Buzz Feed:
Some of the world’s largest social media and tech companies kicked Alex Jones and his conspiracy-theory driven show, InfoWars, off their platforms on Monday after months of hand-wringing about how to handle a personality who claimed he was delivering news but didn’t deal in facts.
Apple moved first, striking the entire library for five of Infowars’ six podcasts from its iTunes and Podcasts apps. After that, platforms that have come under far more scrutiny for hosting Jones and his content — Facebook and YouTube — quickly followed suit after long and tortured deliberations. Spotify also did the same.
This will be an understandably controversial move that won’t hurt Jones in the long run.
I’m sure this will only serve as indisputable evidence of the validity of Jones’ conspiracy theories and strengthen the resolve of his followers. The rest of will simply be happy that this crack pot gets less air time.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if the Murdochs had an epiphany and decided that Fox News needed to be shut down. We can dream…
Reducing the discoverability of this sort of content is a good thing.
I agree with your overall point, but I suspect he’s not a crackpot; he’s very conscious of what he’s doing, for power/money/recognition.
First they came for the conspiracy mongers, and I did not speak up…
Then conspiracy mongers gone, and nobody care.
I get that this will only fire up his base, the kind of people that believe the dead children at Sandy Hook were actors, that a pedophile ring was being run out of pizza shop basement that didn’t, you know, have a basement, and think Obama is literally a demon. But, who gives a fuck about them. There is nothing remotely controversial about this decision to humans with brains.
Alex Jones makes his money selling fake supplements to dupes. If you’ll believe any of the above, then you’ll believe the crap he sells has special powers. Losing the ability to market his line of garbage on Apple podcasts, YouTube, and Facebook will have a huge impact on his bottomline. I’m 100% there for that.
I get that this will only fire up his base, the kind of people that believe the dead children at Sandy Hook were actors, that a pedophile ring was being run out of pizza shop basement that didn’t, you know, have a basement, and think Obama is literally a demon. But, who gives a fuck about them. There is nothing remotely controversial about this decision to humans with brains.
Alex Jones makes his money selling fake supplements to dupes. If you’ll believe any of the above, then you’ll believe the crap he sells has special powers. Losing the ability to market his line of garbage on Apple podcasts, YouTube, and Facebook will have a huge impact on his bottomline. I’m 100% there for that.
I get that this will only fire up his base, the kind of people that believe the dead children at Sandy Hook were actors, that a pedophile ring was being run out of pizza shop basement that didn’t, you know, have a basement, and think Obama is literally a demon. But, who gives a fuck about them. There is nothing remotely controversial about this decision to humans with brains.
Alex Jones makes his money selling fake supplements to dupes. If you’ll believe any of the above, then you’ll believe the crap he sells has special powers. Losing the ability to market his line of garbage on Apple podcasts, YouTube, and Facebook will have a huge impact on his bottomline. I’m 100% there for that.
These platforms have too much power.
That’s assuming they can all be made to agree on something. I imagine a scenario where Murdoch the Elder comes to realize the extent of the worldwide damage he’s done, and then has to figure out how to fight his unenlightened heirs, long after placing them in decision-making positions.
It’s a start.
Or, he gets a clue, tries to shut it down but its fans find him and string him up.
That’s assuming he hasn’t created several guarded compounds to shield himself from the real world.
That’s assuming he hasn’t created several guarded compounds to shield himself from the real world.
Well said.
Right, of course, I forgot he’s among the paranoid rich (good reason to be paranoid).
This New Yorker piece is worth a look for those of you interested in the meta issues here:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/02/how-social-media-trolls-turned-uc-berkeley-into-a-free-speech-circus
So, David Stewart, Tom_P, and Richard…on what basis would you ban controversial viewpoints in the future? How do you know yours won’t fall on the far side of that line?
And, completely unrelatedly, what are your views on net neutrality?
I’ll put my tin foil hat down and if things get to the far side I’ll “speak up”.
In the meantime, he deserved it.
It’ll be too late at that point…
I have next to no knowledge of Alex Jones, other than to know he, like many on the left, right, and in the mainstream, spouts a bunch of baloney.
I do have enormous faith in freedom of speech and, concurrently, the marketplace of ideas. More than concern over Alex Jones or others of his ilk, I have great worry over those who would silence any speech.
“It’ll be too late at that point…”
Like I said, put your tin foil hat down…
This is not Nazi regime we’re talking about. In fact, censoring Alex Jones is like silencing Hitler before he’s gaining traction. All for the greater good.
PS, blind idealism will never be useful to humanity.
You didn’t say to put my tin foil hat down.
And to be clear, Alex Jones is like Hitler? Yeah, like you said…put your tin foil hat down.
“You didn’t say to put my tin foil hat down.”
Do I need to speak clearly & ‘directly’ like I’m addressing a 7 years old? Can’t you connect the dots?
“And to be clear, Alex Jones is like Hitler?”
I compared him to Hitler because you seem to think us shutting this douchbag down is like a Nazi regime. (Oh.. it will be too late.. oohhh… spookyyy..)
Learn to read in context.
(In case you still don’t understand, which I believe having a higher chance you don’t, I wouldn’t raise a Hitler name if you didn’t quote a quote about Nazi in the first place)