Info Wars

''InfoWars'' is an American far-right conspiracy theory and fake news website owned by Alex Jones. It was founded in 1999, and operates under Free Speech Systems LLC.

Talk shows and other content for the site are created primarily in studios at an undisclosed location in an industrial area in the outskirts of Austin, Texas. Reports in 2017 stated that the ''InfoWars'' website received approximately 10 million monthly visits, making its reach greater than some mainstream news websites such as ''The Economist'' and ''Newsweek'' at the time.

The site has regularly published fake stories which have been linked to harassment of victims. In February 2018, Jones, the publisher, director and owner of ''InfoWars'', was accused of discrimination and sexually harassing employees. ''InfoWars'', and in particular Jones, advocate numerous conspiracy theories, particularly around purported domestic false flag operations by the U.S. government (which they allege include the 9/11 attacks and Sandy Hook shootings). ''InfoWars'' has issued retractions various times as a result of legal challenges.Jackie Wattles (May 17, 2017)
"InfoWars' Alex Jones apologizes for saying Chobani supports 'migrant rapists'"
. CNN .David Montero (May 17, 2017)

. ''Los Angeles Times''. Jones has had contentious material removed, and has also been suspended and banned from many platforms for violating their terms of service, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,"YouTube removes 'hate speech' videos from InfoWars"
. BBC News. iTunes, and Roku.

''InfoWars'' earns revenue from the sale of products pitched by Jones during the show, including dietary supplements. It has been called as much "an online store that uses Mr. Jones's commentary to move merchandise" as a media outlet.

On July 30, 2022, amidst a $150 million lawsuit brought against Jones and InfoWars by Sandy Hook families, Free Speech Systems filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

History

''InfoWars'' was created in 1999 by American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who remains its controlling influence. ''InfoWars'' features ''The Alex Jones Show'' on their broadcasts and was established as a public-access television program aired in Austin, Texas in 1999.

During the 2016 presidential election, the website was promoted by bots connected to the Russian government. A 2017 study by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University found that ''InfoWars'' was the 13th most shared source by supporters of Donald Trump on Twitter during the election.

In 2016, Paul Joseph Watson was hired as editor-at-large. In February 2017, political commentator Jerome Corsi was hired as Washington bureau chief, after ''InfoWars'' was granted a White House day pass. In June 2018, Corsi's connection to ''InfoWars'' ended; he received six months of severance payments.

In May 2017, Mike Cernovich joined the ''InfoWars'' team as a scheduled guest host for ''The Alex Jones Show'', with CNN reporting the "elevation to ''InfoWars'' host represents the meteoric rise in his profile". On July 6, 2017, alongside Paul Joseph Watson, Jones began hosting a contest to create the best "CNN Meme", for which the winner would receive $20,000. They were responding to CNN reporting on a Reddit user who had created a pro-Trump, anti-CNN meme.

In June 2017, it was announced that Roger Stone, a former campaign advisor for Donald Trump, would be hosting his own ''InfoWars'' show "five nights a week", with an extra studio being built to accommodate his show.

In March 2018, a number of major brands in the U.S. suspended their ads from ''InfoWars''s YouTube channels, after CNN notified them that their ads were running adjacent to ''InfoWars'' content.

In July 2018, YouTube removed four of ''InfoWars''s uploaded videos that violated its policy against hate speech and suspended posts for 90 days. Facebook also banned Jones after it determined four videos on his pages violated its community standards in July 2018. In August 2018, YouTube, Apple, and Facebook removed content from Jones and ''InfoWars'', citing their policies against hate speech and harassment.

In an October 2018 Simmons Research survey of 38 news organizations, ''InfoWars'' was ranked the second least-trusted news organization by Americans, with ''The Daily Caller'' being lower-ranked.

On March 12, 2020, Attorney General of New York Letitia James issued a cease and desist letter to Jones concerning ''InfoWars''s sale of unapproved products that the website falsely asserted to be government-approved treatments for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). On April 9, the FDA ordered ''InfoWars'' to discontinue the sale of a number of products marketed as remedies for COVID-19 in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, including toothpaste, liquids, and gels containing colloidal silver.

Claims of sexual harassment and antisemitism

In February 2018, Jones was accused by two former employees of antisemitism, anti-black racism and sexual harassment of both male and female staff members. He denied the allegations. ''InfoWars'', ''Haaretz'' reported in 2017, had accused Israel of involvement in the 9/11 attacks, accused the Rothschilds of the promotion of "endless war, debt slavery and a Luciferian agenda" and US health-care of being under the control of a "Jewish mafia."

