Spotify, under pressure from subscribers, removed several episodes of a podcast by InfoWars’ Alex Jones on Wednesday, claiming they violated the company’s hate speech policies
, according to multiple reports.
“We take reports of hate content seriously and review any podcast episode or song that is flagged by our community,” a Spotify spokesperson told Recode and Variety. “Spotify can confirm it has removed specific episodes of ‘The Alex Jones Show’ podcast for violating our hate content policy.”
[More: Facebook says it’s close to shutting down InfoWars’ pages]
Since founding his far-right InfoWars website in 1999, Jones has gained a reputation for spreading unverified information and conspiracy theories, including that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax, a claim for which he is being sued.
Jones did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment. Spotify did not expound on what specific content prompted the podcasts’ axing, but its policy “does not permit content whose principal purpose is to incite hatred or violence against people because of their race, religion, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation.”
Spotify’s response comes one week after Facebook banned Jones from its social media platform for 30 days for repeated infringements of its company hate and bullying policy, per Deadline. YouTube has similarly suspended Jones from airing live broadcasts for three months, and has deleted some of his previous videos.
