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Facebook: Alex Jones’ Mueller threat didn’t violate policies

"You're going to get it, or I'm going to die trying, b**ch."

Infowars' Alex Jones gestures to Robert Mueller on July 23, 2018. (Screengrab via Infowars)
Infowars' Alex Jones gestures to Robert Mueller on July 23, 2018. (Screengrab via Infowars)

Despite claiming to be on the front lines of the “fight against fake news,” Facebook continues to provide a verified platform for Infowars, Alex Jones’ right-wing website known for promoting baseless conspiracy theories like the Newtown school shooting was a hoax, Parkland school shooting survivors are crisis actors, and Democrats are plotting a Civil War.

Now Mark Zuckerberg’s social network is in hot water again over its refusal to de-platform Infowars. A day after Jones accused special counsel Robert Mueller of being a pedophile in a violent rant, Facebook said Tuesday that Jones’ threat and unfounded claim didn’t violate any of its rules. Even though Jones said, “You’re going to get it, or I’m going to die trying, bitch. Get ready,” a company spokesperson told BuzzFeed News that Jones’ comments were “not a credible statement of intent to commit violence.”

Concerns about Facebook’s apparent hypocrisy are not limited to the outside world. In a farewell letter to colleagues, former Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos urged colleagues to listen when users “tell us a feature is creepy or point out a negative impact we are having in the world.”

“We need to be willing to pick sides when there are clear moral or humanitarian issues. And we need to be open, honest and transparent about our challenges and what we are doing to fix them.”

Stamos’ letter was written in March, but it was first reported by BuzzFeed News on Tuesday, less than a week after Zuckerberg made controversial comments about Holocaust deniers while trying to defend Infowars’ continued presence on his platform.

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Jones has also claimed that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were an “inside job,” the ‘Pizzagate’ conspiracy theory was real, and Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are demons.