Two former employees filed complaints against Jones with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Removals from other websites

On July 27, 2018, Facebook suspended Alex Jones's official page for thirty days, claiming Jones had participated in hate speech against Robert Mueller. This was swiftly followed by action from other bodies—on August 6, Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Spotify all removed content by Alex Jones and ''InfoWars'' from their platforms for violating their policies. YouTube removed channels associated with ''Infowars'', including The Alex Jones Channel, which had gained 2.4 million subscriptions prior to its removal. On Facebook, four pages associated with ''InfoWars'' and Alex Jones were removed due to repeated violations of the website's policies. Apple removed all podcasts associated with Jones from its iTunes platform and its podcast app. On August 13, Vimeo removed all Jones's videos because they "violated our terms of service prohibitions on discriminatory and hateful content". By February 2019, a total of 89 pages associated with ''InfoWars'' or Alex Jones had been removed from Facebook due to its recidivism policy, which is designed to prevent circumventing a ban. In May 2019, President Donald Trump tweeted or retweeted defenses of people associated with ''InfoWars'', including editor Paul Joseph Watson and host Alex Jones, after the Facebook ban.

Jones's accounts have also been removed from Pinterest, Mailchimp and LinkedIn. As of early August, Jones still had active accounts on Instagram and Twitter. Twitter, however, ultimately decided to permanently deactivate Jones's account as well as the ''InfoWars'' account in September 2018. The Wikipedia community deprecated and blacklisted ''InfoWars'' as a source by snowball clause consensus in 2018; the community determined that ''InfoWars'' is a "conspiracy theorist and fake news website".

Jones tweeted a Periscope video calling on others "to get their battle rifles ready against antifa, the mainstream media, and Chicom operatives". In the video he also says, "Now is time to act on the enemy before they do a false flag." Twitter cited this as the reason to suspend his account for a week on August 14. On September 6, Twitter permanently banned ''InfoWars'' and Alex Jones for repeated violations of the site's terms and conditions. Twitter cited abusive behavior, namely a video that "shows Jones shouting at and berating CNN journalist Oliver Darcy for some 10 minutes during congressional hearings about social media."

On September 7, 2018, the ''InfoWars'' app was removed from the Apple App Store. On September 20, 2018, PayPal informed ''InfoWars'' they would cease processing payments in ten days because "promotion of hate and discrimination runs counter to our core value of inclusion." On May 2, 2019, Facebook and Instagram banned Jones and ''InfoWars'' as part of a larger ban of far-right extremists. The ban covered videos, audio clips, and articles from ''InfoWars'', but excluded criticism of ''InfoWars''. Facebook indicated it would take down groups that violated the ban. The ''InfoWars'' app was pulled from Google Play on March 27, 2020, for violating its policies on spreading "misleading or harmful disinformation", after Jones opposed efforts to contain COVID-19 and said "natural antivirals" could treat the disease.

Content

Promotion of conspiracy theories and fake news

''InfoWars'' disseminates multiple conspiracy theories, including false claims against the HPV vaccine and claims the 2017 Las Vegas shooting was part of a conspiracy. In 2015 skeptic Brian Dunning listed it a #4 on a "Top 10 Worst Anti-Science Websites" list.

''InfoWars'' advocates New World Order conspiracy theories, 9/11 conspiracy theories, the chemtrail conspiracy theory, conspiracy theories involving Bill Gates, supposed covert government weather control programs, claims of rampant domestic false flag operations by the US Government (including 9/11), and the unsupported claim that millions voted illegally in the 2016 US presidential election. Jones frequently uses ''InfoWars'' to assert that mass shootings are conspiracies or "false flag" operations; these false claims are often subsequently spread by other fake news outlets and on social media. This has been characterized as Second Amendment "fan fiction".

''Infowars'' has published and promoted fake news, and Jones has been accused of knowingly misleading people to make money. In the summer of 2015, video editor Josh Owens and reporter Joe Biggs took a video of workers loading cargo in Texas. They claimed the men were drug smugglers; the Drudge Report picked up their headline, and Donald Trump used it in a campaign speech. Owens admitted years later: "It's not about truth, it's not about accuracy — it's about what's going to make people click on this video...In essence, we lied." (Biggs was later indicted for seditious conspiracy for his role with the Proud Boys in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.) As part of the probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, ''InfoWars'' was investigated to see if it was complicit in the dissemination of fake news stories distributed by Russian bots.

From May 2014 to November 2017, ''InfoWars'' republished articles from multiple sources without permission, including over 1,000 from Russian state-sponsored news network RT, as well as stories from news outlets such as CNN, the BBC
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