Apple has removed the Infowars app from the App Store, just a day after controversial Infowars radio show host Alex Jones was permanently banned from Twitter.
Apple confirmed the app’s permanent removal to BuzzFeed late on Friday, but instead of giving a specific reason for taking action now, Apple simply cited its own general App Store guidelines, which prohibit content that is “offensive, insensitive, upsetting, intended to disgust, or in exceptionally poor taste.”
Early last month, Apple removed the entire libraries of five Infowars podcasts from its Podcasts platform and said it had chosen to do so on the grounds that it does not tolerate hate speech.
At the time, the tech giant defended its decision not to remove the Infowars app, saying that the App Store is a place for “all points of view” as long as apps are respectful to users with differing opinions. However, Apple also noted that it continues to monitor apps for violations of its guidelines and will remove them if necessary.
Apple’s initial stance struck some observers as odd, given that the Infowars mobile app allowed users to live stream the same programs that were removed from the Apple Podcasts platform. The app’s continued availability also allowed it to benefit from the publicity surrounding Apple’s removal of the podcasts.
However, that’s no longer the case, and as of Friday evening, searching for the app within the App Store only returns apps related to Infowars, while the official app is nowhere to be seen.
Apple’s removal of the Infowars app follows Twitter’s decision on Thursday to permanently suspend Alex Jones and Infowars. The social media network said the suspension was based on new reports of tweets and videos posted that violate its abusive behavior policy, in addition to the accounts’ previous violations.
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