Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Twitter Permanently Bans Alex Jones and Infowars

thedailybeast.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 153 posts

Re: Twitter Permanently Bans Alex Jones and Infowars

#111

Post by MBCook »

LocalH wrote: post #94
bdcravens wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN also actively moderates its content and its users. An Alex Jones would last about a day here before being banned. > I noticed that the internet is far less angry of a place as a result I would think it would be quite the opposite: the likelihood of being censored creates inhibition.

HN also has much less influence on the greater world, as opposed to Twitter.

I don’t think that really addresses his point.

Hacker news, like basically anything, is trivial in size compared to Twitter.

Despite that hacker news, like MANY other sites, moderate the content it gets posted in an attempt to maintain some level of decorum/sanity/functioning community.

Why would a larger site need LESS of that? I think would be the other way around. In smaller sites very basic social norms seem to be strong enough to prevent problematic behavior. Once a site gets big enough that other users are seen as “other people” as opposed to “one of us” things go downhill fast if you don’t start doing something.

Re: Twitter Permanently Bans Alex Jones and Infowars

#112

Post by astrodust »

goostavos wrote: post #87
astrodust wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somehow this is just the babiest of baby steps. Infowars has a lot more than one Twitter account, and there's a lot of accounts other than Infowars that need to be thrown off Twitter.

I also have some speech I disagree with that I would like silenced. Is there a form somewhere?

Are you the government? No, you can't.

Are you a private individual or corporation? Yes, you can, that ability to moderate is protected free speech.

Re: Twitter Permanently Bans Alex Jones and Infowars

#113

Post by P_I_Staker »

dsfasfsdfff wrote: post #42
ourmandave wrote: post #36

I never watched infowars or read anything Jones said or wrote. But to think there are people who believe his crazy sh*t is really scary. Like the guy shooting up a pizza shop because of Pizzagate. I compare him to the World Weekly News (next to the People magazines) from way back where they'd show a picture of space aliens shaking hands with the president. Why does anyone believe this crap?

And yet, you seem to have managed to use the internet for years without ever having to read his stuff. So what exactly is the case for banning him? It seems the standard tools (follow/unfollow/mute/block) are sufficient for people being able to avoid him. Do we really want social media monopolists and search engines to decide on what is truth and what isn't? What makes them the authority? Obviously Twitter, as a priv…

> Do we really want social media monopolists and search engines to decide on what is truth and what isn't?

Judging by HN and reddit threads, this is exactly what people want. In fairness, it's human nature. The vast majority of people are okay with censoring media that they personally find disgusting.

> I just find it sad that people don't find it grounds enough to switch to a more open network.

They don't have many other options, and the ones that are available are likely to follow suit. I don't know if I'd go so far as to call Twitter/Facebook non-competitive, but there really aren't great alternatives. The community is the draw, and that takes time to build. Also, it really isn't much of an exaggeration to say you're not truly a full member of society without social media. A startling number of people I know basically don't recognize that you exist without Facebook.

Re: Twitter Permanently Bans Alex Jones and Infowars

#114

Post by manicdee »

goostavos wrote: post #87
astrodust wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somehow this is just the babiest of baby steps. Infowars has a lot more than one Twitter account, and there's a lot of accounts other than Infowars that need to be thrown off Twitter.

I also have some speech I disagree with that I would like silenced. Is there a form somewhere?

On Twitter: https://help.twitter.com/forms/abusiveuser

Note this won't result in speech being silenced, only access to one audience being denied.

If you want to actually silence someone, and you are in the USA you can hop down to your local supermarket and buy an AR-15 like all the other terrorists.

Re: Twitter Permanently Bans Alex Jones and Infowars

#116

Post by sheepmullet »

MBCook wrote: post #108
yitosda wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's possible I've been living under a rock, but while I'm aware of rat being pejorative, I'm finding out in this thread for the first time about the anti-semitic undertones. It's pretty clear that the difference is context, but I also don't think there can be clear guidelines if Twitter is expected to delve into the context for each tweet its users make. In fairness, context typically doesn't provide smoking guns as…

I was aware of it, but I couldn’t have told you about it without prompting. I didn’t remember it that well. As soon as someone mentioned what it was it made perfect sense to me. Yeah, that’s the complex part of all of this. As you said context is king here, and Jones is very well known for making implicit or explicit derogatory remarks about Jewish people. There really isn’t room for him to claim “I didn’t know that“…

> After the hearing and his behavior immediately after I’m guessing they were tired of defending him and having to answer these questions AGAIN.

Did you listen to the hearing?

Jack was being questioned for unfairly silencing conservatives.

Re: Twitter Permanently Bans Alex Jones and Infowars

#117

Post by sheepmullet »

s73v3r_ wrote: post #105
candiodari wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He should've been kicked off long ago, but I fear that having this particular example be the "final straw" is only going to strengthen the alt-right's persecution complex. He is quite correct in the assessment that he's being persecuted on ideological grounds, unless he says "by the government". Why would you deny that ? And let's face facts here. If you held an alt-right viewpoint in San Francisco ... would you te…

"Neither Damore nor Eich deserved what happened to them, and it's disgraceful (and, of course, discriminatory/racist) that such things happened." I find it incredible how many people are more upset that those two got called out for their crappy views, and don't care at all what the actions of those two meant to the groups they targeted. Suppose you were a gay person working at Mozilla. How would you feel if you found…

> They are questioning the very right of these people to exist.

> They are questioning the ability of these people to be in public

Can you provide evidence that Damore or Eich were questioning the right of certain groups to exist?

Are you seriously going to claim Damore was saying women don’t have the right to exist?

Re: Twitter Permanently Bans Alex Jones and Infowars

#118

Post by sheepmullet »

MBCook wrote: post #37
funkythings wrote: post #9

No matter what you think of Jones: Silicon Valley is digging their own grave with their blatantly obvious double standards towards "hate speech" and other forms of harassment.

Really? I’d say no matter what you think of Jones you should be celebrating this as it means Twitter is holding to their own published policies. The nonsense of banning people for X, unless they famous, unless they’re the wrong KIND of famous, or are being attacked by someone and asking “Why do they get to say X to me” stuff is a mess. How can anyone run a platform if the rules are in constant flux on a per day/user/…

> celebrating this as it means Twitter is holding to their own published policies.

Have they banned the racist New York Times editor yet?

Re: Twitter Permanently Bans Alex Jones and Infowars

#119

Post by BayesStreet »

astrodust wrote: post #112
goostavos wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also have some speech I disagree with that I would like silenced. Is there a form somewhere?

Are you the government? No, you can't. Are you a private individual or corporation? Yes, you can, that ability to moderate is protected free speech .

I would agree, but something to think about is Twitter and facebook govern the behaviour of the people around me more than my country's government, probably.

Re: Twitter Permanently Bans Alex Jones and Infowars

#120

Post by [deleted] »

LocalH wrote: post #92
hbosch wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's OK to be inconsistent, because tech companies aren't governments and their rules aren't laws. They are allowed to control their platform however they want. Everyone is welcome to create their own "free-er" Twitter, Facebook, or Reddit.

The problem with this approach is it inevitably results in one of two broad possibilities: 1) Someone creates a "truly free" social media platform, and it is invaded by people who wish to mold it to reduce freedom for "toxicity" 2) Someone creates a "truly free" social media platform, and the only people to use it are those disallowed from using the mainstream platforms, creating a feedback cycle that eventually resu…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN