Alex Jones appeared on a popular YouTube program as the platform purged another account that bypassed its rules against the right-wing conspiracy theorist and Infowars publisher Wednesday.
YouTube personality Logan Paul interviewed Mr. Jones for roughly two hours during the latest episode of his “Impaulsive” show, providing the controversial figure with an impressive platform on the Alphabet-owned video service in spite of a ban prohibiting his own program.
Mr. Jones discussed topics during the segment including his coverage of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre — the subject of ongoing litigation mounted by relatives of school children slain during the shooting — as well as the Democratic emails leaked by WikiLeaks in 2016, rising cancer rates and “chemtrails,” among other subjects.
Posted on Mr. Paul’s channel subscribed by more than 1.4 million YouTube users, the video was viewed over 200,000 times within 24 hours of being uploaded, demonstrating the limitations of YouTube’s efforts to censor Mr. Jones in the months since years of complaints stemming from his comments about Sandy Hook and other tragedies culminated in his banning from several of the internet’s largest platforms last summer.
The interview was uploaded the same day a different YouTube account, “General Shepherd,” was abruptly terminated after uploading several full episodes of “The Alex Jones Show.” That account had regularly shared episodes of the Infowars publisher’s program to YouTube in recent weeks, effectively skirting the ban blocking Mr. Jones from posting his program on the platform.
“All users agree to comply with our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines when they sign up to use YouTube,” a YouTube spokesperson told The Washington Times when asked about that channel’s disappearance. “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.”
Mr. Jones told The Washington Times on Thursday that he was unfamiliar with the terminated “General Shepherd” account.
“The Alex Jones Show” was aired live on YouTube prior to being banned in August 2018, and the host’s official channel boasted more than 2.4 million subscribers before being shut down. Mr. Jones interviewed then-presidential candidate Donald Trump on the program in 2015.
YouTube previously terminated another channel, “Resistance News,” that vanished last month after similarly uploading episodes of “The Alex Jones Show” on a regular basis. An administrator of that account had posted videos received both directly and indirectly from Infowars, Mr. Jones told The Washington Times afterward.
Facebook, Twitter, Spotify and Apple’s podcast platform joined YouTube last year in punting Mr. Jones for violating various policies preventing harassment and hate speech. He is currently fighting multiple lawsuits brought as a result of his past claims about the Sandy Hook school shooting, including a defamation suit pending in state Superior Court.
Lawyers for Mr. Jones said in a court filing Thursday that the defense has provided plaintiffs in the suit with tens of thousands of relevant files as part of the discovery process, meanwhile.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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