Google Bans Infowars Android App After Coronavirus Video

He’s already been banned from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Apple’s iOS App Store, and now Google is the latest to ban Alex Jones’ Infowars, removing its Android app from the Google Play Store after a controversial video posted in the app featured Jones questioning the effectiveness of social distancing, quarantines and shelter-in-place restrictions meant to stop the spread of coronavirus.

“Now more than ever, combating misinformation on the Play Store is a top priority for the team,” a Google spokesperson told WIRED. “When we find apps that violate Play policy by distributing misleading or harmful information, we remove them from the store.”

In the video, Jones claims natural antivirals that can treat COVID-19 exist and spews a few cuckoo references to robots and aliens, saying, “Everybody dies under the new world order except maybe one tenth of one percent that believe they’re going to merge with machines and have made deals with this inter-dimensional thing that gave them all the technology … You can’t make a deal with these aliens, OK, that the Bible tells you about and ever get off the planet.”

It’s not the first time Jones’ conspiracy theories related to the virus have gotten him in hot water. Earlier this month, New York attorney general Letitia James sent him a cease and desist notice after he claimed in videos and on the Infowars website that his DNA Force Plus supplements, Superblue toothpaste and SilverSol gargle could protect against or treat COVID-19.

“As the coronavirus continues to pose serious risks to public health, Alex Jones has spewed outright lies and has profited off of New Yorkers’ anxieties,” James said in a statement. “Mr. Jones’ public platform has not only given him a microphone to shout inflammatory rhetoric, but his latest mistruths are incredibly dangerous and pose a serious threat to the public health of New Yorkers and individuals across the nation.”

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