Spotify has deleted several episodes of the podcast hosted by Alex Jones, a right-wing conspiracy theorist and founder of InfoWars, after a backlash this week over the distribution of his episodes as other websites removed some of his content. Last week, Facebook suspended his personal page and removed four of his videos, and YouTube also removed four of his videos for violating the site’s community guidelines.
The specific podcast episodes deleted by Spotify were determined by the music streaming service to include hate speech. Dozens of episodes of Jones’ podcasts remain available on the site.
Jones is appearing at a hearing this week for a defamation suit filed by parents of a victim of Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012. Jones has falsely claimed that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax orchestrated by gun control advocates, and some of his followers have harassed and threatened parents of the victims. Some families have reported receiving death threats and moving because of the persistent intimidation.
Lawyers for Jones tried to get the case dismissed on Wednesday, claiming that the suit violates a Texas law which protects freedom of speech against plaintiffs who undertake unwarranted litigation.
Jones is facing two other cases filed by families of the victims, one in Connecticut and one in Texas, and another defamation case from the man who was falsely identified on the InfoWars website as the shooter in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting in February.
Once a fringe figure of the internet’s far right, Jones has become a prominent media presence in recent years. He has been praised by President Trump, who gave an interview to Jones in 2017.
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