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Alex Jones content removed from Facebook, Youtube, Apple

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Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,667 ✭✭✭Hector Bellend


    Ok, insidious, delusional, divisive and hateful ramblings apart, then you must understand that platforms like Youtube, Facebook, iTunes etc. cannot continue to give a platform to someone who is being sued for defamation in two separate cases.


    If his followers think him a martyr for Free Speech, they can still support him by subscribing to his insidious, delusional, divisive and hateful webshow, which is freely available to anyone inclined to listen to him. They can then vote for Trump again, which they would have done anyway, regardless of his platforms.

    Of course I'm aware that these websites have certain terms of use. Most websites do.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,802 ✭✭✭✭suicide_circus




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,325 ✭✭✭✭Grayson


    L.Jenkins wrote: »
    I have no problem with people expressing their opinions, but many are absolute dheads about it. Lauren Southern I see is one of these right wing antagonists who has her opinions and rightfully so, but she spends as much time if not more poking and prodding people for a reaction than anything else. Milo Yiannopoulos is just as bad if not worse, but he openly admits he gets a kick out of rubbing people up the wrong way.

    There's an element within the right wing who are effectively trolls.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,667 ✭✭✭Hector Bellend


    Grayson wrote: »
    There's an element within the right wing who are effectively trolls.

    That applies equally to the left wing.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 752 ✭✭✭DickSwiveller Returns


    Sonics2k wrote: »

    You speak of Orwellian as a bad thing, but you've also said that the Government should dictate the policies of private companies? Pick a side man.

    Hate Speech vs Freedom of Speech is a very simple really.

    Freedom of Speech. That Trump bloke is a bit of a bell-end, isn't he.

    Hate Speech. Let's literally kill Trump and his family.

    Freedom of Speech. I'm not really comfortable with the concept of gay marriage.

    Hate Speech. All the gays are pedos and should be burned alive.

    The examples you gave are examples of incitement to violence, which is illegal


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,325 ✭✭✭✭Grayson


    Yes. Very clearly. Isnt that the point of libel law?

    You are however allowed say if you think it is or isn't. Just because a court will decide doesn't mean that you can't make up your own mind.

    Do you think it's libellous when he says that the sandy hook families are actors? In other words, do you think he's making a false statement about them?

    I realise there are details in the law that we might not be aware of but this is essentially what we are talking about and it's a pretty easy question.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,253 ✭✭✭Sonics2k


    Sonics2k wrote: »

    The examples you gave are examples of incitement to violence, which is illegal

    Which can also be viewed as hate speech.

    Any response to Orwellian laws?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,962 ✭✭✭✭dark crystal




    Aaah, the Hitchens defence. Free speech does not equate to no consequences. We have all faced consequences for things we have said and done throughout our lives - the internet is no different.


    You can still freely listen to him on his webshow, just as you always could. I assume people that can access youtube, iTunes and Spotify can also access his webshow?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,449 ✭✭✭Call Me Jimmy


    Sonics2k wrote: »

    You speak of Orwellian as a bad thing, but you've also said that the Government should dictate the policies of private companies? Pick a side man.

    Hate Speech vs Freedom of Speech is a very simple really.

    Freedom of Speech. That Trump bloke is a bit of a bell-end, isn't he.

    Hate Speech. Let's literally kill Trump and his family.

    Freedom of Speech. I'm not really comfortable with the concept of gay marriage.

    Hate Speech. All the gays are pedos and should be burned alive.

    Oh so simple. Anyone - whether they agree or disagree with the idea of hate speech laws - who describes them as simple is being intellectually dishonest. You know in Scotland you could easily be prosecuted for a hate crime with that post because 'context and intention' are irrelevant.

    What is the difference between a hate crime and incitement to violence in your world then?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 81,220 ✭✭✭✭biko


    Like the crazed dictator Idi Amin said
    There is freedom of speech, but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,802 ✭✭✭✭suicide_circus


    Aaah, the Hitchens defence. Free speech does not equate to no consequences. We have all faced consequences for things we have said and done throughout our lives - the internet is no different.



    You can still freely listen to him on his webshow, just as you always could. I assume people that can access youtube, iTunes and Spotify can also access his webshow?
    I've no idea, I'm not a fan of Jones. I just find this kind of coordinated action by the big platform monopolies sets my Orwellian spider senses tingling.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 752 ✭✭✭DickSwiveller Returns


    Sonics2k wrote: »
    Which can also be viewed as hate speech.
    No it can't. It's a specific category.
    Any response to Orwellian laws?

