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YouTube won't let Alex Jones broadcast live for the next 90 days

Update: But Infowars is defying YouTube's ban and livestreaming the show anyhow.

Sean Hollister Senior Editor / Reviews
When his parents denied him a Super NES, he got mad. When they traded a prize Sega Genesis for a 2400 baud modem, he got even. Years of Internet shareware, eBay'd possessions and video game testing jobs after that, he joined Engadget. He helped found The Verge, and later served as Gizmodo's reviews editor. When he's not madly testing laptops, apps, virtual reality experiences, and whatever new gadget will supposedly change the world, he likes to kick back with some games, a good Nerf blaster, and a bottle of Tejava.
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Sean Hollister
2 min read
A screenshot of Alex Jones speaking in a YouTube video

Would YouTube actually give Infowars the boot? It doesn't seem in any hurry to do that.

 Screenshot by Joan E. Solsman/CNET

How much is too much for the social networks to stand? In the case of right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars channel, we haven't quite found out -- but on Wednesday, YouTube fired another warning shot by removing four of his videos, as well as the ability to broadcast live to YouTube for 90 days.

(But on Thursday, Jones found a way to broadcast live to YouTube anyhow -- more on that here.)

According to a post at Infowars that's since been corroborated by CNET, The Alex Jones Channel has received another strike for posting four videos that include "violent or graphic content" -- videos that no longer appear to exist on his YouTube page.

(CNET won't link directly to the videos, but one of them includes a man violently shoving a kid to the ground, with the title"How To Prevent Liberalism: A Public Service Announcement." The videos don't appear to include the one in which Jones pretends to shoot special prosecutor Robert Mueller, which doesn't seem to have been on YouTube to begin with.) 

Does that mean Infowars is about to be banned from YouTube? Not really. While YouTube has a three-strikes policy -- it'll delete a YouTube channel after the third offense -- the company is only considering these four videos to be worth a single strike, and Jones can appeal.

And though Infowars already got a strike in February, it didn't last: A YouTube strike stays in effect for only three months after it's issued. That means Infowars remains at strike one.

So, like Facebook, it appears YouTube will continue to tolerate much of Infowars for now. 

"We have long standing policies against child endangerment and hate speech. We apply our policies consistently according to the content in the videos, regardless of the speaker or the channel," said YouTube in an emailed statement.

Infowars didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Update, July 26: Added that Infowars has defied YouTube's ban, simply by livestreaming from another channel. More info here.

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