First, they came for Alex Jones.
YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead
51–60 of 191 posts
Re: YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead
#52In other discussions about this action, I've seen lots of confusion about what the 1st Amendment guarantees. Too many people think it guarantees an outcome: that the government must protect your right to free speech and make sure you have a platform for free speech. When in fact it's almost the opposite: it prevents the government from interfering with free speech, specifically Congress can not pass any laws that int…
The major risk is the FEC.
This push is coming from a desire to prevent Jones from being active in the 2018 midterms.
If a Republican files a complaint with the FEC and there are employee messages talking about how they have to ban Jones to stop Trump, then the tech companies could have a situation on their hands.
Re: YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead
#53As others I've seen on Twitter have pointed out, the "Infowars Official" app and Infowars Magazine creator page is still available on the App Store:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/developer/infowars-magazine/id69...
I don't peruse the Podcast listings, or news about podcasts that much. Is Apple generally not as stringent about policing Podcasts as it is for iOS Apps?
Re: YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead
#54I have mixed feelings about this. I fear it will actually make Jones' brand of demagoguery and crackpot theories more appealing and sexy. The best thing to do might be to let far-right conspiracy theory propaganda die in the mainstream, since the mainstream is where things go to die.
Pardon me, if I misunderstood you. Jones is already mainstream. He is not going to get smaller if you give him bigger platforms. Unrelated question. Can somebody explain to me, how he went from "9/11 was inside job, police are jackbooted thugs, anti Bush, anti Obama" to being pro police, pro government? I want to understand the logic behind this.
How indeed? Best not talk about it here on hackernews though, it's wrongthink and will get you banned.
Remember there's no conspiracy to control the narrative. It's totally a coincidence that Alex Jones got banned from Youtube, itunes, and Facebook simultaneously.
Re: YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead
#55From Wikipedia: "The InfoWars website receives approximately 10 million monthly visits, making it more visited than some mainstream news websites such as The Economist and Newsweek." This bothers me. Say what you like about his content, but it is not fringe. He is the preferred "thinker" of a significant fraction of the population. If you think the solution is to deplatform him, you're thinking about the problem wron…
InfoWars gets these 10 million visits because of platforms like YouTube and Facebook, so I don't see any reason why that privilege can't be taken away, especially for clearly flouting rules that other content creators have to follow.
Re: YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead
#56From Wikipedia: "The InfoWars website receives approximately 10 million monthly visits, making it more visited than some mainstream news websites such as The Economist and Newsweek." This bothers me. Say what you like about his content, but it is not fringe. He is the preferred "thinker" of a significant fraction of the population. If you think the solution is to deplatform him, you're thinking about the problem wron…
I don't think it's about ideas, I'm not sure where you're getting that from. The article explicitly says he's banned because of TOS violations. The article is not clear about what those are, but I assume they fall under hate speech and harassment.
Specifically, I am guessing this has something to do with Jones taking legal actions against parents whose child was murdered.
I don't think this has anything to do with his "ideas" - that is a severe misunderstanding of the facts of the case. There are still plenty of people with horrible ideas on Youtube. This has everything to do with Jones using his media power to attempt to silence, discredit, and harass parents whose children have been murdered. I mean, seriously, you don't get much lower than that.
Re: YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead
#57free speech is dead
Re: YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead
#58[flagged]
> CNN and other liberal media aren't really much different
CNN and others only look liberal if you are way out there on the right. They are anything but liberal.
Re: YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead
#59From Wikipedia: "The InfoWars website receives approximately 10 million monthly visits, making it more visited than some mainstream news websites such as The Economist and Newsweek." This bothers me. Say what you like about his content, but it is not fringe. He is the preferred "thinker" of a significant fraction of the population. If you think the solution is to deplatform him, you're thinking about the problem wron…
Say what you like about his content, but it is not fringe. This is a man spouting off that there is evidence that Michelle Obama is a man [1]. If that's not a fringe idea I'd like to know what you think one is. To me a fringe idea is one that is so obviously wrong that it is not worth considering its merits. Doubtless there are many fools willing to consider the 'facts' surrounding Michelle Obama's gender but they ar…
Okay I feed the troll.
So how much of the proof we got that Michelle Obama IS actually a women? Her look? Many transgander look much more womanish than she does. Same sex marriage? Could be? Have you seen her birth certificate (original, NOT the copy) that you can genuinely say she is a female? Yes I know she has the kids... okay so let me see their DNA test that actually they belong to Michelle as a parent. Exactly; you have none.
I'm doing you a favor here cause this will get downvoted into oblivion, but your approach is PRECISELY what the problem is with the way our society digest news and facts these days. If you think that someone, anyone, is for example a male, just because they have male name, look male and have a male sounding voice, I'm sorry but sometimes is not sufficient as a definite proof! You have to give a better example if that's was your best shot to make Jones looks like a loon.
Re: YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead
#60From Wikipedia: "The InfoWars website receives approximately 10 million monthly visits, making it more visited than some mainstream news websites such as The Economist and Newsweek." This bothers me. Say what you like about his content, but it is not fringe. He is the preferred "thinker" of a significant fraction of the population. If you think the solution is to deplatform him, you're thinking about the problem wron…
I think many people lack the cognitive tools to think critically in general. Alex Jones type characters prey upon peoples’ fears and emotions. Debating his supporters is often nigh impossible - in order to become a supporter you must already lack the abilities that make reasonable debate possible.