Alex Jones
Alex Jones | |
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_(cropped)_(2).jpg) Jones in 2024 | |
| Born | Alexander Emerick Jones February 11, 1974 Dallas, Texas, U.S. |
| Occupation | Political commentator |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Known for | |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 4 |
| Signature | |
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Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American far-right[1] political commentator and prominent conspiracy theorist.[a][4] Since at least 2000,[5] he has hosted The Alex Jones Show from Austin, Texas, originally broadcast[6] by the Genesis Communications Network across the United States via AM radio syndication and internet.[7] He is the founder of Infowars and Banned.Video, websites that promote conspiracy theories and fake news.[8][9][10]
Among many other conspiracy theories, Jones has alleged that the United States government either concealed information about or outright falsified the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the Parkland high school shooting, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the September 11 attacks.[11] He has also claimed that several governments and large businesses have colluded to create a globalist "New World Order" through "manufactured economic crises, sophisticated surveillance tech and—above all—inside-job terror attacks that fuel exploitable hysteria".[12] Jones has provided a platform for white nationalists and neo-Nazis on his website Banned.Video, as well as providing an "entry point" to their ideology.[13]
A longtime critic of Republican and Democratic foreign and security policy, Jones supported Donald Trump's 2016 presidential bid and continued to support him as a savior from an alleged criminal bipartisan cabal controlling the federal government, despite also falling out with Trump over several of his policies, including airstrikes against the Assad regime.[14][15][16] A staunch supporter of Trump's re-election, Jones also supported the attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election. On January 6, 2021, Jones was a speaker at the rally in Lafayette Square Park supporting Trump that preceded the latter's supporters' attack on the US Capitol.[17] In 2026, Jones once again fell out with Trump over his disagreements with the Iran War, criticizing the intervention as contrary to the "America First" message.[18]
In October 2022, for Jones's defamatory falsehoods about the Sandy Hook shooting, juries in Connecticut and Texas awarded a total of $1.487 billion in damages from Jones to a first responder and families of victims; the plaintiffs alleged that Jones's lies led to them being threatened and harassed for years.[12][19][20] On December 2, 2022, Jones filed for personal bankruptcy.[21] After three years of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Jones's appeal without comment.[22]
Early life and influences
Alexander Emerick Jones was born on February 11, 1974,[23][24] in Dallas, Texas, and was raised in Rockwall, 25 miles (40 km) east of Dallas. His father was a dentist from Austin[25][26] and his mother was a homemaker.[12] He says he has English, German, Scottish, and Irish descent.[27][28][29] The family moved to Austin in Jones's second year of high school. He attended Anderson High School, where he played football and graduated in 1993.[29][12] After graduating, Jones briefly attended Austin Community College before dropping out.[30]
As a teenager, he read None Dare Call It Conspiracy, a book by John Birch Society conspiracy theorist Gary Allen, which alleged global bankers, rather than elected officials, controlled American politics.[31] It had a profound influence on him, and Jones has described Allen's work as "the easiest-to-read primer on The New World Order".[12]
Waco siege and Oklahoma bombing
The Waco siege at the Branch Davidian complex near Waco, Texas, had an impact on Jones. It ended in April 1993, near the end of Jones's senior year of high school, with a substantial fire and a significant number of fatalities. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), these events "only confirmed his belief in the inexorable progress of unseen, malevolent forces". It was at this time he started to host a call-in show on public access television (PACT/ACTV) in Austin.[3]
The Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995, was intended by perpetrator Timothy McVeigh as a response to the federal involvement in the botched resolution of the Waco siege on its second anniversary.[3][32] Jones began accusing the federal government of having caused it: "I understood there's a kleptocracy working with psychopathic governments—clutches of evil that know the tricks of control".[12] He did not believe the bombing had been the responsibility of McVeigh and his associate Terry Nichols.[32]