    I think when companies like google, facebook etc. have such a huge platform there is an argument for free speech laws being applied. Otherwise these companies will ban anyone who disagrees with whatever the current fashionable opinion is. The people who tend to get banned generally lie on one side of the political divide.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,450 ✭✭✭✭nullzero
    °°°°°


    This kind of blanket banning legitimizes the opinions Alex Jones and his followers have about how put upon they are and how important it is to re elect trump because cares so much about conspiracy theorist mid western types so much.
    His content was what is was, banning any speech is troubling, I think we're better off knowing what fringe groups think and how they feel.

    Glazers Out!



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,667 ✭✭✭Hector Bellend


    Grayson wrote: »
    Don't push. Anyone who's unwilling to state that sandy hook was not staged obviously has problems with facts. They're never going to admit it.

    Or they're just trolling and trying to score points.

    Either way, they're not someone you can debate with.

    I have not contradicted any facts or suggested that Sandy Hook was staged.

    Neither have I condoned what Alex Jones has said or made any apologies for what he said.

    I dont even listen to his show.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,667 ✭✭✭Hector Bellend


    Grayson wrote: »
    You are however allowed say if you think it is or isn't. Just because a court will decide doesn't mean that you can't make up your own mind.

    Do you think it's libellous when he says that the sandy hook families are actors? In other words, do you think he's making a false statement about them?

    I realise there are details in the law that we might not be aware of but this is essentially what we are talking about and it's a pretty easy question.

    I've never suggested that it wasnt libelous at any point.

    I've made no apologies for anything Alex Jones has said in the past or condoned him.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,962 ✭✭✭✭dark crystal



    I dont even listen to his show.


    But you can. It's pretty easy to find and is open to anyone who wants to listen. Free too.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,349 ✭✭✭✭super_furry


    nullzero wrote: »
    This kind of blanket banning legitimizes the opinions Alex Jones and his followers have about how put upon they are and how important it is to re elect trump because cares so much about conspiracy theorist mid western types so much.
    His content was what is was, banning any speech is troubling, I think we're better off knowing what fringe groups think and how they feel.

    We can still do that. Alex Jones isn't going to go away. He still has his voice, still has free speech and will still have his core audience.

    The only thing changing is that, like others who seek to radicalise, he won't have access to certain privately owned platforms.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,984 ✭✭✭Venom


    Alex Jones has always been a water filter salesman who used conspiracy theories ranging from nonsense about frogs being turned gay to the vile Sandyhook remarks about the victims, to flog his crap to idiots.



    It's not so much the fact he was dropped but the way he was dropped by almost every social media platform in the space of one day, that causes me concern for the future.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 752 ✭✭✭DickSwiveller Returns


    We can still do that. Alex Jones isn't going to go away. He still has his voice, still has free speech and will still have his core audience.

    The only thing changing is that, like others who seek to radicalise, he won't have access to certain privately owned platforms.

    Do you have faith in these companies; that they're completely fair minded in who they ban and who they don't. Do you think it is possible that ideological bias can play a part in such bans. For example, Sarah Jeong, the journalist recently hired by the NY Times has spent years on twitter engaged in what some would consider 'hate speech' against white people, yet she is still there.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,205 ✭✭✭✭Dohnjoe


    I never suggested it was staged.

    The question raised was whether "calling" it a hoax was libelous.

    I stated that this will be decided in court as it is the subject of court proceedings.

    There are several cases, I think its more to do with the victims and victim's relatives being falsely labeled or defamed by Jones than the event itself

    I know that the famous case against Holocaust denier Irving ran into trouble because the judge made a comment along the lines of "how can he be accused of spreading false information, when he believes the information he is spreading" - or something along those lines

    However in Jones' case, he immediately disowned his previous beliefs - they might be able to nail him on that, knowingly spreading false information in order to defame and libel victims of an attack


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,570 ✭✭✭Ulysses Gaze


    Venom wrote: »
    Alex Jones has always been a water filter salesman who used conspiracy theories ranging from nonsense about frogs being turned gay to the vile Sandyhook remarks about the victims, to flog his crap to idiots.



