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Twitter Suspends Alex Jones for Seven Days Over Tweet

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Re: Twitter Suspends Alex Jones for Seven Days Over Tweet

#21

Post by beberlei »

skrebbel wrote: post #2

I'm curious about how this is happening in America, of all places. As a European, I've always wondered (with a certain hint of jealousy, I might add) at the USA's absolute freedom of speech. People like the Westboro Baptist Church would've certainly been blocked from protesting here in the Netherlands. At the same time, it's now companies that are very American, both by origin and by culture, that are (letting themse…

But the absolute freedom of speech is just from prosecution of the government (correct me if I am wrong). private parties can always deny you their platform to be used for hatemongering or anything else really.

Re: Twitter Suspends Alex Jones for Seven Days Over Tweet

#22

Post by nailer »

pjc50 wrote: post #3

"The New York Times reports that Jones tweeted a link to a video calling for supporters to get their “battle rifles” ready against media and others" Turns out that there is a limit, and it's making really overt death threats. I'm surprised he didn't get banned over the "Democrats are going to have a revolution" stuff. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2018/07...

> get their “battle rifles” ready against media and others"

> it's making really overt death threats

I don't think that's overt, but I think it's grey enough (perhaps deliberately so) that it constitutes incitement to violence. This is awesome - banning account for specific reasons (message X contained an incitement to violence) means moderation can be applied consistently. Twitter has had a much better approach in this case than FB or Apple, who've simply stated there's an issue with hate speech on the entire account without saying what it was.

Re: Twitter Suspends Alex Jones for Seven Days Over Tweet

#23

Post by ForHackernews »

Jacqued wrote: post #19
teamk wrote: post #6

Its pretty insane that public businesses are forbidden from discrimination on most grounds (political views, religious views, etc) of who it employs, or who can enter their business, but its perfectly fine for FB, Google, Apple, Twitter, etc., to completely control the content of the conversation on their platforms. It doesn't make sense that as a baker I can be forced to bake gay wedding cakes, or as a Restaurant ow…

The way it makes sense is that "right-wing nutjob" is not a protected characteristic, whereas race & sexual orientation are protected.

Religion is also a protected category, for what it's worth. Nevertheless, many people disagree with allowing a religious loophole to discriminate against gay customers.

Re: Twitter Suspends Alex Jones for Seven Days Over Tweet

#24

Post by CamTin »

For those that missed it, Infowars' podcast was also recently dropped from iTunes, and several of Jones' pages dropped from Facebook as well. I'm sure there are many people who are looking to see how successful Jones is in suddenly having to swim on his own, without these hugely successful platform. As much as I'm not a fan, I do kind of hope that he can prove we don't necessarily need these platforms to distribute content and grow one's following (creating that following in the first place is obviously another matter).

Will this wave of platform rejections force Alex Jones fans onto Mastodon?

Re: Twitter Suspends Alex Jones for Seven Days Over Tweet

#25

Post by ebbv »

skrebbel wrote: post #2

I'm curious about how this is happening in America, of all places. As a European, I've always wondered (with a certain hint of jealousy, I might add) at the USA's absolute freedom of speech. People like the Westboro Baptist Church would've certainly been blocked from protesting here in the Netherlands. At the same time, it's now companies that are very American, both by origin and by culture, that are (letting themse…

Freedom of speech is about censorship from the government. As much as Silicon Valley companies love to self aggrandize they are not the government and are under no obligation to allow their platforms to be used for furthering hate speech (or anything else.)

In fact I firmly believe sites like Reddit, Twitter and Facebook allowing racism and other horrible crap on their sites in the mid 2000s until recently is what helped make it more mainstream. In the web of the 1990s these idiots would have had to go to their own sites that nobody else goes to. Mainstream sites like Slashdot or whatnot didn’t tolerate it. For some reason after the dot com crash the new round of sites afterward have had some kind of delusion that they need to uphold free speech. And it’s nonsense.

