Alex Jones is supposedly on thin ice with YouTube.
After the Parkland, Florida school shooting, the Infowars host and far-right conspiracy theorist immediately started to popularize the idea that the survivors were, in fact, crisis actors, paid to make the shooting seem worse than it was and to advocate for gun control.
In response, YouTube cracked down. The video-hosting platform permanently banned Infowars’ conspiracy-friendly correspondent Jerome Corsi and gave Alex Jones’ channel two strikes for spreading the crisis actor conspiracy — although Infowars claimed that one of the strikes was later removed.
“Last summer we updated the application of our harassment policy to include hoax videos that target the victims of these tragedies,” a YouTube spokesperson said at the time. “Any video flagged to us that violates this policy is reviewed and then removed.”
Jones seemed to back down then. He released a video admitting that the Parkland shooting was a “tragic event” and offered to debate Hogg, insinuating that the 17 year old’s responses to Jones had hurt his feelings and sense of journalistic integrity. “You’re defaming me and saying I’m bullying you like you’re a child,” Jones said. “You’re not, you’re an adult and a public figure.”
Alex Jones Challenges @DavidHogg111 to a Debate pic.twitter.com/8Rob0dOmmt
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) February 27, 2018
Now, however, Jones has veered back into more familiar territory. In a video released on Saturday, Infowars described the March for Our Lives as the “Hitler Youth” invasion of Washington, D.C.
“Young fascists-in-training were corralled into the nation’s capitol to demand that government authoritarians strip away the civil liberties of all law-abiding Americans in the name of ‘gun control,’ Jones’ video said in its description.
On Tuesday, Jones’ Infowars released a video depicting the Parkland survivors as members of the Hitler Youth — complete with audio from a Nazi rally. “They’re telling us it’s our fault and that old people are bad and that guns are bad and that they’re the future and they’re gonna take all of our rights,” Jones literally screamed. “It’s on folks, they’re coming for all your rights globally.”
But despite these absurd comparisons of the Parkland survivors to Hitler Youth, and Jones’ continued targeting of the students, there has been no action yet taken by YouTube against Jones for this latest stunt. YouTube did not immediately respond to ThinkProgress’ request for comment.
The platform has been fiercely criticized for allowing far-right conspiracy theories to fester unchecked. If no action is taken, it would seem that Jones has been allowed to return to business as usual, where he can push the envelope of what’s acceptable to say with little oversight.