    It's not so much the fact he was dropped but the way he was dropped by almost every social media platform in the space of one day, that causes me concern for the future.

    Wait a minute....what?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,912 ✭✭✭ArchXStanton




  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 173 ✭✭Mike Hoch


    briany wrote: »

    I first heard of Jones when Danny Wallace was doing a series on SKY about conspiracies. Jones was one of the people Wallace talked to. Seemed a little less crazy, then. At the time, he was mainly known around Austin, Texas, where he was based.

    I distinctly remember watching a programme featuring him pre 9/11, so I'm guessing 1999 to 2001. I could have sworn it was on Channel 4.

    I then all but forgot about him until that Piers Morgan interview.

    I'd love to find the old show. Who'd have thought 16 years later a loud fat lunatic ranting in his shed might just have swung a US election. Ironically I think it was that interview that made him a household name and, in turn, made people listen to him during the Trump campaign.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 40,536 ✭✭✭✭ohnonotgmail


    Do you have faith in these companies; that they're completely fair minded in who they ban and who they don't. Do you think it is possible that ideological bias can play a part in such bans. For example, Sarah Jeong, the journalist recently hired by the NY Times has spent years on twitter engaged in what some would consider 'hate speech' against white people, yet she is still there.


    They haven't banned jones from Twitter. Twitter needs to up its game.


  • Registered Users Posts: 519 ✭✭✭splashuum


    Wether you like Alex or not is besides the point. Can people not see the monopoly these platforms now have ? This sort of draconian action has opened a seriously dangerous door.
    All these companies got rid of Alex within hours of each other and not one of them were able to give or pinpoint a specific reason for the removal of his channels. They are now almost entirely controlling what we see and hear. The death of independent media looms!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,570 ✭✭✭Ulysses Gaze




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,984 ✭✭✭Venom


    Do you have faith in these companies; that they're completely fair minded in who they ban and who they don't. Do you think it is possible that ideological bias can play a part in such bans. For example, Sarah Jeong, the journalist recently hired by the NY Times has spent years on twitter engaged in what some would consider 'hate speech' against white people, yet she is still there.




    Candice Owens got a temporary ban from Twitter for breaking the terms of service when she retweeted some of Jeong's tweets just replacing white with black, yet all of Jeong's tweets are still on the platform.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 40,536 ✭✭✭✭ohnonotgmail


    splashuum wrote: »
    Wether you like Alex or not is besides the point. Can people not see the monopoly these platforms now have ? This sort of draconian action has opened a seriously dangerous door.
    All these companies got rid of Alex within hours of each other and not one of them were able to give or pinpoint a specific reason for the removal of his channels. They are now almost entirely controlling what we see and hear. The death of independent media looms!




    Eh... https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/08/06/facebook-deletes-infowars-alex-jones-hate-speech-lgbt-racist-hate-speech/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=FB_IA&utm_campaign=PN


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,449 ✭✭✭Call Me Jimmy


    splashuum wrote: »
    Wether you like Alex or not is besides the point. Can people not see the monopoly these platforms now have ? This sort of draconian action has opened a seriously dangerous door.
    All these companies got rid of Alex within hours of each other and not one of them were able to give or pinpoint a specific reason for the removal of his channels. They are now almost entirely controlling what we see and hear. The death of independent media looms!

    I've seen Kyle (Secular Talk) and the Young Turks at least see the problem with this and they are two of the biggest left-leaning Youtube channels. Young Turks are anti hate-speech law but think the defamation and harassment of the Sandy Hook ordeal justifies it, even though that's not what he was banned for. And like oh above delighting in big tech companies banning regardless of the specifics they'll see that this will come back around to them.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,325 ✭✭✭✭Grayson


    Do you have faith in these companies; that they're completely fair minded in who they ban and who they don't. Do you think it is possible that ideological bias can play a part in such bans. For example, Sarah Jeong, the journalist recently hired by the NY Times has spent years on twitter engaged in what some would consider 'hate speech' against white people, yet she is still there.

    She trolled some trolls. When someone trolled her with racist/offensive language she replied with the same language. She never initiated these contacts. Her current employer and her previous employer have both vouched for her. And she's apologised for any offence she may have caused.

    https://www.vox.com/2018/8/3/17644704/sarah-jeong-new-york-times-tweets-backlash-racism

    The irony is that you're complaining about freedom of speech whilst the alt right are trying to get people like her fired for a bad joke.

