Should Alex Jones be Banned?

Oceanborn said:

Violate their terms of service?.. so when liberals threaten people with actual violence and post hateful content-- and these social media giants ignore this behavior, I suppose you're fine with that? # cognitive dissonance

I don't agree with all of Trump's tweets, and i do not think he should be conducting government business using that platform in an ideal world. However, and this is the crux of my point here, Trump is not allowed an actual platform with mass media companies like CNN, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, etc.. who report 90% negative news on him 24 hours a day. What other platform does Trump have if not Twitter and Facebook?

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At least 90% of what Trump does is negative ( at least for the best concerns of ALL Americans)..hence why 90% of what is reported is negative.

Lord Tammerlain said:

Quite a lot of people who were on DP have been banned

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Very few, if any, for their political views.

Oceanborn said:

I do not like Alex Jones, for the record. It's not even his message that irritates me as much as he does. I hate his voice and his sloppy, unkept appearance. However, the precedent set by deleting his platform is a great concern to me. Who is next? Sometimes I watch Paul Joseph Watson- a member of Infowars- is he next? Sargon of Akkad? Lauren Southern? Whether you like them or hate them, do they not have a right to a platform? The leftists who either supported the ban, or outright ban conservatives will argue that these are private companies who can ban whoever they wish- however, these companies now have a monopoly on social media content. I find it strange that Spotify, Facebook, Apple, and YouTube all banned Infowars within 12 hours of each other. Facebook deleted the Infowars page at 3 in the morning. And this wasn't about "fake news" it was about Infowars supposedly breaking community guidelines for hate speech. They cited specifically Jone's videos on mass migration and called it Islamophobic. This is lib-speak for "disagreed with our new progressive morality."

Everyone who is celebrating: you could be next. If you are not left of Michael Moore, perhaps you are too far right. It is now up to the globalist-social media corporations to control freedom of speech. Twitter hasn't banned Infowars yet, but they will I'm certain. Recently, the idiots who sued President Trump for blocking them on Twitter actually won and the courts forced him to unblock these individuals because it threatened their freedom of speech. Really? What's happening here?

Americans need to stand up for the freedoms they have left before it's gone. Banning unpopular or even outright obnoxious opinions is a dangerous precedent. Read 1984...

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Alex Jones is an American citizen and as such has every right to speak what he thinks. And we who think he is pretty silly and pathetic as well as completely wrong at times have every right not to interact with him or respond to him or read or watch his stuff. Our responsibility is to put out the truth to correct whatever error he presents. Had most of American society chosen to do that he would have no more influence than any other political or religious nuts out there spewing indefensible stuff.

Because the left has so vocally and adamantly opposed Jones has increased his power and influence immensely. And the social networks banning his stuff along with all the publicity about that will certainly be inspiring people to access it where they can and many of those will become admirers of his.

The left can be so shortsighted in that way.

Oceanborn said:

I do not like Alex Jones, for the record. It's not even his message that irritates me as much as he does. I hate his voice and his sloppy, unkept appearance. However, the precedent set by deleting his platform is a great concern to me. Who is next? Sometimes I watch Paul Joseph Watson- a member of Infowars- is he next? Sargon of Akkad? Lauren Southern? Whether you like them or hate them, do they not have a right to a platform? The leftists who either supported the ban, or outright ban conservatives will argue that these are private companies who can ban whoever they wish- however, these companies now have a monopoly on social media content. I find it strange that Spotify, Facebook, Apple, and YouTube all banned Infowars within 12 hours of each other. Facebook deleted the Infowars page at 3 in the morning. And this wasn't about "fake news" it was about Infowars supposedly breaking community guidelines for hate speech. They cited specifically Jone's videos on mass migration and called it Islamophobic. This is lib-speak for "disagreed with our new progressive morality."

Everyone who is celebrating: you could be next. If you are not left of Michael Moore, perhaps you are too far right. It is now up to the globalist-social media corporations to control freedom of speech. Twitter hasn't banned Infowars yet, but they will I'm certain. Recently, the idiots who sued President Trump for blocking them on Twitter actually won and the courts forced him to unblock these individuals because it threatened their freedom of speech. Really? What's happening here?

Americans need to stand up for the freedoms they have left before it's gone. Banning unpopular or even outright obnoxious opinions is a dangerous precedent. Read 1984...

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He can always go to talk radio.

Zyphlin said:

"Should he"? Its not my call, it's the call of those private companies. Personally, I'm not a fan of a platform aimed at sharing of peoples views and contents censoring things significantly, but it's absolutely in their power to do so.

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This x1000.

This has almost nothing to do with freedom of speech. If I go on the street corner and repeatedly scream the N-word, you can't do anything about it because freedom of speech. If I do it in your house, you have the right to kick me out. If I do it in your place of business, you have the right to kick me out. If I do it on DebatePolitics, you have the right to ban me. But I can still go on the street corner, or on my own website and scream the n-word all I want. No one has denied me my rights.

