Alex Jones isn’t entitled to any platform but his own.
Nobody has a right to Facebook or Youtube. It’s not a violation of his free speech under the first amendment to ban him from practically anything.
The first amendment only says the government can’t punish you for saying ridiculous things. Not that there aren’t any consequences when dealing with other people and businesses.
Apparently he’s not entitled to that either, at least not until the license fee is paid.
You keep using that term. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Not what I am asking at all. I understand he has no right to be on a private forum. My question is about what he is saying, doesn’t matter where it’s said. Pretty sure incinting people to take action on a lie is a criminal act and not Therefor not covered by the first amendment. I was wondering if what he has said qualifies.
Let me see if I have this straight:
I can incite violence against anyone with slanderous lies then hide behind the 1st amendment and it’s considered ‘protected speech’.
BUT
If I suggest that our burning dumpster fire of a president should have a comically large safe dropped on his head, I go to jail?
Isn’t that the very definition of a double standard? AKA hypocrisy?
PS: the thing about the safe is a humorous example of how we’d rid ourselves of the menace of an orange president. In reality I’d prefer an impeachment then a long stint in prison.
I suspect that is medically impossible at this stage.
From my understanding yelling fire in a crowded theater when there is no fire is not covered free speech. Wouldn’t the things Alex Jones champions and pushes like pizzagate not be covered by the first amendment?
IANL, but that speech, while odious. does not meet the Brandenburg Test and thus should not be restricted by law.
Trumps an idiot and asshole and so is AJ, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. Although the companies are private and this isn’t a free speech issue because of it, combined the companies involved do have an effective oligopoly on the majority of our public speech forums. If they would have cited legal reasons for removing the speech I’d be on their side, they could have easily due to the lawsuits, but instead they essential said “we don’t like it” . That’s fine INDIVIDUALLY, but what are they not going to like next time. Not everyone has the external resources AJ has to maintain his free speech. The strangle hold they have on the speech of America and the way in which they acted in unison in a vague and deliberate non specific manor should give pause to everyone.
It should’ve given pause to everyone years ago, when they started silencing left voices. But nobody much cared about it then.
The hard fact is that the social media corporations are going to try to suppress the left, and they’re going to do that whether or not some people decide that Alan Jones needs defending.
So, given that point, I’m happy to see him have troubles. His brand of malicious incitement should never have been given a platform in the first place.
That really isn’t how free speech works. It never has been.
Let’s just ignore AJ and hate speech and wacky conspiracies. Let’s say you wrote a book. It wasn’t a very good book, but you wrote one. You shop it around and none of the major publishers wanted to pick it up. None of the smaller publishers wanted to pick it up. Have your rights been violated? Nope.
So you move on and self publish. Now you start sending books to reviewers and news agencies etc, trying to get some reviews up, generate interest, let people know your books it out there and ready to be read. No one reviews it, no one wants to interview, no one talks about. Have your rights been violated? Nope.
So you write a letter to the editors of several major and local papers, complaining about how hard it is for self published author to get his book out there. No one opts to print it. Have your rights been violated? Nope.
So you start going door to door, passing out pamphlet, letting people know your book is out there and it. is. awesome. People tell you to get off their lawn or they will call the cops. Have your rights been violated? Nope.
Refusal to replicate and spread your media is not a violation of your rights. The 1st Amendment afford no such right.
I understand it isn’t a 1a issue. I said as much. My point is they have effectively privatized the town square. These are THE places public discussion / debate happens. The fact that they shut it down for indeterminate / arbitrarily reasons should give everyone reason to pause and think about what is happening, yeah in this instance he’s a loud idiot with obnoxious ideas, but that’s all the more reason they could have referenced actual legal issues involved instead of the “no soup for you” arbitrary we serve who we want.
People with money have always controlled what was printed, heard, and later seen in movies and television. The platform is new but the mode of operation is not. This is why I give my money to community radio stations and my local film society.
If anything it’s far easier to use the internet to connect with people and fund speech through Gofundme, Patreon, etc.
But it isn’t arbitrary. It is based on posted rules for use of the platform. These rule are similar to AJ’s OWN rules on HIS platform. There are plenty of right and left wing pundits on Twitter and Youtube and other areas who aren’t being removed - even some who are arguably not following the rules. Now a case could be made that many of these areas need to moderated more and/or more fairly.
The fringe has always had a voice. Now instead of send a dollar to get mailed a news letter or pamphlet from the back of some obscure magazine, you can make a website. And each website is it’s own town square. The fact that you get less traffic to your website than if you are using someone else’s platform is probably partly due to one’s content.
I disagree it is very arbitrary. They didn’t say this post violates this tos rule in this way, clean it up or be gone. they said tos violation, permaban, end of story. Well within their rights yes, and for him not a big issue he has other means of getting his garbage out, but an unsettling precedent is being set for others who may not have the same means as him.
The shut it down for hate speech, which is a violation of terms of service.
Not indeterminate, not arbitrary.
K that’s great where’s their definition of hate speech, which posts violated it, in what ways did they violate it. Why now is it an issue and it wasn’t before.
He’s been doing the same silly nonsense for a long time. There hasn’t been a change in what he’s saying, there hasn’t been a change in their tos. He’s known enough I don’t buy a “we just noticed” argument. I agree they they can do what they want with their platform. But it’s chilling to see them doing this to what is essentially the public square of our age, in unison, in this vague arbitrary way, with no desire or need to clarify when they could easily clarify and justify it.
So you’re not challenging that it’s hate speech.
Right?
He’s been doing the same silly nonsense (i.e., hate speech) for a long time. But now you need the company’s definition of hate speech? Like, it’s somehow different than everyone’s else’s? You need to know which posts violated it? Uh, take your pick, I guess, “he’s been doing the same thing for a long time”, as you said. Why is it an issue now and wasn’t before?
Many people have asked why it’s taken so long for this to be an issue, because it’s actually been an issue for a looong time. I’m not gasping in surprise that a much beloved hate-monger, suddenly out of nowhere has been kicked off a platform. I’m shaking my head that after years of this bullshit, the company is finally doing something about it.
It’s chilling to see ordinary people who have been through one of the worst tragedies a person can bear (having your children killed at school, by a crazy shooter), called “crisis actors”, and harassed for years by a multi-millionaire conspiracy theorist, who “suggests” that “somethign might have to happen” to those damned “crisis actors”.
It’s not chilling to see a multi-millionare burn out his megaphone.
Sometimes people have had enough and get fed up.
How is that a bad thing?
