Right-wing broadcaster Alex Jones announced Saturday evening that YouTube had frozen his video channel and would delete it on Sunday, after CNN pursued the social media giant and its advertisers.

The announcement came just hours after CNN published a story, “Advertisers flee InfoWars founder Alex Jones’ YouTube channel,” in which journalists Paul P. Murphy and Gianluca Mezzofiore approached companies to explain why their ads were showing up on Alex Jones’s channel.

Murphy and Mezzofiore also asked YouTube why it had not filtered out certain advertisers from showing up on the channel due to its “offensive content.”

The CNN article reads less like coverage of news and more like a chronicle of an activist campaign to damage Jones’s channel. “Many of the brands — including Nike, Moen, Expedia, Acer, ClassPass, Honey, Alibaba and OneFamily — have suspended ads on InfoWars’ channels after being contacted by CNN for comment,” the authors noted.

On Saturday evening, Jones tweeted: “The Alex Jones channel with billions of views is frozen. We have been told it will be deleted tomorrow and all 33 thousands videos will be erased.” </s> Advertisers are quickly abandoning Alex Jones’ InfoWars channels on YouTube after they discovered their ads were displayed on the controversial channels, courtesy of CNN.

CNN claims that big companies like Nike, Acer, Mozilla, Alibaba, Expedia, ClassPass, 20th Century Fox, and others have discovered they had ads playing on the Alex Jones Channel. Now, a number of brands are “blacklisting” InfoWars from future ad spending, the report said.

It is often the case that when companies purchase ads from various agencies, they are unaware of exactly where those ads will be displayed. It is possible, however, for them to use filters to prevent them from showing up on certain websites and channels. YouTube allows brands to opt into a “sensitive subject exclusion” to ensure their ads don’t run alongside offensive content, which InfoWars often is.

As it stands, the main Alex Jones Channel does not appear to be running any ads before its videos at all. InfoWars has accused CNN of leading a campaign to get the channel banned for good.

The website’s editor-at-large, Paul Joseph Watson, tweeted in response to the CNN report, claiming that InfoWars is “90% demonetized” and that CNN’s “lobbying” of YouTube won’t make a difference.

It’s far from the first time, however, that InfoWars and Alex Jones have come under scrutiny for publishing sensational content and conspiracy theories.

Jones has already received two “strikes” from YouTube — most recently after he claimed that Florida school shooting survivor David Hogg was a “crisis actor” and that the shooting was a deep state “false flag” operation. If Jones receives a third strike within three months, the channel could find itself permanently banned.

YouTube recently admitted that it had “mistakenly removed” several videos and channels from right-wing producers, attributing the mistake to “newer members” of its content moderation team.

InfoWars is not the first right-wing outlet to be targeted by advertiser boycotts. Conservative website Breitbart lost 90 percent of its advertisers in two months last year, while Fox News’ Sean Hannity was the subject of calls for a boycott from liberal press watchdog website Media Matters last year.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! </s> Just over a week ago, YouTube decided to remove an InfoWars video from the Alex Jones' channel for breaching site rules about harassment. In videos, students who had spoken on TV about the Parkland, Florida shooting were described as "crisis actors". Jones described the move as "giant, massive censorship" and went as far as saying his channel was about to be shut down.

Now advertisers are showing how they feel about InfoWars, with a number of large companies -- including Acer, 20th Century Fox, Grammarly, Paramount Network, Alibaba and Mozilla -- pulling advertising after learning that their ads were appearing on Jones' channel.
• YouTube pulls InfoWars video from the Alex Jones Channel over Parkland shooting allegations
• YouTube says it was wrong to remove some right-wing videos and channels
• YouTube updates its video review process yet again to avoid another problem like Logan Paul

This is not the first time advertisers have been unhappy with the placement of their ads, and Google has previously said that it would grant them greater control over where ads appear. But it appears that these controls have not worked. Nike, for example, used filters to control which channels and sites its ads would be shown on, but was "disturbed to learn that we appeared on [The Alex Jones Channel]," as a spokesperson for the company told CNN.

Acer was also under the impression that "existing filters should have prevented this," and will be setting up additional filters for the future. Grammarly said: ""We have stringent sensitive subject exclusion filters in place with YouTube that we believed would exclude such channels. We've asked YouTube to ensure this does not happen again."

