Amazon is hawking bizarre conspiracy theory films by the likes of David Icke and Alex Jones
- It's easy to find conspiracy theory videos by Infowars host Alex Jones and David Icke on Amazon's video service.
- Both men have famously crazy theories about Barack Obama and the world being taken over by reptiles.
- Amazon is charging viewers money to watch conspiracy content through its Prime subscription service or as individual rentals, and doesn't have any warning labels for the videos.
It's surprisingly easy to find films on Amazon Prime suggesting that former US president Barack Obama was a puppet or that the world is being taken over by a reptilian alien species.
The Daily Telegraph reported that Amazon carries videos that promote two well-known conspiracy theorists: Infowars host Alex Jones and professional scaremonger David Icke.
Jones is particularly notorious for claiming that the London 7/7 bombings and the Sandy Hook school shooting were "staged." The parents of the Sandy Hook victims are suing him.
A quick search on Amazon's video service brings up Jones' 2009 film "The Obama Deception" and other titles, available either to rent from £3.50 ($4.60), or for free for anyone who pays £79 a year to access Amazon's Prime subscription service.
Other than customer reviews beneath each video, there is no warning that the content contains conspiracy theories.
David Icke is a British former BBC sports presenter. He's also a Holocaust denier and promotes the idea that the world has been taken over by a reptilian alien species.
As with Alex Jones' videos, it's easy to find content promoting Icke's conspiracy theories on Amazon's video service. It costs £4.99 to rent "The Reptilian Agenda," which carries the blurb:
"Amazing confirmation that a reptilian extraterrestrial race has controlled the world for thousands of years. In this fantastic presentation, Zulu Shaman and Historian Credo Mutwa and David Icke reveal the story of the reptilian takeover of Planet Earth and how a shape-shifting Reptilian race (the Chitauri to Africans) has controlled humanity for thousands of years."
The problem highlights how unwilling tech companies are to regulate content on their platforms, even when their users treat them as a replacement for television. Traditional TV broadcasters are subject to strict editorial standards in the UK.
While companies such as YouTube have argued they don't want to police speech and user-generated content, Amazon will struggle to make the same case, given it charges people to watch videos either through rentals or through Prime.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.