Meta allowed and profited from multiple Instagram ads that featured far-right conspiracy theorist and Infowars founder Alex Jones, even though the company previously banned Jones and Infowars from its platforms.

In 2019, The Atlantic reported that the company had committed to banning Alex Jones and Infowars and that it would remove any “content containing Infowars videos, radio segments, or articles (unless the post is explicitly condemning the content),” and would “also remove any groups set up to share Infowars content and events promoting any of the banned extremist figures.”

Despite that ban, Media Matters has found that between January 1 and January 4, Meta allowed Luke Storey — a podcast host who has pushed COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories — to run multiple Instagram ads that contained snippets from a recent interview with Jones. 

The ads, which included various clips from the interview, featured an Infowars hashtag, urged Instagram users to “share this one with a friend,” and previewed a discussion about “the moon landing hoax.” (Meta’s misinformation policy seemingly prohibits ads that contain false information and conspiracy theories that have been debunked by the company’s third-party fact checkers.)

In one ad, Jones seemingly encouraged people to disobey the law. “When tyranny is the law, following the law is oblivion,” he said, adding, “The law of survival means people need to start learning how to be outlaws.” (Jones also seemingly discouraged viewers from paying taxes.)

It’s unclear how much revenue Meta earned from the ads because Meta’s Ad Library does not list the spending amount for ads not characterized as pertaining to “social issues, elections or politics.”

Storey also posted the interview on YouTube, another platform that banned Jones and Infowars.

Storey’s ads are just the latest chapter in Meta’s well-documented struggles to enforce its ban on Jones and Infowars and its long history of repeatedly struggling to enforce its advertising policies.