Alex Jones and the InfoWars related pages are under attack and under threat of being removed from Facebook for what Facebook says are violations of its community standards. InfoWars and Alex Jones have come a long way in recent years, as this issue is a top story being covered on CNBC. Despite the censorship being employed by Facebook, at least the issue is getting some eyeballs in the press.
Source
Alex Jones' personal Facebook account has already been temporarily banned by Facebook for 30 days starting this previous Thursday. This is following a YouTube recent decision to remove 4 of his videos from their platform, which Facebook agreed with and removed them as well from several AJ/IW related pages. FB says Jones was previously warned he could be blocked by FB. Now he is.
The pages have several strikes for violations of FB guidelines, but remain active as they have not yet reached the threshold for being removed from the platform. But FB told CNBC that the threshold is close to being reached, but wouldn't say how many violation infractions are left. It seems only a matter of time until FB bans AJ and IW pages
The recent videos YouTube and Facebook removed were:
- showing a man shoving a child on the ground to "prevent liberalism"
- discussing drag queens in a crude fashion and suggests they are child sexual predators
- suggesting Muslim people have "conquered" Europe, and will kill everyone and sexually assault women
According to Facebook, their normal policy to deal with "factually false" content is to censor and control how many views it gets by reducing the number of times it shows up on News Feeds. But in these videos, FB concluded the videos were inciting violence and removed the content entirely. Next up is completely removing "troublemakers" from the platform when they repeatedly violate the "community standards".
Was Alex Jones or his team really inciting violence against liberals? Are these opinions that AJ and IW put forth? Or are these only opinions that YT and FB say these videos are putting forth?
The crackdown on free speech has been a big issue this year on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, the three biggest social media sites. They all have algorithms in place to limit and censor what people can get access too, including Google. They say they care so much about "fake news", but they don't want people to really think for themselves by being able to access information.
They want to be the arbiters of information, and they seem to be getting what they want. The sanitation of the internet is underway. Big media is silencing the alternative and independent media, rather than let them share the information they want. Whether it's true or not, people should be allowed to decide what they want to be exposed to, not a centralized authority preventing them from even being able to access it.
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To be honest, it was something that was long coming. Alex Jones is similar to the WestBorough Baptist Church (obviously not as hateful). Jones has been caught time and time again making false claims against individuals, which is libel. It's clear what the terms are on Facebook, and YouTube, and if the developers want to tolerate some people more and not others who are committing the same breaches of TOS, then so be it. It may be an injustice, and its definitely something to expose, but ultimately, IDC if Jones gets thrown off YouTube. He kinda deserves it, we don't need someone like him.
I get what you mean. But he has done a lot to help people awaken, myself included 12 years ago, even though I stopped listening to him 9 months later.
Whether you like what Alex Jones has to say or not, it’s his freedom of speech that needs to be protected. I like Jones for the fact he’s turned me on to a ton of great people who really dig deep and give real news and facts.
But the freedom to his craft and speech needs to be protected because it’s your freedom of speech and craft on the chopping block too. He isn’t and doesn’t incite violence even though he plays the tough guy act and challenges people to fight one on one, at the same time people challenge him to fights and he never takes it. Point being he’s not telling people to harm others, I watched him over the years and see him enough to know better, until he does, his right to expression as well as ours needs to be held intact, otherwise it’s a major leap for totalitarianism, beyond the totalitarian tiptoe.
Think about a bigger picture. Think about the end game. Stop and Think, qui bono? - ThinkStopper
Yes, Alex, despite his flaws that an be large at times, has helped many ppl access info they wouldn't have otherwise gotten to. I don't think he incites violence either.
Free speech doesn't include the right to a platform.
Trying to censor him on Facebook is one thing, trying to have him removed from the internet is the big problem.
Facebook contradicts itself and operates under pure hypocrisy but it’s their’s to do as they may, except they purport being open and free to any and all for expression, unless it’s the antithesis of what their politics are.
Some kick-back for his blatant horse shit, if you ask me. I can’t believe how many people follow the guy and take his incoherent ramblings as facts... I’m all for free speech but Alex Jones is the meaning of fake news. Is censoring him right? Maybe not, but is it beneficial to the good of human intelligence? Yeah, probably.
His work has flaws, some is valid, and some has helped shed light on important issues. People need to think for themselves, and filter what everyone says to see what's true or not.
I wish I had the patience to wade through the conspiracy theories to find the gems... I’m just not strong enough
..but they let CNN and msnbc on youtube...if we are talking about 'beneficial to human intelligence'..