Over the week, as well as issuing numerous video rants about an orchestrated campaign of censorship against InfoWars, Jones took to Twitter to claim that his channel was going to be closed down and deleted:

There's little evidence to support this claim although following the recent video removal, the channel was on its first of three strikes.

InfoWars is a great earner for YouTube, bringing millions of viewers to the site. The company would probably be reluctant to remove the associated channel not only because of the loss of income, but also because it would lead to further claims of censorship. But when advertisers start voting with their wallets, it sends a message to fake news peddlers and conspiracy theory video creators that maybe, just maybe, controversy is not always a good thing. </s> Several companies demand the video streaming service remove their ads from the purportedly controversial content posted by 'InfoWars.'

Alleged right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, founder of Infowars, is claiming YouTube is threatening to delete his account and all videos associated with it. Now, some big advertisers are asking the video streaming company to remove ads currently running on the controversial channel.

In a tweet posted last night, Jones claimed the Infowars channel, including over 30,000 videos, will likely disappear from YouTube. He further contends the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is behind the potential YouTube ban.

However, in spite of Jones’s claim that his video channel is on the verge of being shut down, YouTube denies any such action is about to take place. A spokesperson from the Google-owned video behemoth told CBS News there is no plan to “freeze” or remove the Infowars channel, at least for now.

While it sounds as if Jones is making an extreme claim about YouTube, multiple household name advertisers are now asking the video company to remove ads from the Infowars channel. Claiming they were unaware their ads were showing on the Alex Jones channel, Nike, Acer, Expedia, Moen, and several others told YouTube to remove advertisements, in effect to disassociate themselves from the so-called conspiracy theorist.

According to a CNN report, the companies either bought ad packages directly from YouTube or a third-party ad service. However, the ad campaigns targeted broadly-defined demographics and user activity, making it difficult to know exactly what channels the ads would appear on.

Speaking to CNN, discount-shopping company Honey said $169 was spent advertising on the Infowars channel without their knowledge. The company is currently working with Google to obtain a refund.

Despite filters set up to exclude ads from channels producing certain content, Mozilla has demanded their ads stopped.

“We have explicit exclusions set up for our YouTube campaigns and should absolutely not have appeared alongside this content,” a Mozilla representative told CNN. “We are disappointed to learn that YouTube’s filters are not as effective as promised in preventing advertisements running alongside objectionable content. We’ve since reached out to Google and paused our advertising on the channel.”

Alex Jones and YouTube have been on slightly unfriendly terms for some time. Just last week, the video service sent a community standards violation notice to Jones. After Jones posted a video claiming several students that survived the deadly school shooting in Florida were coached and told what to say, YouTube warned him about the content, and the video was subsequently removed. Later, Jones posted another video accusing YouTube of censoring him.

Later last year, YouTube hired thousands of moderators that look specifically for fake, misleading, or other content that violates company policy. Ever since, many right-wing conservatives and pro-gun advocates have been claiming they are being targeted for removal, while other, allegedly more controversial, content remains on the video site. </s> Many companies have suspended advertising on Infowars’ Youtube channels after CNN contacted them about their ads appearing on the website.

A CNN article published Saturday reads, “CNN has discovered ads on InfoWars’ channels from companies and organizations such as Nike (NKE), Acer, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Network, the Mormon Church, Moen, Expedia (EXPE), Alibaba (BABA), HomeAway, the NRA, Honey, Wix and ClassPass.”

The article also indicates that after CNN got in touch with the companies, many suspended their ads:

Many of the brands — including Nike, Moen, Expedia, Acer, ClassPass, Honey, Alibaba and OneFamily — have suspended ads on InfoWars’ channels after being contacted by CNN for comment. The companies, with the exception of Alibaba, which declined to comment, said they had been unaware their ads were running on The Alex Jones Channel.

InfoWars’ main Youtube channel “The Alex Jones Channel” is already on thin ice with Youtube after receiving two “strikes.” </s> Some of the biggest brands in the U.S. had ads running on the YouTube channels for far-right website InfoWars and its founder, notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and they say they had no idea YouTube was allowing their advertising to appear there.

