex Jones Show" had been removed from music streaming service Spotify.

Those takedowns came just hours after Apple late Sunday removed all episodes of the show hosted by Jones and four other Infowars-related podcasts from Apple's iTunes and Podcast apps.

And later Monday, YouTube removed Jones and Infowars' channels from the video sharing service, with some pages labeled with the declaration the account was terminated for violations of community guidelines.

The cumulative actions represent the largest efforts yet against Jones, a conspiracy theorist who most famously promoted the idea that the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting never happened and was staged. Several families affected by the shooting, and an FBI agent who responded to the attack, have sued Jones for defamation. He is seeking to have the cases dismissed.

However, Jones has lately been on the radar of social media and streaming services. Spotify removed several episodes of 'The Alex Jones Show' last week, citing violations of its policy against hateful speech. Online sentiment had been building against Spotify for days after subscribers found the episodes' listing on the service.

Earlier this month, Facebook faced criticism for Infowars' remaining on the social network, despite its crackdown on the spread of fabricated news. Prior to its action Monday, YouTube removed four of Jones' videos from his channel two weeks ago and suspended him from broadcasting live for 90 days saying the channel violated the company's graphic content policy.

Apple's move Sunday to remove five of six Infowars-related podcasts including "The Alex Jones Show" and "War Room" from its directories -- first reported by Buzzfeed News -- seemed to initiate a domino effect. "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," the company said in a statement.

"Podcasts that violate these guidelines are removed from our directory making them no longer searchable or available for download or streaming," Apple's statement said. "We believe in representing a wide range of views, so long as people are respectful to those with differing opinions.”

Links to "RealNews with David Knight" by Infowars remains on Apple's podcast apps.

Similarly, Facebook said it removed four of Jones' page for repeatedly posting content that included "hate speech that attacks or dehumanizes others," the network said in a post on its website.

After removing four videos, one each on four of Jones' pages -- the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Alex Jones Page, the InfoWars Page and the Infowars Nightly News Page -- violating "our hate speech and bullying policies, Facebook continued to get reports from users," it says.

Those pages were ultimately taken 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," Facebook says. Jones was placed on a 30-day block "for his role in posting violating content to these pages," the company said.

Facebook said none of its actions was due to false news found on Infowars-related sites.

The cumulative actions by the tech companies were hailed by Infowars' detractors with one person applauding "a little courage shown by our tech titans. ... Its good to see companies step up when people so flagrantly propagate falsehoods."

Jones, during his show on Infowars.com, said he would have to remove the site's links to social media because Infowars' content there "is all gone. They blew it all away in the middle of the night."

Also on the site, a preview of the Monday "Alex Jones Show' topics said: "Facebook permanently banned Infowars while Apple removed entire Infowars libraries from iTunes under the guise of 'hate speech'," he said. "The war on your mind is in full swing as globalists remove outlets of liberty and truth, starting with the tip of the spear: Alex Jones."

Jones posted a separate note on Twitter asking, "What conservative news outlet will be next?"

Also commenting on the situation was Wikileaks, tweeting that “the ability of Facebook to censor rival publishers is a global anti-trust problem, which along with San Francisco cultural imperialism reduces political diversity.”</s>Talk about a rough Monday morning. Pundit Alex Jones found his radio and video show, and other content produced by the far-right site Infowars, removed from Apple, Facebook, Spotify and YouTube.

The cumulative actions represent the largest efforts yet against Jones, a conspiracy theorist who most famously promoted the idea that the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting never happened and was staged. Several families affected by the shooting, and an FBI agent who responded to the attack, have sued Jones for defamation. He is seeking to have the cases dismissed.

Facebook said on Monday that four pages belonging to Jones were removed for violating the social network's policy against hate speech. Also on Monday, the entirety of hundreds of episodes of "The Alex Jones Show" had been removed from music streaming service Spotify.

Those takedowns came just hours after Apple late Sunday removed all episodes of the show hosted by Jones and four other Infowars-related podcasts from Apple's iTunes and Podcast apps.

And later Monday, YouTube removed Jones and Infowars' channels from the video sharing service, with some pages labeled with the declaration the account was terminated for violations of community guidelines.

Until Monday, the major tech companies had been slow to remove Jones' content, despite a stated aim of halting the spread of fabricated news, as they tried to stave off claims that they were censoring political voices. Facebook -- facing criticism for Infowars' presence on the site -- detailed a policy of pushing down disputed posts so fewer users would see them while removing content for violating policies on hate speech and harassment. Spreading false news wasn't reason enough to boot a user from the site, its executives said.

Instead, tech companies have pointed to a breach of policies against hate speech, rather than misinformation, for removing Jones. Spotify removed several episodes of 'The Alex Jones Show' last week, citing violations of its policy against hateful speech. Online sentiment had been building against Spotify for days after subscribers found the episodes' listing on the service.

Prior to its action Monday, YouTube removed four of Jones' videos from his channel two weeks ago and suspended him from broadcasting live for 90 days saying the channel violated the company's graphic content policy.

Apple's move Sunday to remove five of six Infowars-related podcasts including "The Alex Jones Show" and "War Room" from its directories -- first reported by Buzzfeed News -- seemed to initiate a domino effect. "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," the company said in a statement.

"Podcasts that violate these guidelines are removed from our directory making them no longer searchable or available for download or streaming," Apple's statement said. "We believe in representing a wide range of views, so long as people are respectful to those with differing opinions.”

Links to "RealNews with David Knight" by Infowars remains on Apple's podcast apps.

Similarly, Facebook said it removed four of Jones' page for repeatedly posting content that included "hate speech that attacks or dehumanizes others," the network said in a post on its website.

