Apple removed five of Alex Jones and Infowars’ six podcasts from its Podcasts and iTunes services, a major move to withdraw distribution from the controversial conspiracy theorist. “Apple does not tolerate hate speech,” the company said in a statement. “We believe in representing a wide range of views, so long as people are respectful to those with differing opinions.” Spotify, Facebook and YouTube have also recently removed some of Jones’s content. [John Paczkowski and Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed News]
Recode Daily: Apple is the latest to remove Alex Jones and Infowars content
Plus: A Recode Q&A with Index Ventures; more employee unease at Google; what’s behind the U.S. military’s bad tweets; how tech billionaires use philanthropy to save money and avoid scrutiny; and Bigfoot erotica is trending up.
Stefania M. D’Alessandro / Getty
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Amazon is expected to reveal the city for its second headquarters — the winner of its “HQ2” bake-off — sometime this year. But as the 20 North American cities have wooed Amazon with lucrative tax credits and other incentives, the terms remain secretive — often beyond the scope of the Freedom of Information Act. “What have I been told?” a member of Indianapolis’ city council said to the New York Times. “Absolutely nothing.” [Julie Creswell / The New York Times]
After news broke of Google’s plan to launch a censored version of its search engine in China, some of the tech giant’s employees expressed dismay and discontent. “There’s been total radio silence from leadership, which is making a lot of people upset and scared,” one person told The Intercept. “Our internal meme site and Google Plus are full of talk, and people are a.n.g.r.y.” Google decided not to renew a Pentagon contract in June after employees expressed outrage with the partnership. Is this different? [Ryan Gallagher / The Intercept]
Branches of the United States military have turned to social media to craft, er, “unique” brands online. The Army has tweeted about #WorldEmojiDay and #HumpDay, even using a social media handbook encouraging curators to “create a voice and be authentic.” Various branches of the military have been criticized for recent insensitive tweets. [Caroline Haskins / The Outline]
Silicon Valley’s wealthiest have exploited a tax loophole that allows them to surreptitiously shield their assets from taxation and public scrutiny. Tech billionaires have used donor-advised funds, “a sort of charitable checking account with serious tax benefits and little or no accountability,” to avoid paying capital gains taxes while also claiming a charitable deduction. One such fund has over $13 billion in assets and houses the assets of Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Reed Hastings and Jack Dorsey, among others. [David Gelles / The New York Times]
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