YouTube, Apple and Facebook Ban InfoWars, Which Decries 'Mega Purge'

Re:YouTube, Apple and Facebook Ban InfoWars, Which Decries '... by parvenu74 on Monday August 06, 2018 @02:46PM (#17700365)

Don't get me wrong: Alex Jones is the snake-oil-selling, kayfabing carnival barker of the internet. My concern is what appears to be a coordinated take-down of his channels on the dominant social media/communications platforms with very few precise details explaining why. My biggest concern is that this crackdown on a crackpot will set off one of his high-functioning, mentally ill fans to pull a Timothy McVeigh type of vigilante response on one of the companies who have canned him in the last 24 hours. Is my concern unwarranted?

EDIT: I presume the down-votes on this comment are because I referred to some of Alex Jones' fans as mentally ill. I don't say this lightly: I know a handful of people who are legitimately mentally ill who think Alex Jones is the lone truth-teller in the media. You should be very scared of what these people might do if they think their hero is being martyred.

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Re:YouTube, Apple and Facebook Ban InfoWars, Which Decries '... by FLUX-YOU on Monday August 06, 2018 @02:49PM (#17700409)

>My concern is what appears to be a coordinated take-down of his channels on the dominant social media/communications platforms with very few precise details explaining why.

Alex Jones could easily show the emails from these companies where he was warned multiple times.

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Re:YouTube, Apple and Facebook Ban InfoWars, Which Decries '... by burnallofit on Monday August 06, 2018 @03:22PM (#17700831)

This is not a reason to not ban IW. If anything, it's a reason to ban it sooner.

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Re:YouTube, Apple and Facebook Ban InfoWars, Which Decries '... by Brockenstein on Monday August 06, 2018 @03:46PM (#17701061)

Who cares about downvotes?

>My biggest concern is that this crackdown on a crackpot will set off one of his high-functioning, mentally ill fans to pull a Timothy McVeigh type of vigilante response on one of the companies who have canned him in the last 24 hours. Is my concern unwarranted?

It's not unwarranted. But nor should our society walk on eggshells for fear of upsetting these people. It would give a lot of power to a very extreme minority... and probably not a minority that can be expected to be responsible with any power...

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