Conspiracy theorists find fertile ground on Amazon video service

AMAZON’S television service is showing films by conspiracy theorists claiming that governments are controlled by human-reptilian hybrids and that global elites secretly plan to exterminate most of the world’s population.

The digital giant is spending billions on big-budget dramas and sports rights to dominate the living room with Amazon Prime Video.

But as concern over online misinformation mounts, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that Amazon is also propagating the bizarre fantasies of Alex Jones and David Icke.

Mr Jones is a leading figure in the socalled US alt-Right, known for his paranoid anti-government rants online. He is being sued by the parents of children murdered in the Sandy Hook school shooting after claiming the massacre of 20 six- and seven-year-olds by a mentally ill young man was staged as a “false flag” to help impose gun control. In one of half a dozen feature-length films on Amazon Prime Video, Mr Jones claims that the Obama administration was backed by a New World Order to “attempt to con the American people into accepting global slavery”.

The Anti-Defamation League, a US Jewish group, has highlighted Mr Jones’s rants against Jews and the “Jewish mafia”. He denies anti-Semitism.

Mr Icke, a former BBC sports presenter, remains best known for claiming, in a Terry Wogan interview in 1991, that he was the son of God. He has since carved out a career as a conspiracy theorist, claiming that the world is controlled by ruling families, including the Royal family, who have interbred with an alien reptilian race.

In a film on Amazon Prime Video, available as part of the service’s £7.99 per month subscription, Mr Icke claims all political leaders report to the reptilian race.

Amazon’s dissemination of conspiracy theories as part of a service challenging traditional television is likely to stoke debate over regulation.

The BBC and Channel 4 are demanding rules to ensure their programmes – which are produced under strict rules of accuracy – are guaranteed prominence as a shift to on-demand viewing via apps accelerates.

On-demand-only programming, like that available on Amazon, is currently subject to much more relaxed regulation, although the Government has signalled that a crackdown is in the works.

Amazon did not respond to requests for comment.

‘[It was an] attempt to con the American people into accepting global slavery’