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Re:YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's... by gamblor956 on Monday August 06, 2018 @06:21PM (#17702281)
First Amendment is about government action, not self-motivated private/corporation action.

Facebook, Spotify, and Apple realized that continuing to allow Alex Jones to remain on their platforms would result in substantial harm to the commercial viability of their platforms, as a result of boycotts, lawsuits, etc. by the 99% of people that Alex Jones spends his life spewing lies about.

It was an easy financial decision. Hell, they could have faced absolutely massive shareholder lawsuits if they hadn't kicked him off their platforms.

Re:YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's... by slededit on Monday August 06, 2018 @07:19PM (#17702619)
The only rational solution is to make political affiliation a protected class. It is the only way to ensure democracy in this age of corporations which exert national control over what we see and hear. Radio waves had FCC protection, no such system exists for the internet which is rapidly replacing these systems.

If in the days of the first amendment paper producers conspired en mass to censor we would have seen it dealt with then. Alas its a modern problem which is ours to solve.

Re:YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's... by gamblor956 on Monday August 06, 2018 @07:25PM (#17702654)
In the days of the First Amendment...newspapers did actively censor their opposition. Hell, the First Congress, most of whom participated in the drafting of the Bill of Rights and its ratification by the States, passed the Sedition Act, clamping down on free speech in a way not seen since outside of WWII.

As for making political affiliation a protected class...that wouldn't shield Jones. He's being kicked off for slander, lies, and acts of incitement, not his claim to be a conservative.

Re:YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's... by slededit on Monday August 06, 2018 @07:29PM (#17702672)
I speak of paper mills not newspapers. This is analogue to DNS providers and other internet infrastructure providers participating in censorship. It would be a clear breach of first amendment rights to force someone with editorial control to print something.
Re:YouTube Bans Alex Jones, Following Facebook's and Apple's... by tchaffee on Tuesday August 07, 2018 @08:16AM (#17705781)
Horrible analogy. YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are nothing like DNS and other internet infrastructure, nor are they like paper mills.

Alex Jones runs a website using DNS and internet infrastructure and gets 10 million monthly visitors. Where's the censorship?