Last week, YouTube reprimanded the conspiracy theory site and Jones for violating its community guidelines after a video posted to The Alex Jones Channel, InfoWars' biggest YouTube account, claimed student anti-gun activists were actors.

Now YouTube and Jones' channel on it are in the spotlight again. CNN has discovered ads on InfoWars' channels from companies and organizations such as Nike (NKE), Acer, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Network, the Mormon Church, Moen, Expedia (EXPE), Alibaba (BABA), HomeAway, Mozilla, the NRA, Honey, Wix and ClassPass.

Even an ad for USA for UNHCR, a group that supports the UN refugee agency UNHCR, asking for donations for Rohingya refugees was shown on an InfoWars YouTube channel.

Many of the brands -- including Nike, Moen, Expedia, Acer, ClassPass, Honey, Alibaba and OneFamily -- have suspended ads on InfoWars' channels after being contacted by CNN for comment. The companies, with the exception of Alibaba, which declined to comment, said they had been unaware their ads were running on The Alex Jones Channel. CNN discovered the HomeAway advertising shortly before publishing this story, and has not yet received a response from that company.

InfoWars and Jones are known for peddling conspiracy theories, including the false idea that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012 was a hoax.

Related: InfoWars' main YouTube channel is two strikes away from being banned

The brands purchased ad campaigns from YouTube, which is owned by Google, or through marketing companies that broadly targeted demographics and user behavior. Companies that purchase ads this way don't necessarily know where their commercials will eventually show up, but they can use exclusion filters to avoid having them appear on certain channels and kinds of content.

Several brands expressed concern about the ads' placement to CNN and said they have reached out to YouTube about the situation.

A Nike spokesperson said the company was "disturbed to learn that we appeared on [The Alex Jones Channel]." It has since asked YouTube to address why the channel wasn't flagged by a filter it had enabled.

Nike, like some of the other brands, opted in to a "sensitive subject exclusion" filter to better control where its ads appear. The exclusion filters include, according to YouTube: "Tragedy and Conflict;" "Sensitive Social Issues;" "Sexually Suggestive Content;" "Sensational & Shocking;" and "Profanity & Rough Language."

YouTube did not respond to questions from CNN about whether the channels should have been excluded by any of those filters.

"We have a filter and brand safety assurances from Google our content would never run around offensive content," a Paramount Network spokesperson said, adding that the company is trying to find out what "went wrong."

An Acer spokesperson confirmed the company also had reached out to its partners at YouTube, saying its "existing filters should have prevented this." The spokesperson said the company has set up additional filters to further block its ads from appearing on "divisive channels in the future."

"We take great measures to ensure our ads do not run on videos with sensitive content," a spokesperson for Grammarly, an online grammar-checker tool, told CNN on Friday. It was aware their ads had run on an InfoWars channel, the spokesperson said, and had been working closely with YouTube to ensure it didn't happen again.

A half hour after it sent CNN that statement, Grammarly ads were still running on an InfoWars YouTube channel. Its ads were also running on a YouTube channel that did not appear to be explicitly affiliated with InfoWars, but reposted InfoWars videos.

A Grammarly spokesperson said on Saturday the company had not been aware of the ads. "We have stringent sensitive subject exclusion filters in place with YouTube that we believed would exclude such channels. We've asked YouTube to ensure this does not happen again."

CNN has asked YouTube for further comment, but has not yet heard back.

Honey, a company that finds discounts for shoppers online, told CNN it unknowingly spent $169.64 to promote its brand on the Alex Jones YouTube channel. Honey said its first video ad appeared on the channel on January 21 and that eventually its ads on the channel received about 300 plays per day.

"[It] clearly was outside of our expectations [that this would happen by] using their sensitive subject exclusions tool," Honey co-founder Ryan Hudson told CNN.

The company's ad continued to play on The Alex Jones Channel until Wednesday, when CNN asked if it had any comment on why the ad was running there.

A spokesperson for 20th Century Fox said the company was unaware its ad had been placed on an InfoWars YouTube channel and after learning it had, immediately took it down. The company believes that it existing filters should have prevented it showing on the InfoWars channel.

The company is now having further conversations with YouTube, the spokesperson said, "to make sure this never happens again," and has asked for a refund.

A spokesperson for Mozilla told CNN, "We have explicit exclusions set up for our YouTube campaigns and should absolutely not have appeared alongside this content. We are disappointed to learn that YouTube's filters are not as effective as promised in preventing advertisements running alongside objectionable content. We've since reached out to Google and paused our advertising on the channel."

A spokesperson for USA for UNHCR said that this was the group's first time running ads on YouTube, and that it would now pull its ads from all of YouTube, and has asked for money spent on InfoWars-related channels back.

And a spokesperson for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints told CNN it has paused the specific ad campaign that ran on an InfoWars YouTube channel, and are looking into whether other ad campaigns are similarly affected.

Related: USA Today publishes op-ed by InfoWars conspiracy theorist

Companies can prevent their ads from appearing on any channel, at any time, by adding those channels to their account's "blacklist." Some of the companies CNN spoke with said that when they purchased ads on YouTube, they specifically included some of InfoWars' YouTube channels on their "blacklist," but that they were unaware InfoWars had other YouTube channels.

These moves come nearly a year after YouTube suffered an advertiser backlash when brands learned their promotional posts were appearing alongside extremist content.

Late last year, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said the service would take steps to ensure advertisers "that their ads are running alongside content that reflects their brand's values."

YouTube declined to comment on InfoWars and content similar to it not being flagged by the "sensitive subject exclusion" filter but emphasized its commitment to being "an open platform."

"We uphold free expression according to our Community Guidelines, even when there are views we don't agree with," a YouTube spokesperson said. "When videos are flagged to us that violate our guidelines, we immediately remove them. We do not allow ads to run on videos that deal with sensitive and tragic events."

Honey is currently "investigating options with Google" to recover the money it spent.

It's unclear if Jones has specifically profited from the ads. YouTube allows channels with over 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 annual watch hours to be monetized. At least seven out of the 11 InfoWars-related YouTube channels fall into this category, including the Alex Jones channel.

A source with access to YouTube's Creator Studio management system said the videos on the Alex Jones channel are claimed by Jones' media organization Free Speech Systems, LLC. Depending on which policy an advertiser selects, a share of the money it pays YouTube could go to Jones' company.

Infowars did not respond to a CNN request for comment.

In the meantime, UK-based financial company OneFamily said it "alerted Google to recommend they add [The Alex Jones Channel] to their own blacklist."

--CNN's Donie O'Sullivan, Soukaina Alaoui El Hassani and Seth Fiegerman contributed to this report.

Update: This article originally said one of the ads running on the Alex Jones Channel was for UNHCR. In fact, it was for USA for UNHCR, a non-profit group that supports UNHCR. </s> InfoWars' YouTube advertising revenues are going to be deleted, however; see Advertisers flee InfoWars founder Alex Jones' YouTube channel (CNN) </s> As YouTube continues in its efforts to crack down harder on content that violates its terms of usage and promotes offensive and/or misleading content, it’s found itself in the fake news crossfire this weekend.

After a video and some advertisers were removed from YouTube channels controlled by Alex Jones, the far-right commentator best known for hosting the video show InfoWars, Jones announced yesterday that YouTube would be freezing and deleting his YouTube channel today, Sunday — but the claim was false, according to YouTube.

“The Alex Jones channel with billions of views is frozen,” Jones wrote on Twitter. “We have been told it will be deleted tomorrow and all 33 thousands [sic] videos will be erased.” But according to a spokesperson from YouTube responding to our request for comment, the site at present has no plans to delete Alex Jones channel or erase his videos on Sunday, March 4.

Conveniently, Jones used the Tweet to promote (what else?) a new YouTube channel to show off its “censored” content videos. There’s nothing like a scandal when you’re InfoWars.

Jones’s YouTube account is one of the biggest of several tied to the InfoWars’ brand, with nearly 2.3 million subscribers and millions of views across hundreds of videos — a mix of right-leaning opinion pieces and sensationalised, tabloid-style reports that fan the flames of conservative discontent.

YouTube’s procedure for terminating an account involves a number of steps before an account gets completely taken down, starting with three “strikes” for terms of service violations and following an appeals process by the account holder.

