Community Corner
Roku Reverses, Pulls Alex Jones Show from Programming
The lawyer for the Sandy Hook families suing the radio host was among the many voices calling for the show's deletion.
NEWTOWN. CT — Streaming video platform Roku reversed itself Tuesday night, deleting Alex Jones' show Infowars from its lineup after many, including the lawyer for the Sandy Hook families suing Jones, protested.
According to entertainment industry bible Variety, on Tuesday the website Digiday was the first to publish the news that Infowars was being distributed by Roku. Online outrage snowballed when Internet agitators Sleeping Giants picked up the news:
Such a cynical move by @Roku here. In light of very public lawsuits against him by the Sandy Hook parents who’ve been targeted by him, why would they decide now to stream his show? https://t.co/FkUrdzPLMD
— Sleeping Giants (@slpng_giants) January 15, 2019
That decision was called "an insult to the memory of the 26 children and educators killed at Sandy Hook" in a statement released by Bridgeport attorney Josh Koskoff, representing those families in their defamation suit against Jones.
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Many on Twitter threatened to switch streaming services and/or devices:
I was going to buy a second Roku to replace my Firestick, however if you retain Infowars streaming service then I'll just keep the Firestick and deal with no YouTube. Let me know what you plan to do! Thanks!
— this is the bad place (@leighleighbird) January 15, 2019
Other viewers noted defended Roku as a neutral distribution platform:
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Just don't add the damn channel to your box. You don't throw out your computer because your web browser can take you to Infowars, or rail against DNS because it can resolve the name to an IP address. Running from one platform to another seems petulant and ineffective. Ignore him.
— Craig Plunkett (@plunkman) January 15, 2019
In the end, on Tuesday evening, Roku gave in to the backlash and announced on Twitter that deletion of the channel was underway:
reverseAfter the InfoWars channel became available, we heard from concerned parties and have determined that the channel should be removed from our platform. Deletion from the channel store and platform has begun and will be completed shortly.
— Roku (@Roku) January 16, 2019
Image via Shutterstock
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