Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store

#11

Post by artilect » Sat, Sep 08, 2018, 3:19 AM UTC

alphabettsy wrote: post #7

ams6110 wrote: post #6

I'm not a fan of Alex Jones, I barely know who he is, but all this banning seems a bit risky to me. Hosting companies have generally had "Safe Harbor" protection against liability for content that third parties post on their platforms. However if they actively start policing and censoring content, they're more involved, and might now be more liable in other claims of offensive or defamatory content.

They don’t allow porn in the App Store among other things. He says “everyone is trying to stop him from telling the truth”. Maybe banning him for his actions helped prove his point, but I doubt it gave him more legitimacy than the fact the Trump called-in to his show. I personally think there’s a fine balance between normalizing these people by providing a platform and encouraging free-speech. They didn’t ban him for…

They think they have to be big brother and protect us from ourselves. they are basically teaching the population, "trust us to protect you from fake news", which farms a population which can't think for themselves. People need to figure out for themselves what is real or fake. Teach people skills on how to use Google-search to fact check statements. It's not right to depend on a small group of people in silicon valley to decide what the world sees.

Re: Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store

#12

Post by artilect » Sat, Sep 08, 2018, 3:21 AM UTC

walrus01 wrote: post #9

Good. Nobody owes Alex Jones his own free publishing platform. Nothing is stopping him from using money to hire "professionals" to set up a colo/hosting environment and do everything on httpd he fully controls. There already is an Infowars website, and as far as I know, its upstream ISP are still happy to take his money. It will have a lot less visitors, though.

This is a joke. They will go after his payment processors, then his DDOS protection, then his domain name, then his infrastructure, and everything else they have been using. Before you know it, you will be telling us to build our own fiber optic networks.

Re: Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store

#13

Post by MBCook » Sat, Sep 08, 2018, 3:56 AM UTC

Operyl wrote: post #4

MBCook wrote: post #2

Makes sense, but I wonder why now. Twitter’s ban? It was VERY odd that they removed his podcasts but left the apps up. The App Store has much stricter rules than the podcast directory.

I feel like we could just be overthinking it. They probably waited to capture enough evidence to come back with if this blows back on them.

My understanding was the same content that got him removed from the podcast directory what’s available in the app, so I wouldn’t think it would be a hard case to make.

Re: Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store

#14

Post by astura » Sat, Sep 08, 2018, 4:00 AM UTC

MBCook wrote: post #13

Operyl wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like we could just be overthinking it. They probably waited to capture enough evidence to come back with if this blows back on them.

My understanding was the same content that got him removed from the podcast directory what’s available in the app, so I wouldn’t think it would be a hard case to make.

Maybe nobody reported the app until now.

Re: Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store

#15

Post by Operyl » Sat, Sep 08, 2018, 4:44 AM UTC

MBCook wrote: post #13

Operyl wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like we could just be overthinking it. They probably waited to capture enough evidence to come back with if this blows back on them.

My understanding was the same content that got him removed from the podcast directory what’s available in the app, so I wouldn’t think it would be a hard case to make.

Different teams, different requirements perhaps.

Re: Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store

#16

Post by mrsteveman1 » Sat, Sep 08, 2018, 7:34 AM UTC

ams6110 wrote: post #6

I'm not a fan of Alex Jones, I barely know who he is, but all this banning seems a bit risky to me. Hosting companies have generally had "Safe Harbor" protection against liability for content that third parties post on their platforms. However if they actively start policing and censoring content, they're more involved, and might now be more liable in other claims of offensive or defamatory content.

If the "safe harbor" you're referring to is CDA230, you have it quite backwards. They're shielded under that statute even if they ban people and delete things selectively, regardless of the reason.

Under the legal environment at the time CDA230 was enacted, they already had a shield. What they didn't have was the ability to moderate their own platforms and still keep that shield, they had to pick one or the other because if they screwed up and missed something then suddenly they were liable again.

So CDA230 actually encouraged them to moderate their platforms, arbitrarily if they want to. The "moderation" they were expected to do was mostly to remove "indecent" content, but they aren't required to do that or forbidden from removing anything else.

So at least in that respect, Twitter and Apple are doing exactly what they were expected to do.

Re: Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store

#17

Post by dwyer » Sun, Sep 09, 2018, 4:16 AM UTC

artilect wrote: post #12

walrus01 wrote: post #9

Good. Nobody owes Alex Jones his own free publishing platform. Nothing is stopping him from using money to hire "professionals" to set up a colo/hosting environment and do everything on httpd he fully controls. There already is an Infowars website, and as far as I know, its upstream ISP are still happy to take his money. It will have a lot less visitors, though.

This is a joke. They will go after his payment processors, then his DDOS protection, then his domain name, then his infrastructure, and everything else they have been using. Before you know it, you will be telling us to build our own fiber optic networks.

Who are "they"? The "chicom globalists"?

Re: Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store

#18

Post by walrus01 » Sun, Sep 09, 2018, 6:17 AM UTC

dwyer wrote: post #17

artilect wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a joke. They will go after his payment processors, then his DDOS protection, then his domain name, then his infrastructure, and everything else they have been using. Before you know it, you will be telling us to build our own fiber optic networks.

Who are "they"? The "chicom globalists"?

Probably the same people who fluoridate our water to make the frogs gay. /s

Re: Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store

#19

Post by xolorg » Sun, Sep 09, 2018, 5:43 PM UTC

You can't call this website "hacker" news anymore. Hacker culture is supposed to be about openness and anti-censorship no matter who the individual. In celebrating or justifying the censorship of infowars this community has shown it's true colors.

I'm quite frankly ashamed to see what HN has become.

Re: Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store

#20

Post by xolorg » Sun, Sep 09, 2018, 5:46 PM UTC

xolorg wrote: post #19

You can't call this website "hacker" news anymore. Hacker culture is supposed to be about openness and anti-censorship no matter who the individual. In celebrating or justifying the censorship of infowars this community has shown it's true colors. I'm quite frankly ashamed to see what HN has become.

And for those saying it's not censorship it's a private platform. At what stage does it become censorship? * When they ban his web hosting account * When his DNS registrar bans him? * When his payment processor drops him? * When his broadband providers bans him?