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Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

bbc.com

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Re: Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

#21

Post by nyolfen »

Atlantium wrote: post #11
marcrosoft wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"do the right thing" is difficult when you are suppressing free speech on a platform that's supposed to be all about it.

Alex Jones is free to express his speech on his own website as much as he pleases. "Free Speech" is not about forcing a company to host content they don't like. That would be against Twitter's freedoms. Alex Jones will still be heard by his audience.

maybe you haven’t noticed, but people have been going after hosting companies and payment processors lately to shut down people they find politically disagreeable. we are increasingly less and less free to host our own speech.

Re: Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

#22

Post by epistasis »

adamrezich wrote: post #9

Does anyone still actually think that Alex Jones isn't a character or persona being put on by an actor, like Colbert's Colbert Report character? Not that this excuses anything he says or does of course (though apparently what he said here wasn't a big deal at all)... but how anyone can think Jones acts the way he does on-camera after the cameras are turned off and nobody is looking is beyond me. His lawyer essentiall…

Are you serious, have you ever run into one of his listeners?

If anybody listens to him thinking it's not real, they are a tiny and insignificant minority. What his lawyer admits in court means nothing to his audience.

Re: Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

#23

Post by tomohawk »

maxander wrote: post #12
dmix wrote: post #5

Anyone know what videos or tweets were 'abusive'? Twitter didn't say which ones they were. Twitter needs to be more transparent about this stuff. Especially when banning one of the most influential conspiracy theorist in the world. Not to mention a vague and/or arbitrary banning policy is always a bad idea.

Twitter isn’t going to broadcast or link to tweets that were bad enough to merit a ban, for obvious reasons- they’re banning it precisely to avoid having that content be propagated any further.

This is circular reasoning, and it conveniently excuses any abuses or hypocrisy by the company by disappearing the evidence and not allowing anyone else to judge for themselves.

From an outside observer, there is no way to distinguish between the claim that the ban is for "good reasons", or that the ban is a result of bias on the part of the company.

Re: Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

#24

Post by pokemongoaway »

mmanfrin wrote: post #14
marcrosoft wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"do the right thing" is difficult when you are suppressing free speech on a platform that's supposed to be all about it.

Twitter is not 'supposed to be all about [free speech]'. It's a microblogging platform, not a political stance.

What's your evidence of this? They've banned a variety of people who criticize the mainstream. I support the parent message - they are a platform, not a publisher. Twitter is the one making this political by deciding who is worth censoring and who is not. They would never censor pro-war NYT/Post folks...

Re: Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

#27

Post by pokemongoaway »

epistasis wrote: post #22
adamrezich wrote: post #9

Does anyone still actually think that Alex Jones isn't a character or persona being put on by an actor, like Colbert's Colbert Report character? Not that this excuses anything he says or does of course (though apparently what he said here wasn't a big deal at all)... but how anyone can think Jones acts the way he does on-camera after the cameras are turned off and nobody is looking is beyond me. His lawyer essentiall…

Are you serious, have you ever run into one of his listeners? If anybody listens to him thinking it's not real, they are a tiny and insignificant minority. What his lawyer admits in court means nothing to his audience.

[dead]

Re: Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

#28

Post by modells »

Crossfire, Alex Jones and Gordon Ramsay need their own shouting as a service platform.

It sucks for free speech that he got banned because it gives him notoriety and "credibility" in wingnuttery circles.

There ought to be other remedies to manipulative behavior for ratings than simply banning.

Re: Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

#29

Post by lettergram »

orf wrote: post #20
dmix wrote: post #5

Anyone know what videos or tweets were 'abusive'? Twitter didn't say which ones they were. Twitter needs to be more transparent about this stuff. Especially when banning one of the most influential conspiracy theorist in the world. Not to mention a vague and/or arbitrary banning policy is always a bad idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne_wFdA-1oU This is where he compared a journalist eyes to a rats, which I believe is what caused the ban?

His "How are you doing Alex?", gives me the impression he gets this a lot lol

Re: Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

#30

Post by yters »

orf wrote: post #16

The video that got him banned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne_wFdA-1oU

Lol, and the video was all about how the left censors people!

Seriously, I never gave Alex Jones much credence before this, but this getting him banned makes him much more credible in my mind.

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