While Alex Jones’s account is still alive and kicking, it is not in completely good standing.

It had one strike against it a couple of weeks ago, when YouTube removed a video from the channel that accused a student from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who had appeared in the media speaking about gun control, of being a ‘crisis actor’ in the wake of the shooting at the school — he isn’t. This counted as a first strike in YouTube’s termination procedure.

Then in recent days, YouTube confirmed to us that it had notified Jones about advertisers asking to be removed from Jones’ various channels — following an investigation by CNN into how the videos get monetised. It’s not clear if this is also counted as a strike against the channel (we’re asking).

YouTube has attracted negative publicity in recent months for what some believe to be a position that has been too laissez-faire when it comes to questionable videos on its platform. Critics believe the company’s motives of driving more traffic and advertising, and encouraging more rather than less activity on the site, combined with not-fit-for-purpose moderation against iffy content, have all contributed to a cess pool effect on the platform.

However, YouTube has responded with a vow to improve how it handles the problem — acknowledging the part the site plays to enable it — with better enforcement, and that is what we are seeing unfolding in YouTube’s scuffle with InfoWars.

The controversy with InfoWars and Alex Jones specifically relates to the trend of fake news and how it’s portrayed as fact alongside more accurate content. It’s a particularly acute problem on platforms like YouTube and Facebook, which play host to thousands of media organizations that range from junk merchants to legitimate news outlets.

It’s not clear how much InfoWars makes off YouTube advertising versus other revenue streams — which, like other social-media based personalities, also includes a strong merchandising track. In the case of InfoWars, it’s a sizeable online store selling everything for the right-leaning individual who believes the world is falling apart and that InfoWars has the solutions to fix it, or at least ride out the storm: alternative medicinal remedies, coffee (“Wake up, America” is the slogan), body armor, water filters, Trump gear and more.

Taking down a video and removing some advertisers may not, therefore, hit InfoWars’ bottom line, but they are still strong symbolic gestures that could undermine the channel’s credibility with mainstream viewers, and potentially offer an increment of less traffic to other parts of the machine (such as that store).

We’ve seen YouTube try to tackle the content controversy by turning other screws on offending channels. It has taken steps to remove monetising and discoverability features on channels, as it recently did with vlogger Logan Paul. And it has banned some sites outright. </s> (CNN/Money) Some of the biggest brands in the U.S. had ads running on the YouTube channels for far-right website InfoWars and its founder, notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and they say they had no idea YouTube was allowing their advertising to appear there.

Last week, YouTube reprimanded the conspiracy theory site and Jones for violating its community guidelines after a video posted to The Alex Jones Channel, InfoWars’ biggest YouTube account, claimed student anti-gun activists were actors.

Now YouTube and Jones’ channel on it are in the spotlight again. CNN has discovered ads on InfoWars’ channels from companies and organizations such as Nike (NKE), Acer, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Network, the Mormon Church, Moen, Expedia (EXPE), Alibaba (BABA), HomeAway, the NRA, Honey, Wix and ClassPass. </s> Talk about a rough Monday morning. Pundit Alex Jones found his radio and video show, and other content produced by the far-right site Infowars, removed from Apple, Facebook, Spotify and YouTube.

The cumulative actions represent the largest efforts yet against Jones, a conspiracy theorist who most famously promoted the idea that the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting never happened and was staged. Several families affected by the shooting, and an FBI agent who responded to the attack, have sued Jones for defamation. He is seeking to have the cases dismissed.

Facebook said on Monday that four pages belonging to Jones were removed for violating the social network's policy against hate speech. Also on Monday, the entirety of hundreds of episodes of "The Alex Jones Show" had been removed from music streaming service Spotify.

Those takedowns came just hours after Apple late Sunday removed all episodes of the show hosted by Jones and four other Infowars-related podcasts from Apple's iTunes and Podcast apps.

And later Monday, YouTube removed Jones and Infowars' channels from the video sharing service, with some pages labeled with the declaration the account was terminated for violations of community guidelines.

