Facebook Bans Infowars Alex Jones for 30 Days Over Hate Speech, Bullying - Sensationalist Headlines

https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/facebook-bans-infowars-alex-jones-hate-speech-1202887980/ Surprised it was only 30 days.

Needs to be 30 years, more like. Fuck Alex Jones.

Get all of these dangerous nuts off all of the big sites, imo. A social media account isn't a right. Facebook, twitter and YouTube have no obligation to help these nobs spread their shite

People watching their shite makes them money from ads.

I'm surprised Alex Jones was even on Facebook in the first place. That seems like the last place a conspiracy theorist would go.

oh shit our stocks dropped, quick do something but don't make it permanent we don't want to actually change

Idea: Persuade Alex Jones all social media is a conspiracy so we don't have to hear about him any more

i'm waiting for the idiots to make a right wing counterpart to facebook ala rationalwiki and stuff. 'white racebook' when

idk man if you've seen the shit on FB nowadays...

Facebook for me is like 98% useless pictures with bold text.

Youtube pulled some videos of his too, but for some reason refused to delete or close his channel despite him now having several times the amount of violations required. The man's peddling dangerous scams that get people killed, but as long as the social media companies can make money off him nobody cares.

I tried a google but as kinda expected with this guy, alot came up. What dangerous scams? He peddling some alt medicine or some shit?

Infowars Makes Its Money by Selling Snake Oil | RealClearScience

Ah, thanks. Reminds me of Joe Rogans early days, never did research his shit but boy did he push alota pills.

They tried. It was called ReaganBook. It didn't end well at all.

If someone wants to put the image together it should be something like "The liberals record everyone who watches right wing videos on Facebook. When he UN black helicopters come they'll use those records to send YOU to the FEMA death camps!" You can probably also throw in something about the race war and how there will only be illegal Mexicans left at the end or something.

In addition to what's been posted about his fake medicine: at least one person has been convinced to commit an attack as a result of his propaganda. Far as I'm concerned Jones is responsible for that.

If you get rid of them, you give them the martyrdom they want. They can then cite that as being silenced. Give them a platform and organically take them down. Fight in the battlefield of ideas.

On the one hand Alex Jones is awful, on the other hand 1st Amendment rights. I understand that Facebook is a private company and can do as they please but I can see how this act will inflame and only work to confirm the beliefs of his followers. To an extent I'm not sure who's done more social damage overall, Alex Jones and his niche insane followers or Facebook and their blatant lack of social responsibility.

If you're gonna debunk your own argument in the very next sentence, maybe don't use it.

I also hedged my argument with the fact that Facebook doesn't actually care about the public due to their practices and that Alex Jones's followers could view this as an attack on civil liberties regardless of facts of business and civil liberties.

We're talking about right wing nuts here. They'll always find a way to paint themselves as the victims somehow because these people are just straight up delusional and don't follow the same rules as us.

Which was precisely my statement in the original post. I think we're overall just agreeing aggressively here. I due though feel concern about suppression of 1st Amendment rights even on private platforms in US based companies just as a value thing and agree with @wauterboi about this issue being better handled in the battlefield of ideas rather than a corporation trying to make a stateent.

The 'battlefield of ideas' is kind of rendered moot because, as mentioned, Jones and his followers just don't function rationally. It's like arguing with a wall. They just KNOW that the filthy globalists are out to get them and any proof you might have of the opposite is all part of the conspiracy.

So at this point why bother censoring content that would only appeal to a very small segment of the population when that censorship is at risk of alienating a larger amount of people concerned with preservation of freedom of speech from that platform?

At this stage you should probably stop using the word censorship until you look up what it means. Denying access to a service is not censorship, he is more than welcome to go peddle his rabble rousing lies somewhere else. Facebook just don't want him doing it via their service.

Alternatively, they should be as specific with these celebrities. Cut up the video for examples and explain that the problem are those specific things and very specifically what's wrong with them. If you get rid of the content they can just claim that the guy was innocent and Facebook is lying. That attracts people in itself.

Right-leaning folks raise a very valid point; once you start blocking things in the name of "hate speech", you're sliding down a very a slippery slope. It's hard to provide a clear definition of what will and will not get branded as grounds for removal under that term. This is the type of shit that gets stuff taken down because people that FP would call "SJWs" end up getting offended over non-issues. I agree, a lot of people following Alex Jones are fuckin' weirdos, but don't condemn everyone who has valid criticism of these policies as a right-wing nut.

I've never heard of anyone being so terrible they get banned on fucking Facebook

The interdimensional pedophilliac vampire cartel won.