If facebook or youtube starts banning by in large any group that they deem "offensive" simply because they disagree with the politics I'll hop off those platforms in protest. But Alex Jones, while I don't like the extra press he's getting from these bans, isn't the first domino in a long line. He's simply a raving lunatic saying outrageous things and he has learned that apparently sometimes there are repercussions.

Oceanborn said:

Violate their terms of service?.. so when liberals threaten people with actual violence and post hateful content-- and these social media giants ignore this behavior, I suppose you're fine with that? # cognitive dissonance

I don't agree with all of Trump's tweets, and i do not think he should be conducting government business using that platform in an ideal world. However, and this is the crux of my point here, Trump is not allowed an actual platform with mass media companies like CNN, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, etc.. who report 90% negative news on him 24 hours a day. What other platform does Trump have if not Twitter and Facebook?

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FOX News

Amelia said:

Banning "Antifa" would be like banning the Tea Party. Antifa isn't a person or even an organization.

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Fortunately, privately owned businesses who host internet platforms are allowed to enforce private User Agreements much the way a country club is allowed to enforce User Agreements.
You agree that when you enter the banquet facilities at the Chevy Chase Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland that you will always wear a suit jacket, tie and some kind of dress slacks.
If you refuse to do so CCCC is allowed to boot you from their private premises, even if you're a member.
If you're not a member, they're allowed to deny you entry altogether if they wish.

I love Prince and I love Harlan Ellison but there were times when BOTH of them were, in effect, "attempting to sue the internet".
And it was ridiculous to watch.

AntiFa is a leaderless organization, purely anarchist. So, while it is possible to ban individual members, one cannot ban "AntiFa" without some very large changes made to the Constitution.

Germany did it. They changed their Constitution so that Nazism was banned, thus all public displays of Nazi artifacts, speech, and rhetoric ARE in fact banned. Their logic in doing so was the BODY COUNT which, if you remember, numbers in the millions.
What is AntiFa's body count so far?

ISIS is, for all practical purposes, BANNED in the United States. Put up a pro-ISIS website and post pro-ISIS videos here and see where it gets you.

Shall we wait until Alex Jones followers FOLLOW his logical path and start SUCCESSFULLY shooting up MORE pizza parlors, and SUCCESSFULLY kill some patrons? After all, the only difference between Alex Jones and Stephen Paddock (the Las Vegas Shooter) is the fact that Paddock was more successful.

I still say that "Oceanborn" is struggling with the liberal side of her personality which she refuses to acknowledge, and she should go ahead and own it.
Of course, there would BE a brand new set of advantages AND disadvantages to regulating large social media platforms as public utilities.

No matter how you slice it, someone's ox is bound to be gored one way or the other.

AlbqOwl said:

Because the left has so vocally and adamantly opposed Jones has increased his power and influence immensely.

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That's it. Alex Jones is the left's fault.

Mach said:

That's it. Alex Jones is the left's fault.

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Of course. The left is responsible for all ills, past, present and future, foreign and domestic!:mrgreen:

Oceanborn said:

I do not like Alex Jones, for the record. It's not even his message that irritates me as much as he does. I hate his voice and his sloppy, unkept appearance. However, the precedent set by deleting his platform is a great concern to me. Who is next? Sometimes I watch Paul Joseph Watson- a member of Infowars- is he next? Sargon of Akkad? Lauren Southern? Whether you like them or hate them, do they not have a right to a platform? The leftists who either supported the ban, or outright ban conservatives will argue that these are private companies who can ban whoever they wish- however, these companies now have a monopoly on social media content. I find it strange that Spotify, Facebook, Apple, and YouTube all banned Infowars within 12 hours of each other. Facebook deleted the Infowars page at 3 in the morning. And this wasn't about "fake news" it was about Infowars supposedly breaking community guidelines for hate speech. They cited specifically Jone's videos on mass migration and called it Islamophobic. This is lib-speak for "disagreed with our new progressive morality."

Everyone who is celebrating: you could be next. If you are not left of Michael Moore, perhaps you are too far right. It is now up to the globalist-social media corporations to control freedom of speech. Twitter hasn't banned Infowars yet, but they will I'm certain. Recently, the idiots who sued President Trump for blocking them on Twitter actually won and the courts forced him to unblock these individuals because it threatened their freedom of speech. Really? What's happening here?

Americans need to stand up for the freedoms they have left before it's gone. Banning unpopular or even outright obnoxious opinions is a dangerous precedent. Read 1984...

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I think social media should be banned...by the consumer.

Mach said:

That's it. Alex Jones is the left's fault.

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Good Lord, it's like these people have been living on a spaceship for the last forty years.
They have their own atmosphere, their own flora and fauna, their own facts, their own history and their own scientific theories, and none of it relates to life here on Earth!

Oh and...by the way, both Obama AND Hillary are President! And the United States is bordering on open Communism, in case you hadn't heard, so it's also like they've been intercepting the HUAC Committee broadcasts from the 1950's.

