Alex Jones is a crackpot–but banning him from Facebook might be a bad idea
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Re: Alex Jones is a crackpot–but banning him from Facebook might be a bad idea
#2Not that I agree with it but the safe strategy for any big company is to ban anything that seems risky since 95% of content most users consume is benign which is what keeps them on the platform.
Re: Alex Jones is a crackpot–but banning him from Facebook might be a bad idea
#3Not that I agree with it but the safe strategy for any big company is to ban anything that seems risky since 95% of content most users consume is benign which is what keeps them on the platform.
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Re: Alex Jones is a crackpot–but banning him from Facebook might be a bad idea
#4No it's not. Dangerous people shouldn't be allowed platforms. You have to make it harder and harder for them to get a following.
Re: Alex Jones is a crackpot–but banning him from Facebook might be a bad idea
#5Not that I agree with it but the safe strategy for any big company is to ban anything that seems risky since 95% of content most users consume is benign which is what keeps them on the platform.
If social media platforms have devolved into only cat memes and sponsored clothing shoots, that's pretty disappointing for the human race. While crackpots like Alex Jones are objectionable to all people of sense, I don't trust Facebook/Twitter/Et Al to act as arbitrators of free speech.
Re: Alex Jones is a crackpot–but banning him from Facebook might be a bad idea
#6No it's not. Dangerous people shouldn't be allowed platforms. You have to make it harder and harder for them to get a following.
Indeed. It's long been rather clear that giving crackpots a platform is very different from shining a spotlight on their crackpottery, and the last decade or so have confirmed it even further, platforming crackpots and handing them ways to reach a wider audience is a net detriment to society.
Re: Alex Jones is a crackpot–but banning him from Facebook might be a bad idea
#7No it's not. Dangerous people shouldn't be allowed platforms. You have to make it harder and harder for them to get a following.
Platforms are more dangerous than people. Especially when they get to decide who's dangerous and who's allowed what.
Re: Alex Jones is a crackpot–but banning him from Facebook might be a bad idea
#8No it's not. Dangerous people shouldn't be allowed platforms. You have to make it harder and harder for them to get a following.
Indeed. It's long been rather clear that giving crackpots a platform is very different from shining a spotlight on their crackpottery, and the last decade or so have confirmed it even further, platforming crackpots and handing them ways to reach a wider audience is a net detriment to society.
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Re: Alex Jones is a crackpot–but banning him from Facebook might be a bad idea
#9The article says as much, but this is a hard problem with no great solutions.
Some of the places that traffic in Jones kind of craziness are the conspiracy and greatawakening subreddits. The former is absurdly abused by the mods while Holocaust deniers and child abuse accusations run rampant (this is why that's not cool Musk) and you get banned for opposing that and other lunacy.
The latter subreddit is kind of terrifying. It's straight on cult behavior complete with subprophets with obvious mental illness breaking down their supposed communications from Trump and "Q" - and people not only believe it but celebrate it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/greatawakening/comments/9284sg/trum...
I've no doubt this existed before (how did the militant movements organize prior to Waco and OKC?) but I wonder if the spread of some of this lunacy (Q) would be possible if the platform wasn't provided to them. I kind of wait for the day that Reddit has to shut that down because of how bad it looks, but I hope it's not because of some violent and paranoid act fueled by it.
Re: Alex Jones is a crackpot–but banning him from Facebook might be a bad idea
#10I believe the term being looked for is "martyr".
Being banned from prominent platforms in a country which professes to believe in free speech (professes, because there's a bunch of caveats) is only going to boost the signal.
This (in concert with the banning of certain DNS entries) is going to bite us in the ass. Of course, what else are we to do?