Alex Jones and Infowars have now been permanently banned from the App Store

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Alex Jones and his Infowars app are no longer in the Apple App Store. The app was pulled from the market this weekend and won’t be allowed to return, according to Buzzfeed News.

Last month, Apple pulled most of Jones’ podcast content from iTunes, noting that it didn’t “tolerate hate speech.” At the time, however, it decided to keep the Infowars app on the App Store.

When asked why the app was finally pulled, Apple pointed to the company’s App Store Review Guidelines, which say:

The first clause of those guidelines explicitly rejects content that is “defamatory, discriminatory, or mean-spirited content, including references or commentary about religion, race, sexual orientation, gender, national/ethnic origin, or other targeted groups, particularly if the app is likely to humiliate, intimidate, or place a targeted individual or group in harm’s way.”

The app, which allowed users to read Infowars articles and live-stream Jones’ content, remains on the Google Play Store.

In just the past few weeks, the controversial Jones has been forced off of Facebook, Spotify, and YouTube. Initially, Twitter decided to keep Jones on its service. However, late last week, it too banned him.

I’ve gone back and forth over these suspensions. No doubt, much of the stuff that comes out of Jones’ mouth is garbage. Nonetheless, I wonder if we’re crossing into censorship here. No one was being forced to watch or listen to Jones on any of these platforms. And in the case of the Infowars app, content wasn’t being stored on Apple’s servers. Therefore, as a free speech exercise, was a line crossed?

How do you feel about Apple’s decision to permanently ban Alex Jones and Infowars? Let us know your thoughts down below in the comments! 

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Bryan M. Wolfe

Bryan considers himself a well-rounded techie, having written articles for MakeUseOf, KnowTechie, AppAdvice, iDownload Blog. When he's not writing, he's being a single dad and rooting for his alma mater, Penn State, or cheering on the Patriots.