Technology
MailChimp boots InfoWars as Alex Jones’ problems mount
You know you’re in trouble when even MailChimp is no longer here for your shit.
As a man who lives his life extremely online, Alex Jones has suffered a deluge of digital setbacks this week. While YouTube, Facebook, Apple, and even Pinterest all took steps to limit the reach of his conspiracy and hate-promoting site InfoWars on their respective platforms, Jones’ terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week isn’t over yet. MailChimp, the email marketing service, today decided to toss a little extra “get bent” onto Jones’ garbage sandwich of a life.
That’s right: MailChimp just banned InfoWars.
“MailChimp doesn’t generally comment on individual users or accounts, but we’ll make an exception today,” the company said in a statement to Media Matters. “MailChimp notified Infowars that their accounts have been terminated for violating our Terms of Service, which make it clear that we don’t allow people to use our platform to disseminate hateful content.”
Jones was quick to respond, calling the company’s move “Kafkaesque.”
BREAKING: MailChimp has also dropped Infowars. Jones just compared his deplatforming to being sent to an “electronic ghetto.” pic.twitter.com/b28H5vRUCy
— cristina lópez g. (@crislopezg) August 7, 2018
He also ranted about InfoWars being kicked off LinkedIn (for the record, as of the time of this writing, what appears to be his personal account is still live), likening the supposed move by the professional social networking company to “being sent to the electronic ghetto.”
But it’s not all gloom and doom for the man best known for harassing the families of Sandy Hook victims. For starters, Jones appears to be having fun on Snapchat.
And, as CNN’s Dylan Byers reported in his newsletter, Apple’s Tim Cook and Eddy Cue decided over the weekend “to let Jones’ InfoWars app remain available in the app store because they felt it did not run afoul of their policy.”
That app is doing quite well following the publicity the various social-media bans have generated.
InfoWars is now number 4 in the Apple App Store news category, above CNN and Fox News. It appears to violate the same policies Apple cites when it took down Alex Jones’ podcast. Apple hasn’t commented. pic.twitter.com/HjQVpu30z0
— Steve Kovach (@stevekovach) August 7, 2018
In other words, Jones is still getting InfoWars’ message out on one of the world’s most popular podcast platforms. Whether or not that will still be true by the end of the week, however, is anyone’s guess.
A few things, though, are clear: MailChimp wants no part of this mess, and Jones’ week is just getting started.
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