Leftists Want To Ban Speech...

[seer]

My Senator no less!

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., is calling on other tech companies to ban more sites like InfoWars, and says the survival of American democracy depends on it.

“Infowars is the tip of a giant iceberg of hate and lies that uses sites like Facebook and YouTube to tear our nation apart. These companies must do more than take down one website. The survival of our democracy depends on it,” Murphy tweeted Monday.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...c-senator-says

[Cow Poke]

We must SILENCE the opposition!!!! Sieg Heil!!!

[seer]

We must SILENCE the opposition!!!! Sieg Heil!!!

The only sites they seem to want taken down are right leaning, I wonder why...

[Cow Poke]

The only sites they seem to want taken down are right leaning, I wonder why...

They long for the good ol' days when they had a virtual monopoly on the news.

[Leonhard]

Taking down Infowars was a good call. Absolute crank site. Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and Spotify all took him down. These are private companies, and have as much right to specify the rules for their platform, as does the owners of TheologyWeb.

[Cow Poke]

Taking down Infowars was a good call. Absolute crank site. Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and Spotify all took him down. These are private companies, and have as much right to specify the rules for their platform, as does the owners of TheologyWeb.

This is true, as long as they don't claim to be "neutral".

[Psychic Missile]

We must SILENCE the opposition!!!! Sieg Heil!!!

Yes, the Nazi Party, infamous for its attacks on hate speech.

[Cow Poke]

Yes, the Nazi Party, infamous for its attacks on hate speech.

ok........

[Psychic Missile]

ok........

This news has literally nothing to do with Nazis, so I have no idea why you brought them up. It's also confusing why you think being against infowars is partisan.

[seer]

Taking down Infowars was a good call. Absolute crank site. Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and Spotify all took him down. These are private companies, and have as much right to specify the rules for their platform, as does the owners of TheologyWeb.

From what I'm hearing it is not just Alex Jones, and they are not going after leftists sites as far as I know. So it is hypocritical, and modern day book burning.

[Leonhard]

From what I'm hearing it is not just Alex Jones,

Have you checked who were taken down and why?

If they're advocating for violence, which Alex Jones was several times in fact, if they're using hate-speech, which he did, then I think its fair game to take them down. He maliciously and systematically attacked the survivors of the Sandy Hooks school shooting, arguing again, and again, that the whole thing was a false-flag, CIA operation. Complete nonsense, but it caused these kids to be attacked. Several of them being given death threat.

If you wanna support right-wingers like that, be my guest Seer. But one can be against a crank like that being on given a platform without it being an attack on Free Speech.

Free Speech is not unlimited. You're not allowed to malicious, with either complete disregard for truth, or with actual lies, spread false information about individuals. He did that. Multiple times. In several cases he was slapped with defamation lawsuits, which he lost, and caused him to post retractions and apologies. Though immediately after doing that, he'd do it again.

That he's a racist, or shares racist views. That he's a xenophobe. That he believes water flouridation is a communist conspiracy (seriously right out of Doctor Strange Love). That he believes in a return to the gold standard. That he believes the US government can control the weather. That vaccines causes autism. Etc...

None of that caused his channel to be taken down seer.

and they are not going after leftists sites as far as I know.

Boo hoo. What you're saying is whatabouterism. Though I'd certainly love for them to actually enforce their policies more consistently when someone advocates violence or uses hate speech. I doubt we'll see much more than Alex Jones. I don't like it, but the Alt-Right makes them clicks and money. But so does everyone else. And the Alt-Right attacking feminists on youtube, getting their videos reported and blocked (for a few weeks at least), is starting alienate another income source for them.

So it is hypocritical, and modern day book burning.

Do you call it book burning as well when TheologyWeb decided they wouldn't tolerate Christians supporting pro-life terrorism, or even just being coy about it?

Ironically do you know what books were burned in that infamous Nuremberg photo? It was actually books from the gender studies of the university, advancing an early version of what Jordan Peterson, and other modern right prophets would call 'Postmodern litterature'.

[rogue06]

Taking down Infowars was a good call. Absolute crank site. Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and Spotify all took him down. These are private companies, and have as much right to specify the rules for their platform, as does the owners of TheologyWeb.

I agree that Alex Jones who runs Infowars is a nutjob (claims 9/11 and the Sandy Hooks shooting were "inside jobs" among other things) but there are scads of other kook sites that are being given a pass and so far none on the left are being targeted. Further (at least of early this morning) they have only provided a very blanket, nebulous reasoning for doing so without providing details. We're just supposed to trust them.

[Leonhard]

I agree that Alex Jones who runs Infowars is a nutjob (claims 9/11 and the Sandy Hooks shooting were "inside jobs" among other things) but there are scads of other kook sites that are being given a pass and so far none on the left are being targeted. Further (at least of early this morning) they have only provided a very blanket, nebulous reasoning for doing so without providing details. We're just supposed to trust them.

I don't think he was taken down specifically for his right-wing conspiracy theories. But the way he attacked and slandered the kids involved was quite malicious.

That's why I think its mostly economics which is driving this decision. Otherwise we'd see a lot more alt-righters being taken down for the same reason Alex Jones was taken down.

And I agree, they should be transparent and open about why this or that channel is taken down. But I've seen feminist channels where alt-righters simple abused the report feature and got their channels blocked for several weeks. No one was ever told how they evaluated the data gathered, or what treshold had been reached, and there is no transparent way to contact Youtube in these cases. Getting to talk to an actual person is close to impossible.

[rogue06]

I don't think he was taken down specifically for his right-wing conspiracy theories. But the way he attacked and slandered the kids involved was quite malicious.

That's why I think its mostly economics which is driving this decision. Otherwise we'd see a lot more alt-righters being taken down for the same reason Alex Jones was taken down.

And I agree, they should be transparent and open about why this or that channel is taken down. But I've seen feminist channels where alt-righters simple abused the report feature and got their channels blocked for several weeks. No one was ever told how they evaluated the data gathered, or what treshold had been reached, and there is no transparent way to contact Youtube in these cases. Getting to talk to an actual person is close to impossible.

There is a concerted effort in social media to silence conservatives.

Twitter was recently busted (by a liberal news outlet of all things) for secretly shadow banning a number of conservatives including prominent Republicans in Congress.

Facebook has a pretty well documented history of leaning left including targeting conservatives for scrutiny and censorship (Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News) -- even going so far as to censor the Declaration of Independence. And who can forget how Facebook representatives told Obama’s 2012 campaign that they had been allowed to use the platform in ways that would have otherwise been prohibited, because Facebook was "on our side" and then grumbled about Cambridge Analytica doing the same thing because it helped Trump.

Just a week before the California primaries Google listed "Nazism" as the ideology of the California Republican party

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They claim it wasn't their fault but it's hardly the only time

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[Leonhard]

I'll extend an olive branch and say that those things aren't good. Still, I don't think Alex Jones is in the same league as simply a conservative reporter. I mean would you have a person be immune from any form of take down, if they're a conservative? While we haven't been told the specific reasons he was taken down, its pretty clear that he was outside of their policy for youtube content.

The problem, for me, is that there are still hundreds of alt-right channels like that as well. Some of them more heinous. So like I said I think its mostly being done from a money stand point.