    And to mention her in a thread about alex jones is just bad whatabouttery. She never trolled sandyhook survivors.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,325 ✭✭✭✭Grayson



    From that link. I highlighted one bit that made me go WTF? Even for jones that's a new type of crazy.
    On InfoWars in July Jones called for drag queens to be burned alive.

    Addressing drag performers on his show, he said: “We’re going to destroy you. You will ascend to Hell in the reverse order.

    They now know fear, because we’re coming like the villagers in the night, with the torches burning bright, with fire.

    “Fire is not the weapon of evil, fire is the weapon of good, and it will consume you.

    “You need to fear god. Your god has stolen your soul.”

    He added: “Soon the icy cold of Hell will embrace you forever.

    “Soon you will pass through and on, never to return to this dimension, never to ascend, but down, down, down, down, down, down, down into that black hole you’re going, chained.”

    Also this month, Jones claimed that Barack Obama was having sex with “ten dudes a day” in one anti-LGBT rant.

    The internet host also recently complained that people call him homophobic because he won’t let them have sex with his car.

    Jones tore into the “LGBTQ23PCL4 agenda”, claiming kids are being taught to have sex with cars, and that the promotion of sex with cars was now mandatory in the US, Canada and the UK.

    He said: “They’re now saying sex with machines or sex with cars or sex with appliances—there’s a whole big movement where people are marrying their cars, marrying their toasters, marrying their dogs, their cats, their horses. I’m not kidding.


    “They’re catching people in public places – you see it all the time – trying to have sex with a Ferrari or trying to have sex with a ’57 Chevy.

    “They actually – I’m not going to get into the details of what they do, but they lube up the tailpipe and everything and then the police come up and there’s a guy hunching your car.”

    He added: “This is the breakdown with society, and if you don’t let somebody have sex with your car, you’re a homophobe, you’re a bigot, you’re a horrible person.

    “By the way, this is not satire. I’m not kidding here. This is what they’re teaching kids now.

    “We’ve got to start saying, we’re for normal biological behaviour and the future of the human species.”


  • Registered Users Posts: 519 ✭✭✭splashuum



    There is regular LBGT members on Alex’s show. One of the many high profile members being Milo Yionnopolous.
    And did you actually just reply with a “PinkNews” article ? Please at least do a bit of research instead of taking sensational fake news sites as gospel.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,962 ✭✭✭✭dark crystal


    splashuum wrote: »
    Wether you like Alex or not is besides the point. Can people not see the monopoly these platforms now have ? This sort of draconian action has opened a seriously dangerous door.
    All these companies got rid of Alex within hours of each other and not one of them were able to give or pinpoint a specific reason for the removal of his channels.

    They all gave specific reasons:


    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/06/apple-pulls-alex-jones-infowars-podcasts-for-hate-speech.html

    They are now almost entirely controlling what we see and hear. The death of independent media looms!

    Would you call them the enemy of the people?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 23,495 ✭✭✭✭Billy86


    Facebook, Youtube, Apple et al are entitled to stop him saying it. It is their platform. They make the rules.

    What are the rules?
    These:

    https://www.youtube.com/static?gl=IE&template=terms

    https://m.facebook.com/terms.php


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,325 ✭✭✭✭Grayson


    splashuum wrote: »
    There is regular LBGT members on Alex’s show. One of the many high profile members being Milo Yionnopolous.
    And did you actually just reply with a “PinkNews” article ? Please at least do a bit of research instead of taking sensational fake news sites as gospel.

    The irony of calling pink news fake news when defending alex jones.

    Someone also replied with a cnbc link. is that fake news too?


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,417 ✭✭✭WinnyThePoo


    Grayson wrote: »
    The irony of calling pink news fake news when defending alex jones.

    Someone also replied with a cnbc link. is that fake news too?

    It's all fake news to some.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,349 ✭✭✭✭super_furry


    Do you have faith in these companies; that they're completely fair minded in who they ban and who they don't. Do you think it is possible that ideological bias can play a part in such bans. For example, Sarah Jeong, the journalist recently hired by the NY Times has spent years on twitter engaged in what some would consider 'hate speech' against white people, yet she is still there.