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
CNN is certainly several magnitudes more beneficial then e.g. Fox news, where employees probably have to pay a fine if they by accident tell the truth without at least twarting it or hiding the important half.
....CNN is certainly several magnitudes more beneficial then...
bubonic plague... arguably...
Hiv....no way!
I think Alex Jones crossed the line this time. There is a difference between free speech and hate speech. This same issue happened in the case of Paladin Press in the mid 90's after a book they sold detailing how a hitman can get away with killing someone. The lawyers for Paladin argued it was free speech, but ultimately it went to a higher court where the judges ruled the book wasn't protected by free speech or the first amendment because it had intent.
Did Alex Jones have intent in that he was saying? Who knows. In his court custody case his lawyer argued he was an actor playing a character and that he doesn't believe in what he says. So who knows.
Yes, it's a fine line. But some people don't show intent to harm, yet have their voices silenced when speaking about issues. Maybe he went over the line. He's quite the character for sure. I owe him some respect for what he's gone, despite the BS he sometimes puts out.
I kow that from the Nuremberg trials!
Who the hell was it...?
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I can't say that I was ever into what Alex Jones does but I think he should be free to say what he wants wherever he wants.
"The sanitation of the internet is underway. Big media is silencing the alternative and independent media, rather than let them share the information they want."
The censorship that these sites are doing scares me. When it happens to someone like Alex Jones, the left will cheer and when it happens to someone hated by the conservatives the right cheers but neither side seems to realize that many of their own voices are being targeted by the same institutions, people, platforms, et al. When we look at what is being censored on both sides, we can start to get a picture of the real agenda that is being pushed and it seems to be the establishment and the authorities working against anyone (regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum) who goes against the approved narratives.
Whoa, I was the 200th vote.
The thing about Alex Jones, is that he has brought good content, but his delivery is terrible.
He's constantly screaming at the camera, which makes it easy to turn off. I find it hard to feel he's not funded by the institution to be a visible raving lunatic to support his cause.
...that's my perception and many others probably..
Thanks for bringing us the latest news krnel -- I've just lost interest in Alex Jones myself.
If there is one exception to everyone should be allowed to say what they want , it is Alex Jones.
Only ONE EXCEPTION !!
Haha I love that remix. This one was making the rounds too:
but did they take DMT ?
They took all the MTs even the BMTs and those come with pepperoni.
And that is the reason I don't use FB or YouTube and try to stay away from google.
Is the decision really necessary?
Lies are not free speech. They are lies.
They may be protected from government reprisals in many cases as "free speech because not damaging enough" (but not in all cases, as it would be for real free speech), but there is no law or right for anyone to have someone else help you spread lies.
People have the right to lie. Freedom means deciding for yourself whether something is true or false through exercising discernment in the information one consumes.
And freedom is also deciding to not host people's lying, as facebook did.
A madman shilling straight bullshit for living, who gets slapped by a company specialised in fraudulent practices and shortening the attention span of humanity... I say bring the popcorn for the clash of morons.
Being free means you have to take personal responsibility for the information you consume and should exercise discernment to separate truth from falsehood.
Although I'm not a fan of AJ or Infowars, people have the right to decide for themselves whether or not their information is true or false.
This ban is another attack on freedom and indicates a further erosion of personal responsibility. "You can't decide what the truth is, so we'll decide for you".
I'll decide for myself, thanks.
A positive to this would be if AJ and Infowars migrated to Steemit/Dtube. It would be a HUGE boost to the platform.
Block chain, just in the nick of time. @ironshield
This is an iffy subject for me. While I hate censorship, in some ways it feels as if it shouldn't apply here. For those who are troubled by the echo chamber they insist on there, they should do what I did and close their account. Alex Jones already has his own site(s) and anyone who is interested in his brand of information can always go there to check it out. Now if they take his websites down, then I would feel a line had been crossed.
They're trying to remove stuff off your computer. That is what Apple and Microsoft has talked about. You seem to be unaware of the whole story.
Sounds like it. I was only commenting on the points raised here in this article.
Often times, the best points are the one left unsaid.
@krnel, As you said Facebook and YouTube are making sure that total domination will be there and they are suppressing content creators.
And in my opinion, Free Speech is just an Illusion aspect and whenever people don't like other peoples thought then they take attacking mode.
And Banning an account is once again reflecting the dominating act and in my opinion these content creators should jump up towards the Decentralisation Platforms.
Let's hope that Decentralisation can bring the needed change and will remove complete censorship and domination.
Wishing you an great day and stay blessed. 🙂
Realistically you are using a platform owned by a corporation and agreeing to specific terms when you sign up. Don't like it? Boycott it.
Good article and our computers are next.