So this weekend has been a bad one for Infowars and it’s host, Alex Jones. If you don’t know what Infowars is, it’s a controversial right-wing alternative media platform. Infowars vs social media: A free speech threat?
First, Facebook punished Infowars. They got rid of four of their podcasts in the last week. Then, they gave Alex Jones a 30-day ban from Facebook altogether. That’s just Jones’ page, but the Infowars page goes on as normal, except for these four episodes. But this punishment is for, “repeated violations of community standards”. Also, one Facebook leader accuses these pages of ‘glorifying violence and using language to dehumanize others’.
You Tube did the same thing Facebook did recently. Then there is Apple, who took the strongest stance of them all. Because Apple removed all Infowars and Alex Jones content altogether. The only one they left was, ‘Real News with David Knight’. Apple says they used hate speech and violated their policies. One Apple spokesperson said, “Apple does not tolerate hate speech, and we have clear guidelines that creators and developers must follow to ensure we provide a safe environment for all of our users”. We don’t know when, or if, Apple will let them back again. Don’t hold your breath.
Infowars has caused? controversy for around 20 years. They claimed the government knew, and even helped plot the 9/11 attacks. They also claimed mass shootings like Sandy Hook in 2012 and San Bernadino in 2015 were conspiracy theories. It got so bad that Sandy Hook families are suing. This is Infowars vs social media. Personally, I don’t like the things Infowars or Alex Jones says. But there is concern here. What are they going to call hate speech? Is every IT service company going to wipe people out because they say something they don’t like? Will a little blogger like me in my computer repair shop be punished because I offended somebody? That is the real fear. Because I’ve had Facebook friends be put in ‘Facebook jail’ even for the slightest thing these days. Is this punishing haters? Or is this a free speech threat?