    Alex Jones is still on Twitter too.

    Anyway, I've been reliably informed that Infowars actually deleted their Youtube account themselves in a false-flag attack in which Alex Jones is a professional crisis actor.

    Also he's Bill Hicks.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 752 ✭✭✭DickSwiveller Returns


    Alex Jones is still on Twitter too.

    Anyway, I've been reliably informed that Infowars actually deleted their Youtube account themselves in a false-flag attack in which Alex Jones is a professional crisis actor.

    Also he's Bill Hicks.

    You didn't answer any of my questions


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,984 ✭✭✭Venom


    You didn't answer any of my questions


    That does tend to happen a lot around here :pac:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,253 ✭✭✭Sonics2k


    splashuum wrote: »
    There is regular LBGT members on Alex’s show. One of the many high profile members being Milo Yionnopolous.
    And did you actually just reply with a “PinkNews” article ? Please at least do a bit of research instead of taking sensational fake news sites as gospel.

    My god the irony. Alex Jones is literally making millions from spreading fake news.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 40,536 ✭✭✭✭ohnonotgmail


    You didn't answer any of my questions




    Your question was already answered. Jeong is still on twitter as is Jones. they have applied the same standard to both.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 752 ✭✭✭DickSwiveller Returns


    Grayson wrote: »
    She trolled some trolls. When someone trolled her with racist/offensive language she replied with the same language. She never initiated these contacts. Her current employer and her previous employer have both vouched for her. And she's apologised for any offence she may have caused.

    Do you think a person writing those kind of tweets, substituting the word black for white would be punished?
    the alt right are trying to get people like her fired for a bad joke.
    When did I say I agree with that?
    And to mention her in a thread about alex jones is just bad whatabouttery. She never trolled sandyhook survivors.

    I'm making the point that these companies are driven by ideological bias in their enforcement of rules. You didn't address any f my questions.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,394 ✭✭✭Pac1Man


    I'm sure someone has mentioned this quote already but Noam Chomsky said it best.

    "If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,349 ✭✭✭✭super_furry


    You didn't answer any of my questions

    Do you have faith in these companies; that they're completely fair minded in who they ban and who they don't?

    Not really, I think they let Infowars and Alex Jones go on for far too long because of the eyeballs they provide and revenue from them. They should have taken this action a long time ago.

    Do you think it is possible that ideological bias can play a part in such bans?

    Is it possible? Sure. But I think that money is the bigger draw. A much smaller channel with a smaller audience wouldn't have lasted nearly as long.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,349 ✭✭✭✭super_furry


    Pac1Man wrote: »
    I'm sure someone has mentioned this quote already but Noam Chomsky said it best.

    "If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."

    HE. STILL. HAS. FREEDOM. OF. EXPRESSION.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 827 ✭✭✭pxdf9i5cmoavkz


    Wanderer78 wrote: »
    Save yourself the time and energy, and don't bother


    The world needs to know about the chemicals that turn the freaking frogs gay!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,586 ✭✭✭4068ac1elhodqr


    Wait a minute....what?

    No idea about frogs, but it actually said on the news this morning (via The University of York), that earth worms were absorbing traces of Prozac {Fluoxetine} (apparently millions are on this stuff) through the soil.

    Which in turn was turing female Starlings off natural reproduction after eating them. The bioaccumulation of pharma products through the ecology may also have small direct effects on humans.

    So don't eat any Starlings for lunch whatever you do, or urban blackbird pie.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,962 ✭✭✭✭dark crystal


    HE. STILL. HAS. FREEDOM. OF. EXPRESSION.


    You'd swear we live in Gilead...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,325 ✭✭✭✭Grayson


    No idea about frogs, but it actually said on the news this morning (via The University of York), that earth worms were absorbing traces of Prozac {Fluoxetine} (apparently millions are on this stuff) through the soil.

    Which in turn was turing female Starlings off natural reproduction after eating them. The bioaccumulation of pharma products through the ecology may also have small direct effects on humans.

    So don't eat any Starlings for lunch whatever you do, or urban blackbird pie.

    Don't know about you but I always fancy a cockmeat sandwich after a bottle of Evian. That might be because it's french though.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,909 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    The world needs to know about the chemicals that turn the freaking frogs gay!


    I withdraw my previous comments, I stand corrected


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