Until Monday, the major tech companies had been slow to remove Jones' content, despite a stated aim of halting the spread of fabricated news, as they tried to stave off claims that they were censoring political voices. Facebook -- facing criticism for Infowars' presence on the site -- detailed a policy of pushing down disputed posts so fewer users would see them while removing content for violating policies on hate speech and harassment. Spreading false news wasn't reason enough to boot a user from the site, its executives said.

Instead, tech companies have pointed to a breach of policies against hate speech, rather than misinformation, for removing Jones. Spotify removed several episodes of 'The Alex Jones Show' last week, citing violations of its policy against hateful speech. Online sentiment had been building against Spotify for days after subscribers found the episodes' listing on the service.

Prior to its action Monday, YouTube removed four of Jones' videos from his channel two weeks ago and suspended him from broadcasting live for 90 days saying the channel violated the company's graphic content policy.

Apple's move Sunday to remove five of six Infowars-related podcasts including "The Alex Jones Show" and "War Room" from its directories -- first reported by Buzzfeed News -- seemed to initiate a domino effect. "Apple does not tolerate hate speech, and we have clear guidelines that creators and developers must follow to ensure we provide a safe environment for all of our users," the company said in a statement.

"Podcasts that violate these guidelines are removed from our directory making them no longer searchable or available for download or streaming," Apple's statement said. "We believe in representing a wide range of views, so long as people are respectful to those with differing opinions.”

Links to "RealNews with David Knight" by Infowars remains on Apple's podcast apps.

Similarly, Facebook said it removed four of Jones' page for repeatedly posting content that included "hate speech that attacks or dehumanizes others," the network said in a post on its website.

After removing four videos, one each on four of Jones' pages -- the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Alex Jones Page, the InfoWars Page and the Infowars Nightly News Page -- for violating "our hate speech and bullying policies," Facebook continued to get reports from users, it says.

Those pages were ultimately taken down Monday for "glorifying violence, which violates our graphic violence policy, and using dehumanizing language to describe people who are transgender, Muslims and immigrants, which violates our hate speech policies," Facebook says. Jones had already been placed on a 30-day block "for his role in posting violating content to these pages," the company said.

Facebook said none of its actions was due to false news found on Infowars-related sites.

When asked why YouTube took action because Jones and Infowars, the site sent this statement to USA TODAY: "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."

The cumulative actions by the tech companies were hailed by Infowars' detractors with one person applauding "a little courage shown by our tech titans. ... Its good to see companies step up when people so flagrantly propagate falsehoods."

Jones, during his show on Infowars.com, said he would have to remove the site's links to social media because Infowars' content there "is all gone. They blew it all away in the middle of the night."

Some commenters on Twitter posted concerns about the potential harm of squelching voices, even if Jones' and Infowars had in the past fueled conspiracy theories such as

Pizzagate -- a far-fetched falsehood that Hillary Clinton operated a child sex ring at a Washington D.C. pizza restaurant, where in December 2016 a man fired his weapon off inside the pizza shop. Jones last year apologized to the restaurant owner.

"I don’t support Alex Jones and what InfoWars produces. He’s not a conservative. However, banning him and his outlet is wrong," said Brent Bozell, founder and president of the Media Research Center, a non-profit conservative group that monitors liberal trends in the media.

"It’s just the beginning," Bozell said in a statement. "We are rapidly approaching a point where censorship of opposing voices is the norm. That’s dangerous.”

Similarly, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, recently questioned whether Facebook should be removing publishers from their massive social network at all. After seeing a July 27 story reported by Mashable about Jones' 30-day ban, Cruz tweeted: "Am no fan of Jones — among other things he has a habit of repeatedly slandering my Dad by falsely and absurdly accusing him of killing JFK — but who the hell made Facebook the arbiter of political speech? Free speech includes views you disagree with."

But the constitutional protection of free speech is meant to prevent the government -- not businesses or organizations -- from censoring citizens.

"As private companies, Apple, Facebook and Spotify can decide what content appears on their platforms, so I wouldn't call (the tech sites' actions) a violation of speech," said Lata Nott, executive director of the First Amendment Center.
Advertisers remove their ads from InfoWars founder Alex Jones' YouTube channels. Many of the brands say they were not aware their adverts were being shown on the channel until being contacted by CNN.