Silicon Valley can’t decide how to deal with Alex Jones.
Late on Tuesday, Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey tweeted that his platform wouldn’t join other social networks in banning parts or all of Mr. Jones’s controversial content. His reason: Mr. Jones hadn’t violated Twitter policy, which bans bullying or threatening behavior but not posts that are merely offensive to many.
Twitter shouldn’t “succumb and simply react to outside pressure,” Mr. Dorsey wrote, adding that the firm doesn’t take a political viewpoint: “That’s not us.”
Mr. Jones is a longtime conspiracy theorist and far-right provocateur whose website, Infowars.com, has pushed unfounded theories that include calling the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012 a hoax, and accusing Democrats of running a global child-sex ring.
Mr. Dorsey’s succession of tweets cast in sharp relief the tech industry’s at times incongruous efforts to police conspiracy theories and hate speech. While the biggest tech companies have historically tried to avoid being arbiters of what is acceptable and what is not, the recent moves against Mr. Jones by some of the most prominent firms represented a potential shift toward a more active role in self-monitoring social-media platforms.
Apple Inc. took the lead in erasing much Infowars content from its Podcast app and iTunes store on Sunday. Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc.,’s YouTube unit and Spotify Technology SA followed suit on Monday. Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn and Pinterest Inc. also removed Infowars content.
However, many of those firms also tried to calibrate their moves, and stopped short of banning Mr. Jones altogether. Apple, for example, eliminated access to five Infowars podcasts but allowed his apps to remain available for download through Apple’s app store.
Facebook changed course Monday after weeks of defending Infowars’ presence on its site even amid mounting criticism. The company had previously said that Mr. Jones’s content failed to violate Facebook’s standards, while at the same time saying it could be given less attention in news feeds.
In taking further action on Monday, Facebook cited “repeated violations” of its policy against hate speech and content glorifying violence. It said pages that have been “unpublished,” such as Infowars’, have the ability to appeal “in case we made a mistake.” If the page owners don’t appeal, or lose the appeal, the page is removed permanently, Facebook said.
Mr. Jones late Tuesday cast the actions against him as part of a perceived culture war between the far-right, where Mr. Jones draws much of his audience, and Silicon Valley.
“This issue is not about #Infowars engaging in ‘hate speech’ or ‘violating community standards.’ It’s about whose speech and ideas are favored and whose are opposed,” Mr. Jones tweeted on Tuesday evening.
Since the bans earlier this week, Infowars app downloads have climbed. As of Wednesday morning, it was the No. 3 news app in Apple’s App Store and one of the top trending apps in the Google Play Store, ranking above apps for all traditional media outlets.
How best to police content on social media has become a key focus for tech companies amid growing political and media pressure, particularly after Russian efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election used online platforms to spread misinformation.
Efforts to rein in misinformation have at times sparked accusations of political bias. President Trump, a frequent tweeter himself, last month accused Twitter of “shadow banning”—or deliberately making less prominent—conservative voices on the platform. The company has denied it.
Keegan Hankes, a senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which works with tech companies regarding enforcement of guidelines, said much of Silicon Valley has been trying to get on firm ground with consistent guidelines, but called Twitter the “most reluctant” to embrace enforcement.
In his tweets on Tuesday, Mr. Dorsey said the company has been “terrible” in the past about explaining its decisions but is trying to do better. He said Twitter would make sure Mr. Jones’s tweets are not “artificially amplified” on the platform but said it was the role of journalists—not tech firms—to fact check his claims.
“Accounts like Jones’ can often sensationalize issues and spread unsubstantiated rumors, so it’s critical journalists document, validate, and refute such information directly so people can form their own opinions. This is what serves the public conversation best,” Mr. Dorsey tweeted.
Write to Marc Vartabedian at Marc.Vartabedian@wsj.com
