YouTube under fire for censoring video exposing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones

Platform removed a video exposing Jones' harmful lies about the Sandy Hook massacre, but has yet to censor Jones himself - raising questions about its approach to fake news

YouTube's algorithm has long promoted videos attacking gun violence victims, allowing the rightwing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to build a massive audience. But when a not-for-profit recently exposed Jones' most offensive viral content in a compilation on YouTube, the site was much less supportive - instead deleting the footage from the platform, accusing it of "harassment and bullying".

Media Matters, a leftwing watchdog, last week posted a series of clips of Jones spreading falsehoods about the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school massacre, a newsworthy video of evidence after the victims' families filed a defamation lawsuit against the Infowars host. But YouTube, for reasons it has yet to explain, removed the video three days after it was published, a move that once again benefitted Jones, who is now arguing that the defamation suit has defamed him.