Facebook is taking a step against Alex Jones that YouTube won’t and is banning the InfoWars host from its social media platform for a month.
Earlier this week, YouTube gave Jones a light punishment for violating its policies against “violent or graphic content” by giving him a strike, which merely prevents Jones from livestreaming on the platform for 90 days. But Facebook took it a step further by banning Jones from its site for 30 days for violating its community standards, Mashable reported.
“Our Community Standards make it clear that we prohibit content that encourages physical harm [bullying], or attacks someone based on their religious affiliation or gender identity [hate speech],” a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable. “We remove content that violates our standards as soon as we’re aware of it. In this case, we received reports related to four different videos on the Pages that InfoWars and Alex Jones maintain on Facebook.”
His temporary ban from Facebook means he can’t post content on any page for which he’s an administrator.
According to Mashable, Facebook had previously warned Jones that he was violating the site’s policies and that if he continued to do so, he would face a 30-day hiatus.
Wrote Mashable: “While Jones didn’t receive an out-and-out ban this time, he’s certainly treading on thin ice as far as Facebook’s concerned. Several pages managed by Jones are said to be close to the point of being unpublished by the social network given his repeated violations of community standards.”
It’s the kind of step YouTube has yet to take against Jones.
YouTube has given Jones’ channel multiple strikes before—after three strikes, the site will ban a user permanently—but after three months, a strike expires. So, when Jones—who has 2.4 million YouTube subscribers and 1.7 million Facebook followers—was given another strike this week, he was allowed to stay, despite sharing videos that included hate speech against Muslims and transgendered people and one that showed a man pushing a child.
At one point last February, Jones was only one strike away from permanent YouTube deletion after he accused some Parkland shooting victims of being actors. But Jones has been on good enough behavior in the past few months that those strikes had expired before this week.
Though Facebook hasn’t banned Jones permanently, the Guardian notes that it won’t affect the InfoWars page, which has multiple administrators that can post content.
