Alex Jones' Infowars rockets up the charts in Apple's App Store, days after Apple and others banned his podcasts

• The Infowars app reached the fourth spot in the news section of Apple's App Store, following Apple's ban of Alex Jones' podcast.
• Apple has not said why it removed the podcast, but allowed the app to stay in the App Store.
• The Infowars app is also in Google's Android app store, even though YouTube removed Jones' YouTube page.

Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., speaks during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Jose, California, U.S., on Monday, June 4, 2018. 

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Apple was the first major tech company to make a move against Alex Jones of Infowars on Sunday night by removing his podcast from iTunes.

But the Infowars iPhone app, which hosts some of the same content and themes found on the podcast, still lives on in the company's App Store. In fact, the app had skyrocketed from below the top 10 to become the fourth most popular app in the news category — beating out the CNN and Fox News apps — by Tuesday morning. The boost was likely caused by increased downloads given the news Monday that Infowars was banned from several tech platforms.

When Apple removed the podcast Sunday, it issued a statement that said, "Apple does not tolerate hate speech, and we have clear guidelines that creators and developers must follow to ensure we provide a safe environment for all of our users."

The InfoWars app appears to violate the same rules and guidelines Apple cited when it removed the podcast.

The InfoWars iPhone app rose in the Apple App Store rankings after Big Tech platforms banned its content.

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Apple did not respond to inquiries about why the InfoWars app was featured in the news section of the App Store. It declined to comment Monday when BuzzFeed News asked the company why the InfoWars app was still allowed in the App Store after the podcast was banned.

Jones has not issued a formal statement on the InfoWars bans across various tech platforms, but has criticized the moves several times on his Twitter account and website this week.

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The InfoWars app was also available in Google's Play store for Android apps on Tuesday. A Google spokesperson declined to comment on InfoWars specifically, but did say the company only removes apps from its store if it violates policy.

Whether it intended to or not, Apple has positioned itself as the leader against InfoWars content across major platforms by moving first against Jones' podcast. Facebook, YouTube, Spotify and other internet companies followed Apple's lead Monday by removing Jones and Infowars pages and videos from their respective platforms. Each company cited violations of their respective hate speech policies and other community guidelines. Twitter was the only major social network that did not ban Infowars accounts.