In 1998, Jones organized a successful campaign to build a new Branch Davidian church as a memorial to those who died during the 1993 fire.[33] He often discussed the project on his public-access television program. He claimed that David Koresh and his followers were peaceful people who were murdered by Attorney General Janet Reno and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms during the siege.[34]
Early broadcasting career
Jones began his career in Austin working on a live, call-in format public-access cable television program.[35] In 1996, Jones switched to radio, hosting a show named The Final Edition on KJFK (98.9 FM).[34] Influenced by radio host William Cooper, who phoned in to Jones's early shows, Jones began to broadcast about the New World Order conspiracy theory at this time.[32]
While running for Congress, Ron Paul was a guest on his show several times.[36] In 1999, Jones tied with Shannon Burke for that year's poll of "Best Austin Talk Radio Host", as voted by readers of The Austin Chronicle.[37] Later that year, he was fired from KJFK-FM for refusing to broaden his topics. The station's operations manager said that Jones's views made it difficult for the station to sell advertising.[34] Jones said:
It was purely political, and it came down from on high ... I was told 11 weeks ago to lay off Bill Clinton, to lay off all these politicians, to not talk about rebuilding the church, to stop bashing the Marines, A to Z.[34]
InfoWars
In 1999, Jones founded with his wife, Kelly Jones, the website InfoWars, initially as a mail-order outlet for the sale of their conspiracy-oriented videos.[31] Jones used the company to release films, such as America Destroyed by Design and America Wake Up Or Waco.[38] Over time, InfoWars, with Jones as its publisher and director, became a prominent fake news website centered on promoting conspiracy theories.[39][43] In November 2016, the InfoWars website received approximately 10 million visits, making its reach more extensive than mainstream news websites such as The Economist and Newsweek.[44] Another of Jones's websites is PrisonPlanet.com.[45]
The Alex Jones Show
After his firing from KJFK-FM, Jones began to broadcast his own show by Internet connection from his home.[12] In July 2000, a group of Austin Community Access Center (ACAC) radio hosts claimed that Jones had used legal proceedings and ACAC policy to intimidate them or try to get their broadcasts removed.[46] In 2001, Jones's radio show was syndicated on approximately 100 stations.[12]
On the day of the 9/11 attacks, Jones said on his radio show there was a "98 percent chance this was a government-orchestrated controlled bombing".[47] He began promoting the conspiracy theory that the Bush administration was behind the attack.[48] As a result, several stations dropped Jones's program, according to columnist Will Bunch.[49] Jones became a leading figure of the "9/11 truther" cause.[50] In 2010, the show attracted around two million listeners each week.[51] According to Alexander Zaitchik of Rolling Stone magazine, in 2011 Jones had a larger on-line audience than Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh combined.[12] In 2020, The Alex Jones Show was syndicated nationally by the Genesis Communications Network to more than 100 AM and FM radio stations in the United States.[52]
According to journalist Will Bunch, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America,[53][54] the show has a demographic that leans more towards younger listeners than do other conservative pundits, due to Jones's "highly conspiratorial tone and Web-oriented approach". Bunch also stated that Jones "feed[s] on the deepest paranoia".[49]
Jones told The Washington Post in November 2016 that his radio show, then syndicated to 129 stations, had a daily audience of five million listeners and his video streams had topped 80 million viewers in a single month.[45]
Jones's syndicator, Genesis Communications Network, announced its shutdown effective May 5, 2024, citing financial losses. [55]
Website, own-brand and endorsed products
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According to court testimony Jones delivered in 2014, InfoWars then had revenues of over $20 million a year.[56]
A 2017 piece for German magazine Der Spiegel by Veit Medick indicated that two-thirds of Jones's funds derive from sales of his own products. These products are marketed through the InfoWars website and through advertising spots on Jones's show. They include dietary supplements, toothpaste, bulletproof vests and "brain pills", which hold "an appeal for anyone who believes Armageddon is near", according to Medick.[57] From September 2015 to the end of 2018, the InfoWars store made $165 million in sales, according to court filings relating to the Sandy Hook lawsuits filed against Jones.[58]
In August 2017, Californian medical company Labdoor, Inc reported on tests applied to six of Jones's dietary supplement products. These included a product named Survival Shield, which was found by Labdoor to contain only iodine, and a product named Oxy-Powder, which comprised a compound of magnesium oxide and citric acid—common ingredients in dietary supplements. Labdoor indicated no evidence of prohibited or harmful substances, but cast doubt on the marketing claims for these products, and asserted that the quantity of the ingredients in certain products would be "too low to be appropriately effective".[59][60][61]
