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YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead

arstechnica.com

161–170 of 191 posts

Re: YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead

#161
post #23
post #12

From 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…

You have more faith in human rationality than I do at this point. Making his content harder to get will reduce his legitimacy. Con men and frauds should not be treated with respect or debated. Also, Jones specifically used his platform to abuse people, so this is not just about being full of shit all the time.

>Making his content harder to get will reduce his legitimacy.

The hegemony trying to shut up someone's political speech only decreases legitimacy across people that were never going to believe him in the first place.

For everyone else, the conspiracy theory that The Powers That Be don't want anyone to hear his message just became conspiracy fact thanks to YouTube, Apple et al.

Re: YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead

#163
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have more faith in human rationality than I do at this point. Making his content harder to get will reduce his legitimacy. Con men and frauds should not be treated with respect or debated. Also, Jones specifically used his platform to abuse people, so this is not just about being full of shit all the time.

"We only burn the bad books!"

You and others didn't read my last sentence and keep hiding behind childish free speech absolutism. Jones specifically used his platform to abuse people. He should have been banned a long time ago. This isn't just about his conspiracy theories.

Re: YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead

#164
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have more faith in human rationality than I do at this point. Making his content harder to get will reduce his legitimacy. Con men and frauds should not be treated with respect or debated. Also, Jones specifically used his platform to abuse people, so this is not just about being full of shit all the time.

>Making his content harder to get will reduce his legitimacy. The hegemony trying to shut up someone's political speech only decreases legitimacy across people that were never going to believe him in the first place. For everyone else, the conspiracy theory that The Powers That Be don't want anyone to hear his message just became conspiracy fact thanks to YouTube, Apple et al.

Jones is going to whine about being a victim regardless, since that's part of his character. He should be treated the same way nazi websites are and make it harder for him to make a profit off his bullshit.

As I said though, he used his platform to abuse people and should have been banned a long time ago, regardless of his lame conspiracy theories.

Re: YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because the mainstream news websites like CNN and even sections of the NYT became more Jones-like in their reporting What an amazing claim! Surely you have examples of this? I'd love to read conspiracy theories coming from CNN or NYT that are in line with something as absurd as "Michelle Obama is actually a man" or "Sandy Hook was fake" or the absolutely insane birther movement.

NYT: "You can't be racist against white people". There you go.

Can you link some context?

Re: YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh please. What a load of hogwash. NYT and CNN aren’t perfect but making some kind of comparison to the rantings of a lunatic like Jones is absurd. Get a grip.

The NYT just hired a full blown racist to their editorial board so I think it's a very apt comparison.

No, they didn't. The people that think Sarah Jeong is a racist are the kind of people that take Alex Jones seriously.

Re: YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead

#167
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't do this here.

care to elaborate ?

Don't feed trolls; don't post flamebait; don't go on about getting downvoted. All that is in the site guidelines.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The NYT just hired a full blown racist to their editorial board so I think it's a very apt comparison.

No, they didn't. The people that think Sarah Jeong is a racist are the kind of people that take Alex Jones seriously.

I and many others think she's racist and in no way take Alex Jones seriously.

Re: YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NYT: "You can't be racist against white people". There you go.

Can you link some context?

Sure: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/08/sarah-jeong-shou...

Re: YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's Lead

#170
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

care to elaborate ?

Don't feed trolls; don't post flamebait; don't go on about getting downvoted. All that is in the site guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Thanks!
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