Re: Twitter Suspends Alex Jones for Seven Days Over Tweet

#26

Post by teamk »

pjc50 wrote: post #12
teamk wrote: post #6

Its pretty insane that public businesses are forbidden from discrimination on most grounds (political views, religious views, etc) of who it employs, or who can enter their business, but its perfectly fine for FB, Google, Apple, Twitter, etc., to completely control the content of the conversation on their platforms. It doesn't make sense that as a baker I can be forced to bake gay wedding cakes, or as a Restaurant ow…

The situation isn't symmetrical at all; it only appears to be if you ignore or misrepresent the history of power and violence involved. The list of protected characteristics is small and political views aren't usually on it per se.

I'm unsure of what the exact legal status is federally and per state (although I've heard claims that social media giants represent de facto public forums and thus are subject to some free expression requirements), I'm simply pointing out the inconsistency.

Regarding "history of power and violence", well, if we compare the amount of violence and harassment right-wing events and meetings get (from Antifa, and other such orgs), vs. how relatively undisturbed gay pride events are, along with the overwhelming opposition of the media, academia, corporate elite, etc., to rightist views, I think its clear that the bulk of the "power and violence" lie not with people like Jones

Re: Twitter Suspends Alex Jones for Seven Days Over Tweet

#27

Post by nailer »

ceejayoz wrote: post #10
Svip wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that part of the difference between customers and users? You cannot discriminate against customers, but you can against users.

I'm not aware of any such distinction in the law. The more significant legal concept would be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_group , I'd imagine. "Far right" isn't on the list. (Neither is far left, incidentally.)

Is Alex Jones far right? From what I've seen he's insane (intergalactic pedophiles etc) and right wing, but not inciting race war or anything you'd expect from US far right groups. Maybe I'm wrong and he does, I've just never seen it.

Re: Twitter Suspends Alex Jones for Seven Days Over Tweet

#28

Post by sn41 »

skrebbel wrote: post #2

I'm curious about how this is happening in America, of all places. As a European, I've always wondered (with a certain hint of jealousy, I might add) at the USA's absolute freedom of speech. People like the Westboro Baptist Church would've certainly been blocked from protesting here in the Netherlands. At the same time, it's now companies that are very American, both by origin and by culture, that are (letting themse…

Clearchannel, which controlled most FM channels, infamously stopped playing John Lennon's "Imagine" after Sep 11 2001. So this is not new. In the absence of popular govt. media and channels, this does form de facto censorship in the US.

The usual explanation I have heard is that free speech is limited to tge govt. not able to arrest you for criticising it. It does not apply to private parties.

I think de facto censorship by private monopolies must also be illegal for true freedom of speech.

Re: Twitter Suspends Alex Jones for Seven Days Over Tweet

#29

Post by teamk »

Jacqued wrote: post #19
teamk wrote: post #6

Its pretty insane that public businesses are forbidden from discrimination on most grounds (political views, religious views, etc) of who it employs, or who can enter their business, but its perfectly fine for FB, Google, Apple, Twitter, etc., to completely control the content of the conversation on their platforms. It doesn't make sense that as a baker I can be forced to bake gay wedding cakes, or as a Restaurant ow…

The way it makes sense is that "right-wing nutjob" is not a protected characteristic, whereas race & sexual orientation are protected.

Which is a nonsense principle. Private companies should be either allowed to discriminate on whatever grounds they like or forced to treat all equally.

Re: Twitter Suspends Alex Jones for Seven Days Over Tweet

#30

Post by codemusings »

teamk wrote: post #6

Its pretty insane that public businesses are forbidden from discrimination on most grounds (political views, religious views, etc) of who it employs, or who can enter their business, but its perfectly fine for FB, Google, Apple, Twitter, etc., to completely control the content of the conversation on their platforms. It doesn't make sense that as a baker I can be forced to bake gay wedding cakes, or as a Restaurant ow…

> It doesn't make sense that as a baker I can be forced to bake gay wedding cakes, or as a Restaurant owner I can't open a 'straight white people only' restaurant [...]

What is wrong with you? What happened to you as a child that made you think this form of discrimination is even remotely acceptable?

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