Analysis: YouTube banned Alex Jones. Logan Paul, one of the platform’s biggest stars, invited him back.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones speaks outside of the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill. By Abby Ohlheiser Abby Ohlheiser Reporter covering digital culture Email Bio Follow April 11 at 10:20 AM Logan Paul didn’t waste much time getting to the special guest on his podcast Wednesday evening. “He is the most banned person in the 21st century,” Paul said. Out came Alex Jones.
“I just know that you guys are super popular, been hearing about you for years, I’ve been seeing how they try to restrict your free speech for years, which is a bunch of bull,” he said, toward the beginning of the podcast. As researchers such as Rebecca Lewis have demonstrated, the extreme “fringes” of YouTube have long known that YouTube isn’t just a video platform. It’s a social network. If you can get your content amplified by a bigger creator — or one with an audience you covet, or someone more mainstream — it helps you grow, too. Jones might not have a YouTube channel anymore, but Paul’s audience now knows exactly where to find him.Jones has sought boosts from mainstream YouTubers with huge audiences before.
One of Paul’s co-hosts, Mike Majlak, who is from the area of Connecticut where the shooting happened, asked Jones whether he felt any responsibility because of the size of his platform. “It’s weird sitting here with you . . . and see you make some really solid points,” Majlak said at about the hour mark, less than halfway through the podcast’s running time. A few minutes later, Majlak asked Jones about Pizzagate, a conspiracy theory involving politically connected pedophiles running a child sex-trafficking ring out of a pizza shop. Jones then spoke, largely uninterrupted, about Pizzagate.
“You still say things that like in L.A. … quite honestly you can’t say,” Paul said. “I’ve heard you say ‘tranny.’ I’ve heard you say ‘retarded.'”
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