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Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

bbc.com

41–50 of 131 posts

Re: Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No it's not, because Twitter itself has presumably reviewed the messages itself. As a service owner, and therefore an arbiter, it doesn't need to allow anyone to judge themselves.

Re: Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

#42
post #17

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.

This is wrong. Is Twitter suppressing Jones' ability to say what he wants to? No. So they are not suppressing free speech. Twitter is banning a serial harasser from using their (privately owned) platform. The analogy would be kicking someone out of your house for harassing your other guests.

> So they are not suppressing free speech. Twitter is banning a serial harasser from using their (privately owned) platform.

I’d argue Twitter is the modern day town square and it doesn’t matter if it is privately owned.

Re: Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

#43

If Twitter wants to ban him, then they can ban him. I honestly don’t know how he gained so much publicity as a conspiracy theorist, but he sounds like someone who’s drive is to continuously poke the sleeping bear and bother people for the sake of being an asshole. Abusive behavior was his business model.

The horrifying thing is how many people his antics resonate with.

Re: Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

#44
post #30
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.

I see it less about the left censoring people and more about a grown man harassing a journalist by hurling abuse at his face for 10 minutes straight (whilst invading his personal space with a camera), and topping it off with a racist anti semitic dog whistle comment about his eyes. The guy being, for lack of a better word, bullied in the video took it exceptionally well.

Different strokes for different folks I guess.

Re: Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

#45

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.

Jack Dorsey frequently said in the hearing that he wanted Twitter to be like a "public square" or "public forum". In fact he used the word "public" quite a bit, which is weird if you don't want to be regulated.

Re: Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

#46
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 needs to be more transparent about this stuff.

Why? Unless being opaque harms their bottom line, I don't see the business case.

Re: Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's like saying: Alex Jones is free to grow his own food on his land as much as he pleases. This supermarket has a policy not to sell food to people who violate our terms of service regarding hate speech.

The supermarket is free to not sell to any particular person on the basis that they constantly engage in hate speech.

It gets murkier when they start banning classes of people or ban someone for something that puts them in a protected class, but any supermarket that banned Alex Jones for hate speech would be well within their rights.

Re: Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

#48
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.

I mean, didn't he call sandy hooks a false flag attack or something?

That's not abusive behavior though. It's just a conspiracy theory.

Re: Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

#49

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.

Nobody's free speech rights were violated? I can't believe this has to be explained on hackernews... https://xkcd.com/1357/

Other than a constitutional right, free speech is a principle in itself.

Re: Twitter bans Alex Jones and Infowars for abusive behaviour

#50
post #30
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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