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Re:Spotify signs ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ to an exclusive ... by ALittleLight on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @02:08AM (#23243769)
Alex Jones was banned from YouTube, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, and Spotify pretty much simultaneously and after years of successful use of each service. You can argue that the conspiracy to remove him from those platforms was a good thing, but I don't think it is reasonable to suggest that each of the platforms coincidentally decided to boot him at the same time. They clearly coordinated to ban him, they didn't coordinate in public, so I think it makes it quite clear he was actually conspired against.

It also strikes me as a bit disingenuous to suggest that because he can just go create his own Twitter or his own YouTube and host things there he wasn't censored. He technically could, but that doesn't change the impact of banning him from the major services. It seems as perfectly clear that they are censoring him as it is that the big tech companies conspired to do so. Again, you may argue that it is right to censor Jones - he is either a liar or crazy, but it makes no sense to argue that he wasn't censored.

I think in isolation, it would be better if Jones didn't share his opinions. But if I had to pick between realities, and in one Jones was free to spread his conspiracy theories, and in the other big companies get to decide what we can and cannot say online? Well, it's a pretty obvious choice for me.

Re:Spotify signs ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ to an exclusive ... by afiori on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @06:48AM (#23245358)
> They clearly coordinated to ban him

This is not necessarily true, it is perfectly reasonable both that individual employee were simply like minded, or that given the high visibility his character they all acted quickly not to be "accused" of supporting him.

It surely looks like they conspired, and effectively it is as if they conspired to do it, but personally I believe that as a default it should not be accredited to a conspiracy (as in the dictionary meaning of hidden agreement) unless we have some direct evidence.

Especially since the possibility that individual employees were biased and like minded is much more likely and stable.

Re:Spotify signs ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ to an exclusive ... by TomMarius on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @03:36AM (#23244282)
There was no conspiracy, and no censorship. He broke rules of all these platforms and the final straw pushed all platform owners to enforce their rules, that's it. It should be obvious to anyone that Facebook or Google or any other company can't be expected to publish anything anyone wants (did you even read the rules?) - since the dawn of the Internet we had to set up our own servers for that purpose. How is Facebook different from any old phpBB forum? Bans were often given for fun during these days!
Re:Spotify signs ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ to an exclusive ... by ALittleLight on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @03:51AM (#23244389)
If there was no conspiracy you think it was a coincidence that he was banned across all major platforms at the same time after using them for years?

I guess I can kind of see how it is possible to believe that it was a coincidence that all companies banned him simultaneously. It's obviously overwhelmingly unlikely that it was a coincidence, but that is at least a coherent thing to believe. On the other hand, I cannot say the same for the claim that there was "no censorship".

What do you call banning people because you don't like what they have to say and want to stop them from sharing their viewpoint if not censorship?

If you want to argue that Jones should be censored, that seems like a rational and worthwhile conversation. I don't get how you can argue that he wasn't censored though.

Regarding how Facebook, Apple, Twitter, YouTube, and Spotify are different than a random phpBB forum, I think I'll just leave that one as an exercise for the reader...

Re:Spotify signs ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ to an exclusive ... by TomMarius on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @03:55AM (#23244406)
Enforcing rules of platform is not censorship. I don't care much if it was a coincidence - I did not say that, anyways. Even if a group of people had a videocall about it, it's not a conspiracy, merely a group of people had a call about a long standing issue and did something about it, which was absolutely well within their rights - even if completely random, which it wasn't. We used to have chats with other Minecraft server admins about some specific people ("griefers"), too - not even the griefer thought they had any right of access or that we "conspired", though.

"Conspiracy - an evil, unlawful, treacherous, or surreptitious plan formulated in secret by two or more persons; plot." - https://www.dictionary.com/browse/conspiracy