Recently banned by Apple, Facebook and Google’s YouTube, right-wing media personality Alex Jones claimed to be personally advising President Trump on internet censorship Tuesday in light of the president accusing tech companies of suppressing conservative content.
An article published Tuesday on the Infowars website operated by Mr. Jones alleged he is “advising the President on how to appropriately respond to the censorship of conservatives across the internet using the judicial system.”
“I’ve just got to stop caring so much. The truth is, I care so much, folks. I mean, we advise the president,” Mr. Jones, 44, said during an episode of his syndicated radio program embedded in the article.
“We’ve got all the documents. We’ve got the proof. Other people are scared to tell him what’s going on, and they’re coming down on me because they know it. And I’ve kind of not said it in the last year, hoping they’d figured I wasn’t actually as influential as I am, but they’ve got everything tapped. They know. So they’re coming down on me. Because Trump is the real deal, folks.”
Mr. Trump accused Silicon Valley of left-wing bias earlier Tuesday in a tweet blaming Google and other unnamed tech companies of “suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good.”
“They are controlling what we can & cannot see. This is a very serious situation-will be addressed!” Mr. Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.
A fervent Trump supporter who interviewed the president during his 2016 campaign, Mr. Jones was abruptly banned earlier this month from services operated by the likes of Apple, Facebook, Google and Spotify for violating rules prohibiting conduct including harassment and hate speech, setting off an ongoing free speech debate that has brought commentators to his defense ranging from HBO host Bill Maher to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Mr. Trump has all but publicly defended Mr. Jones by name in the weeks since the latter was nearly purged offline, vaguely rallying instead against supposed “social media censorship” during recent speeches.
“I would rather have fake news than have anybody — including liberals, socialists, anything — than have anybody stopped and censored,” Mr. Trump said last week in Charleston, West Virginia. “You can’t pick one person and say ’well, we don’t like what he’s been saying, he’s out.’”
Despite being banned from several of the internet’s largest platforms, Mr. Jones claimed Tuesday that his content is still reaching Mr. Trump, among others.
“I’ve already learned to go directly to the president,” Mr. Jones said moments after Mr. Trump’s tweet Tuesday during a live broadcast conducted on Periscope, a Twitter-owned video streaming service.
“I was never about going to Washington or trying to do that. I was always about putting it out into the ether, but now that you’ve tried to restrict me more and more, I know just to go right to the president,” Mr. Jones added. “And see, you’ve made me such an icon that the president knows you don’t want him to see what I have to say, so every day he goes in and looks at the top of Infowars.com and DrudgeReport.com. So, thanks for doing that
The White House did not immediately return a message seeking comment. The U.S. Secret Service previously declined to comment last year after Mr. Jones claimed that he was assisting the agency with an alleged assassination attempt on the president.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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