Alex Jones and Infowars gets 'disappeared' - are we headed in the right direction?

[Angrboda]

Some will applaud the removal of Alex Jones from social media sites. Others will regard it as a dangerous incursion against free speech. Where do you stand?

Top technology companies erased most of the posts and videos on their services from Alex Jones, the internet’s most notorious conspiracy theorist, thrusting themselves into a fraught debate over their role in regulating what can be said online.

Apple, Google, Facebook and Spotify severely restricted the reach of Mr. Jones and Infowars, his right-wing site that has been a leading peddler of false information online. Mr. Jones and Infowars have used social media for years to spread dark and bizarre theories, such as that the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax and that Democrats run a global child-sex ring. Apple made its move on Sunday and the others followed on Monday.

The actions, one of the tech companies’ most aggressive efforts against misinformation, highlighted a difficult dilemma for their businesses. They have long desired to combat misinformation online, but they have also been reluctant to be arbiters of truth.

But since a rise of misinformation online around elections, such as the 2016 presidential vote, the tech companies have faced increasing calls from lawmakers and the news media to address their role in that spread of false information and a related increase in partisan divisions. The tech companies have recently stepped up enforcement — but that has led to accusations of political bias, largely from conservatives.

Apple, Facebook and YouTube Remove Content From Alex Jones and Infowars

[Fireball]

I think that a responsible organization is allowed to limit what it will propagate. This a great step forward, IMO. I liken it to not accepting what the WBC does at funerals of deceased vets, Vs driving them there for pay, even if one doesn't agree. No need to provide a vehicle for this. Alex Jones and his ilk can find their own independent methods of propagating the BS.

[The Grand Nudger]

Gay frogs got banned from the internets.

[chimp3]

Freedom of the press be!ongs to the owner of the press.

[Jackalope]

I have no problem whatsoever with a private entity refusing to publish hostile, bigoted bullshit.

[Minimalist]

Free speech does not apply to private corporations.

Free speech means the government can not throw his sleazy ass in jail for what he says. 

If you call your boss a "motherfucker" don't be surprised if you get fired.  But by all means let the ACLU know if you get thrown in jail by some cop for it.

[Jackalope]

Also I strongly believe that what Jones is doing is largely a con and that too I have no qualms about declining to publish.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Full time commentator on NRA TV in 5, 4, 3,...

[brewer]

I have no problem with this. But then I barely know who he is to begin with.

[Amarok]

I have no problem with this. But then I barely know who he is to begin with.

He's the fine fellow who has said such nuggets of wisdom like 

I grew up in Dallas, Texas, drinking sodium fluoridated water. All the scientific studies show my IQ has been reduced by at least 20 points. The shadow of who I would have been calls out from the grave.

• , 11 February 2008.
  

 

It took me about a year with  to come to grips with the fact that the whole thing was fake. I mean, I couldn't believe it. I knew they jumped on it, used the crisis, hyped it up. But then I did deep research—and my gosh, it just pretty much didn't happen.

• , 28 December 2014.
  

How about Prozac? ... The U.S. number one cause of [unnatural] death is suicide now because they give people suicide mass murder pills. ... I want to get people off pills that the insert says will make you commit suicide and kill people! I want to blame the real culprit—suicide pills! Mass murder pills!
Alex Jones on Piers Morgan Tonight, CNN, 7 January 2013.

And those are his saner idea's