After removing four videos, one each on four of Jones' pages -- the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Alex Jones Page, the InfoWars Page and the Infowars Nightly News Page -- for violating "our hate speech and bullying policies," Facebook continued to get reports from users, it says.

Those pages were ultimately taken down Monday 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," Facebook says. Jones had already been placed on a 30-day block "for his role in posting violating content to these pages," the company said.

Facebook said none of its actions was due to false news found on Infowars-related sites.

When asked why YouTube took action because Jones and Infowars, the site sent this statement to USA TODAY: "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."

The cumulative actions by the tech companies were hailed by Infowars' detractors with one person applauding "a little courage shown by our tech titans. ... Its good to see companies step up when people so flagrantly propagate falsehoods."

Jones, during his show on Infowars.com, said he would have to remove the site's links to social media because Infowars' content there "is all gone. They blew it all away in the middle of the night."

Some commenters on Twitter posted concerns about the potential harm of squelching voices, even if Jones' and Infowars had in the past fueled conspiracy theories such as

Pizzagate -- a far-fetched falsehood that Hillary Clinton operated a child sex ring at a Washington D.C. pizza restaurant, where in December 2016 a man fired his weapon off inside the pizza shop. Jones last year apologized to the restaurant owner.

"I don’t support Alex Jones and what InfoWars produces. He’s not a conservative. However, banning him and his outlet is wrong," said Brent Bozell, founder and president of the Media Research Center, a non-profit conservative group that monitors liberal trends in the media.

"It’s just the beginning," Bozell said in a statement. "We are rapidly approaching a point where censorship of opposing voices is the norm. That’s dangerous.”

Similarly, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, recently questioned whether Facebook should be removing publishers from their massive social network at all. After seeing a July 27 story reported by Mashable about Jones' 30-day ban, Cruz tweeted: "Am no fan of Jones — among other things he has a habit of repeatedly slandering my Dad by falsely and absurdly accusing him of killing JFK — but who the hell made Facebook the arbiter of political speech? Free speech includes views you disagree with."

But the constitutional protection of free speech is meant to prevent the government -- not businesses or organizations -- from censoring citizens.

"As private companies, Apple, Facebook and Spotify can decide what content appears on their platforms, so I wouldn't call (the tech sites' actions) a violation of speech," said Lata Nott, executive director of the First Amendment Center.</s>Apple, Facebook, and Spotify have removed the work of Alex Jones from their platforms in a sweeping crackdown on the popular conspiracy theorist.

Apple was first to take action against Jones, with BuzzFeed reporting that it had scrubbed the entire library for five of Infowars' six podcasts from iTunes and its Podcast app. As of Sunday, just one Infowars show remained: "RealNews with David Knight."

Apple pointed Business Insider to the statement it provided BuzzFeed, in which it said it notified Jones of its plans to pull the podcasts under its hate-speech guidelines.

"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," an Apple representative said.

"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."

Soon after Apple shut down Jones, Facebook published a blog announcing it had removed four pages belonging to the presenter. Facebook said he had repeatedly posted content in recent days that broke its community standards. The company took down four of Jones' videos last month.

"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," Facebook said on Monday. It added that none of the violations were related to "false news."

Spotify also removed the "Alex Jones Show" from its podcast directory for violations of its content policy. "I can confirm that Spotify has removed the 'Alex Jones Show' - Infowars," a spokeswoman said. Spotify took down several episodes of the show last week.

Jones remains on YouTube, where he has nearly 2.5 million subscribers. Google's video-sharing site took down four of his posts last month.

Sleeping Giants, an activist organization that vows to "make bigotry and sexism less profitable," has been lobbying Apple to take action against Jones. Writing on Twitter, it welcomed the company's decision.

Jones is facing defamation lawsuits from the families of some children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School over his claims that the 2012 school shooting was a hoax.</s>It’s been a rough day for Alex Jones and InfoWars. Hot on the heels of bans from Apple and Facebook, the conspiracy theory media empire has been banned on YouTube. It’s not yet clear if the video platform’s ban is permanent, but it appears that all InfoWars videos have been deleted.



If you attempt to visit InfoWars videos on YouTube you’ll be greeted with the message, “this video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated.” Clips of Alex Jones saying unhinged things can still be found on the site if they were posted by other news organizations.

Apple got the ball rolling when it pulled all of Alex Jones’ podcasts from Apple’s platforms late yesterday. And Facebook followed up with a pseudo-ban this morning that it’s referred to as “unpublishing.” Facebook has said InfoWars can appeal the decision and become reinstated.

YouTube has not directly addressed the ban on InfoWars, but released a generic statement to Gizmodo today about its community guidelines.

“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,” a YouTube spokesperson told Gizmodo over email.

Facebook and Apple both cited “hate speech” when asked about their own decisions to ban InfoWars channels and pages. InfoWars has been in hot water recently over Jones’ claims that the Sandy Hook massacre that killed 6 adults and 20 children was completely fake. Jones said that the shooting was staged by the government, which has led to family members of those killed being harassed. There are currently three defamation lawsuits against Jones by family members of the victims, though Jones has counter-sued for legal fees.

Twitter is in an extremely awkward position as the lone large social media company that still hosts Alex Jones. Twitter, long a hub for neo-Nazis, seems like it would be hesitant to ban Jones from the site, but never say never.

Gizmodo has reached out to YouTube to ask about any other bans that may be on the horizon and to confirm if the InfoWars ban in permanent. We’ll update this article when YouTube, which is owned by Google, gets us more information.
Facebook removes several InfoWars-related pages from its platform, for what it describes as glorification of violence and dehumanizing language. YouTube deletes Alex Jones's main account for repeated Terms of Service violations. Apple and Spotify pull Jones's podcasts. Editor Paul Joseph Watson calls Facebook's move "political censorship" on Twitter.