FCC crackdown on pirate radio station ensnares Alex Jones

Alex Jones.
(Image credit: Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

Alex Jones and/or his Infowars site have been banned from Facebook, Apple, YouTube, and Spotify over their hateful and demonstrably false conspiracy theories, and even Twitter just put Jones on one-week probation. Now, Jones has been swept up in another controversy, this time with the Federal Communications Commission.

The FCC shut down Radio Liberty, a pirate radio station that sometimes airs Jones' programs. According to documents in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Austin, Texas, this week, Radio Liberty had been illegally broadcasting over a local FM station from 2013 until it ceased pirating the airwaves in December and switched to online streaming and a call-in "listen line." Infowars issued a statement clarifying that "Mr. Jones does not own, operate, or have any relationship with that radio station or its owners."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.