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Apple Removes Infowars from Podcast Directory

wsj.com

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Re: Apple Removes Infowars from Podcast Directory

#91

Post by edkennedy »

zaroth wrote: post #88

This is an interestingly coordinated move. It seems a most like each of the platforms was waiting for one of the others to make the first move at wiping InfoWars off their platform entirely instead of just censoring specific episodes, and then the dominoes fall. I’ve never listened to an InfoWars podcast, so I don’t know what I’m missing. But from what I gather Alex is an entertaining quack who is ultimately harmless…

He was toeing the line of violence against journalists though, which is exactly when the take downs started to happen. "I don't condone violence buuuuuut..." https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2018/07/13/infowars-perso...

Re: Apple Removes Infowars from Podcast Directory

#93

Post by eksemplar »

zaroth wrote: post #88

This is an interestingly coordinated move. It seems a most like each of the platforms was waiting for one of the others to make the first move at wiping InfoWars off their platform entirely instead of just censoring specific episodes, and then the dominoes fall. I’ve never listened to an InfoWars podcast, so I don’t know what I’m missing. But from what I gather Alex is an entertaining quack who is ultimately harmless…

I’m not sure I’d call Alex Jones harmless considering the parents of Sandy Hook victims received death threats after his show labeling them as actors in a false flag operation.

Re: Apple Removes Infowars from Podcast Directory

#96

Post by spamizbad »

wycs wrote: post #57
foolrush wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Social science research indicates that it isn't about "hiding" hate directed speech, but rather to consider the impact on the victims of such speech. That is, when one is able to say the word "hiding", it is spoken from the position of privilege; it is a very real existential threat to those impacted. Constricting hate speech has a notable impact on the dignity and well-being of those impacted[1]. [1] EG: https://www…

Do you care at all about free speech? You are willing kill this beautiful freedom we have for that?

I would never support the government throwing Alex Jones in jail espousing his views (Assuming we're not talking about edge cases where freedom of speech does not apply).

But I also fully support the property rights of Twitter, Facebook, etc to exercise control over the content of their platforms.

You wouldn't permit someone setting up camp on your front lawn, passing out, say, NAMBLA literature would you? It's unlikely you'd say "Sir, I do not like that that you are on my lawn evangelizing man-boy love, but it's your god-given right to do so!" -- you'd probably (rightly say) "Get get the F--- off my lawn!"

Your property, your rules.

Re: Apple Removes Infowars from Podcast Directory

#97

Post by eksemplar »

xoa wrote: post #64

Reposting this here since just after I posted in the Ars version of this that got marked as a dupe: I consider myself an extremely strong First Amendment advocate and "free speech absolutist" when it comes to government force, and I am also uncomfortable about where the line should be for "private entities" that manage to achieve quasi-governmental levels of power, though I do not think that any level of non-violent…

I think the answer is fairly easy. If someone is an asshole online, you ban or ignore them.

Free speech is the right to speak your mind without being prosecuted by the government, it’s not the right to force your opinion on people who don’t want it.

Re: Apple Removes Infowars from Podcast Directory

#98

Post by [deleted] »

marijn wrote: post #90
zaroth wrote: post #88

This is an interestingly coordinated move. It seems a most like each of the platforms was waiting for one of the others to make the first move at wiping InfoWars off their platform entirely instead of just censoring specific episodes, and then the dominoes fall. I’ve never listened to an InfoWars podcast, so I don’t know what I’m missing. But from what I gather Alex is an entertaining quack who is ultimately harmless…

> I don’t know anything at all about Jeong, other than some highly... erm... problematic old tweets. That's the power of a smear campaign, right? Planting a negative perception in people who previously had no attitude about a person. I recommend researching a bit before repeating the message of the campaign ("racist tweets"). Jeong is okay.

[deleted]

Re: Apple Removes Infowars from Podcast Directory

#99

Post by pjc50 »

zaroth wrote: post #88

This is an interestingly coordinated move. It seems a most like each of the platforms was waiting for one of the others to make the first move at wiping InfoWars off their platform entirely instead of just censoring specific episodes, and then the dominoes fall. I’ve never listened to an InfoWars podcast, so I don’t know what I’m missing. But from what I gather Alex is an entertaining quack who is ultimately harmless…

> But from what I gather Alex is an entertaining quack who is ultimately harmless except in the sense that his message is subversive to the “wrong” groups.

"Jones insisted that the kids’ deaths were a great hoax, a performance staged by gun-control activists backed by the American government. As a result of that, Noah Pozner’s family says, they have been stalked and subjected to death threats by Jones’s legions of epistemically gullible yet digitally savvy followers—a fact that has, doxxing by doxxing, forced them to move seven times over the past five years, ever farther away from the body of their slain son."

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/08/th...

Re: Apple Removes Infowars from Podcast Directory

#100

Post by wycs »

hannasanarion wrote: post #85
wycs wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you care at all about free speech? You are willing kill this beautiful freedom we have for that?

If you're yelled at, boycotted, have your show canceled, or get banned from an internet community, your free speech rights aren't being violated. It's just that the people listening think you're an asshole and they're showing you the door.

I guess I am worried that as the societal norm for allowing ideological differences to be expressed degrades that it will leak into politics in the form of hate speech laws. We are starting to have fully private struggle sessions on Twitter, using such tools to sick the mob on opponents. A new sort of bully pulpit.

I am not sure any populist politician has quite realized this power. Trump has to an extent but he has no backing from anyone in media, education, or most government employees. Now that Trump has broken so many tacit rules, I fear a charismatic leftist populist would be able to nationalize these private struggle sessions and vastly amplify his or her power.

The mob has not been a force in politics for a long time. I fear a resurgence.

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