On a 2017 segment of Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver stated that Jones spends "nearly a quarter" of his on-air time promoting products sold on his website, many of which are purported solutions to medical and economic problems claimed to be caused by the conspiracy theories described on his show.[62][63]
Research commissioned in 2017 by the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) determined that two products sold by Jones contained potentially dangerous levels of the heavy metal lead.[64]
Jones continued his promotion of supplements during the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 12, 2020, Jones was issued a cease and desist from the Attorney General of New York, after he claimed, in the absence of any evidence, that products he sold, including colloidal silver toothpaste, were an effective treatment for COVID-19.[65][66][67] The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also sent him a letter on April 9, 2020, warning that the federal government might proceed to seize the products he was marketing for COVID-19 or fine him if he continued to sell them.[68] A disclaimer then appeared on Jones's website, stating his products were not intended for treating "the novel coronavirus". On a linked page, Jones was quoted: "They plan on, if they've fluoridated you and vaccinated you and stunned you and mesmerized you with the TV and put you in a trance, on killing you". Jones continued to sell the products.[65]
According to leaked text messages from Jones's mobile phone, InfoWars sold VasoBeet, a product it described as a "powerful beet formula", at a 900% retail markup as of September 2019. On January 29, 2020, InfoWars pulled in $245,000 in food sales, a day after Jones stoked fear about food shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in a broadcast.[69]
During the April 2022 InfoWars bankruptcy hearing, Jones's representative stated, "InfoWars is a prominent trademark in the conspiracy theory community and Alex Jones is equally as prominent". He added that Jones's name was the "Coca-Cola of the conspiracy theory community".[70][71]
In 2023, Jones launched a new subscription-based podcast, Alex Jones Live. It was put on hold shortly after it began due to matters relating to his Sandy Hook case.[72]
Social media restrictions and bans
In February 2018, YouTube issued a "strike" against the InfoWars channel after a video was posted in which Alex Jones accused David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland school shooting, of being a paid "crisis actor". YouTube removed the video for violating its policies against harassment and bullying.[73]
On July 24, 2018,[74] YouTube removed four InfoWars' videos citing "child endangerment and hate speech",[75][76] issued another "strike" against the channel, and suspended the ability to live stream.[74][76] On July 27, 2018, Facebook suspended Jones's profile for 30 days, and removed the same videos, saying they violated the website's standards against hate speech and bullying.[77][74] On August 3, 2018, Stitcher Radio removed all of his podcasts, citing harassment.[78]
Later that year, on August 6, 2018, Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Spotify removed all content by Jones and InfoWars for policy violations. YouTube removed channels associated with InfoWars, including The Alex Jones Channel, stating that InfoWars had repeatedly attempted to post content similar to that which had already been removed, as well as attempting to circumvent the suspension of its live streaming privileges by having other users live stream on its behalf.[79] On Facebook, four pages associated with InfoWars and Alex Jones were removed over repeated policy violations. Apple removed all podcasts associated with Jones from iTunes.[80] Facebook cited instances of dehumanizing immigrants, Muslims and transgender people, as well as glorification of violence, as examples of hate speech.[81][82] After InfoWars was banned from Facebook, Jones used another of his websites, NewsWars, to circumvent the ban.[83][84]
On August 13, 2018, Vimeo removed all of Jones's videos because of "prohibitions on discriminatory and hateful content".[85]
Jones's accounts were also removed from Pinterest,[86] Mailchimp[87] and LinkedIn.[88] As of early August 2018[update], Jones retained active accounts on Instagram,[89] Google+[90] and Twitter.[91][92] Jones tweeted a Periscope video calling on others to get their "battle rifles" ready against antifa, the mainstream media, and Chicom operatives.[93] In the video, he says: "Now is time to act on the enemy before they do a false flag". Twitter cited this as the reason to suspend his account for a week in August 2018.[94]
