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YouTube terminates channel dedicated to circumventing Alex Jones ban

YouTube terminates channel dedicated to circumventing Alex Jones ban

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Resistance News was dedicated to Alex Jones and Infowars

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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey And Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg Testify To Senate Committee On Foreign Influence Operations
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YouTube has terminated an account that was seemingly operating as a secondary channel for Alex Jones and Infowars after its first one was banned last August.

A statement from YouTube confirmed that the channel, Resistance News, was banned for aiding in Jones’ ban evasion. The channel carried reuploaded live streams from Jones’ deleted Infowars channel and included new conspiracy theory videos as well. YouTube will remove channels that are dedicated to live-streaming Infowars content or uploading videos of full Infowars live streams without additional context or commentary.

“When users violate these policies repeatedly, like our policies against hate speech and harassment or our terms prohibiting circumvention of our enforcement measures, we terminate their accounts,” a YouTube spokesperson said.

The existence of Resistance News was first reported by Media Matters earlier today. The channel was created in 2015, and it has amassed just over 64,000 subscribers. Like Infowars, many of the videos focus on conspiracy theories surrounding politics and major events. Two videos, in particular, refer to the recent mass shooting in New Zealand, in which 50 people were killed, as “false flag attacks.”

Jones has uploaded similar conspiracy theories in the past, including calling the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in February 2018 a false flag attack. Jones’ personal channel was originally banned by YouTube in August 2018 for violating its community guidelines. The company cited “policies against hate speech and harassment or our terms prohibiting circumvention of our enforcement measures” as the reason for Jones’ ban.

Still, Jones does have a presence on the platform. He appeared on Joe Rogan’s popular podcast, which has been viewed more than 11 million times, making many of the same talking points that he did on his original channel.