????????

On Monday, Jones begged Donald Trump to help him get back on the social media platforms with a monologue that alternately praised the president while claiming that the social media ban is part of a globalist conspiracy against him.

At no time did Jones mention the reason the websites gave for permanently removing him: because he violated policies on graphic violence and hate speech.

Instead, Jones blamed globalists and the Chinese. He also suggested that Trump make the ban against him a major campaign issue in 2018.

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Media Matters is saying the above report is taken from a transcript of Jones’ video where he asks for help from Trump.

If this is Jones’ actual plea to Trump - should Trump intervene?

With me, Alex Jones is a fool talking to fools. There are people that only read about Karl Max on the website and claim to preach the wisdom of socialism on the internet as well. Alex Jones is the cancer of the internet. People like him, cherry pick information on the website. They refuse to read the classical cannons of fiction, they refuse to read the classical cannons of nonfiction. And after that, they refuse to read college level fiction and nonfiction.

AlbqOwl said:

Alex Jones is an American citizen and as such has every right to speak what he thinks. And we who think he is pretty silly and pathetic as well as completely wrong at times have every right not to interact with him or respond to him or read or watch his stuff. Our responsibility is to put out the truth to correct whatever error he presents. Had most of American society chosen to do that he would have no more influence than any other political or religious nuts out there spewing indefensible stuff.

Because the left has so vocally and adamantly opposed Jones has increased his power and influence immensely. And the social networks banning his stuff along with all the publicity about that will certainly be inspiring people to access it where they can and many of those will become admirers of his.

The left can be so shortsighted in that way.

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It is specifically the responsibility of principled conservatives to rebut Jones. Only they can do so with credibility. As you rightly point out, Jones' followers will discount any criticism from the left and in fact follow Jones all the more avidly for it.

It is certainly with their right to ban him but I don’t think they should.

Skeptic Bob said:

It is certainly with their right to ban him but I don’t think they should.

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Banned in the the USA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banned_in_the_U.S.A.

Removable Mind said:

????????



Media Matters is saying the above report is taken from a transcript of Jones’ video where he asks for help from Trump.

If this is Jones’ actual plea to Trump - should Trump intervene?

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I'm beginning to wonder if Alex needs antipsychotic medication.

For those saying they don't think Jones should be banned, is there any point where you think it is okay to ban him or anyone else? Is there any content or behavior, besides being convicted for something illegal and that being connected to the site/videos/posts, that a person should be able to be banned for? If not, what would be the point in having a user agreement at all for such sites?

bearpoker said:

I'm beginning to wonder if Alex needs antipsychotic medication.

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It’s completely mind boggling at how many people believe Jones’ claims. Trump’s his buddy so let’s see if he goes to Jones’ rescue.

Removable Mind said:

It’s completely mind boggling at how many people believe Jones’ claims. Trump’s his buddy so let’s see if he goes to Jones’ rescue.

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Trump's already thick with the QAnon crowd. Maybe they could take up his cause.

Mach said:

That's it. Alex Jones is the left's fault.

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Definitely their fault that they have demonized him instead of rebutted him. That gives him power and attracts interest that he otherwise would not have.

bearpoker said:

It is specifically the responsibility of principled conservatives to rebut Jones. Only they can do so with credibility. As you rightly point out, Jones' followers will discount any criticism from the left and in fact follow Jones all the more avidly for it.

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I have rebutted Jones on several issues in which I have strongly disagreed with him. But liberals have no less responsibility to do so. That they demonize him and attack him personally instead of giving reasoned arguments to rebut his sometimes crazy or unwarranted ideas and/or positions gives him much more credibility than he deserves.

AlbqOwl said:

Definitely their fault that they have demonized him instead of rebutted him. That gives him power and attracts interest that he otherwise would not have.

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I rebut you and others on here all the time. Yet here you are. Go figure.

Checkerboard Strangler said:

Good Lord, it's like these people have been living on a spaceship for the last forty years.
They have their own atmosphere, their own flora and fauna, their own facts, their own history and their own scientific theories, and none of it relates to life here on Earth!

Oh and...by the way, both Obama AND Hillary are President! And the United States is bordering on open Communism, in case you hadn't heard, so it's also like they've been intercepting the HUAC Committee broadcasts from the 1950's.

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I flip on Hannity, or random Fox now and then, and it looks like a joke. But it's #1 rated since it's the only real bastion for the right-wing lunacy. Laura spouting off racism on prime-time. Something's gotta give.

AlbqOwl said:

I have rebutted Jones on several issues in which I have strongly disagreed with him. But liberals have no less responsibility to do so. That they demonize him and attack him personally instead of giving reasoned arguments to rebut his sometimes crazy or unwarranted ideas and/or positions gives him much more credibility than he deserves.

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What makes you think his followers would pay any attention to what a liberal says? Why do you put the responsibility on liberals for his followers supporting him instead of on the followers themselves for believing someone spouting such patently absurd nonsense?