In September, Jones was permanently banned from Twitter and Periscope after comments about CNN reporter Oliver Darcy.[95][96] On September 7, 2018, the InfoWars app was removed from the Apple App Store for "objectionable content".[97] He was banned from using PayPal for business transactions, having violated the company's policies by expressing "hate or discriminatory intolerance against certain communities and religions".[98] After Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter, several previously banned accounts were reinstated including Donald Trump, Andrew Tate and Ye, but Jones was not among them. In November 2022, Musk referred to Jones as a person who "would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame" and said Jones would not be unbanned.[99] He changed his position on December 10, 2023, when he reinstated Jones's account citing that if Jones said something false, Community Notes would correct him.[100][101]
InfoWars remained available on Roku devices, in January 2019, a year after the channel's removal from multiple streaming services. Roku indicated that they do not "curate or censor based on viewpoint", and that it had policies against content that is "unlawful, incited illegal activities, or violates third-party rights", but that InfoWars was not in violation of these policies. Following a social media backlash, Roku removed InfoWars and stated, "After the InfoWars channel became available, we heard from concerned parties and have determined that the channel should be removed from our platform".[102][103]
In March 2019, YouTube terminated the Resistance News channel due to its reuploading of live streams from InfoWars.[104] On May 1, 2019, Jones was barred from using both Facebook and Instagram.[105][106][107] Jones briefly moved to Dlive, but was suspended in April 2019 for violating community guidelines.[108]
In March 2020, the InfoWars app was removed from the Google Play store due to Jones disseminating COVID-19 misinformation. A Google spokesperson stated that "combating misinformation on the Play Store is a top priority for the team" and apps that violate Play policy by "distributing misleading or harmful information" are removed from the store.[109]
Comedian Joe Rogan attracted controversy for hosting Jones on his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, in October 2020. The episode was made available on YouTube and Spotify in spite of Jones's ban from both platforms. Though Rogan occasionally fact-checked Jones throughout the course of the interview, he nonetheless faced backlash from critics for giving Jones a platform to spread misinformation and validate his views. A YouTube spokesman responded that YouTube reviewed the episode and determined it did not violate the site's guidelines, noting that YouTube bans channels rather than individuals.[110][111]
In March 2023, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported on Jones's leaked texts from his Sandy Hook defamation trial. The texts revealed that Jones and his collaborators had been trying to evade social media bans of InfoWars content by setting up alternate websites such as National File to disguise its origin.[69][112]
In May 2023, Jones guest hosted Steven Crowder's podcast Louder with Crowder. Crowder's channel was subsequently suspended by YouTube for facilitating ban evasion by Jones.[113]
In September 2025, after YouTube's parent company and Jim Jordan announced that all channels previously suspended for any form of political content violation would have the opportunity to be reinstated, Jones created a new channel on YouTube. Jones' new channel was suspended hours after creation. YouTube later stated that they had not started their program to reinstate users at that time.[114]
Shutdown, liquidation and sale
On June 23, 2024, Christopher Murray, Jones's bankruptcy trustee, filed an emergency motion in a Houston court where he indicated his intent to not only sell InfoWars, but also shut down the website and liquidate its assets.[115] [116] In the motion, Murray stated that he made plans to "conduct an orderly wind-down" of the operations of InfoWars's parent company and also "liquidate its inventory".[115]
Global Tetrahedron, the parent company of satirical news site The Onion, bid for the assets of InfoWars' parent company along with several families of victims of the Sandy Hook shooting, but the sale was halted for review on November 14.[117] Days later, attorneys for Jones sued in the U.S Bankruptcy Court in Houston, alleging the bid was unlawful.[118] Following a two-day court hearing in December,[119] U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez rejected the sale.[120]
On August 13, 2025, Texas Judge Maya Guerra Gamble ordered Infowars assets to be turned over to a state receiver to be sold to pay the families.[121] With The Onion reportedly renewing its efforts in Texas state court to acquire InfoWars, Jones asked the court on October 9 to halt proceedings.[122]
On October 14, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Jones, leaving the $1.4 billion judgment in place. This appeal was separate from his appeal in Texas of a $49 million defamation judgment also related to a Sandy Hook victim.[22]
Views and incidents
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