Holy crap, Facebook, Apple, Spotify, and Youtube have all banned Alex Jones in a multi-site deplatforming which can be likened to a decapitation strike against the Right Wing Conspiracy Industrial Complex. I would love to know what final straw caused multiple avenues of content distribution to drop Jones like a hot rock. I suspect it has to do with lawsuits against Jones by sympathetic plaintiffs- what company wants to be seen as a party to defamation of victims?
There is a lot of wangst among the Jonestown Flavor-Ade drinkers regarding Jones' First Amendment rights, but nobody has a right to a platform provided by a private entity such as Facebook or YouTube. Jones and his minions have no more right to a soapbox on Facebook and YouTube than Emma Gonzalez has a right to a soapbox on InfoWars... and I don't see Jones giving her or David Hogg access to his site. Regarding assertions that Facebook is a monopoly, those are bullshit as well- Myspace never went away, and Right Wingers are free to come up with their own social media platforms- they are just really bad at it. Also, there are always cesspools such as 4chan and 8chan for Jones to use for distribution... he's just mad that he is now relegated t:o a nutjob circle jerk.
One bizarre byproduct of the Jones ban is that most of his YouTube exposure will now be in the form of remixes... eventually, he may come to be seen as a alternative EDM act:
Seriously, these things are addictive:
If this entire sub-genre of electronica is Jones' legacy, then maybe his damage to the public discourse will have been worth it.
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5 comments:
I am concerned how much of our public discourse that google/youtube, facebook, Apple, and Apple control.
However, no one is required to help this sicko spread his message. When the far left felt they were ignored by the major media a generation ago, they spread the message to "become the media." They started their own fora like local indymedia groups and papers and sites. That's how outside-the-mainstream voices have always been heard.
A. Jones still has Infowars, where he streams & spews 24/7. If he's the only source, then as long as his servers can take it, he'll probably end up w/ more eyeballs & more advertiser money than if X number of his fans see him on FBook, YouTube or InstachatSnap.
I'm sure you'll be saying exactly the same thing when the right-wing nuts pressure them into banning one of our beloved lefties.
You miss the point so badly with your smug "first amendment doesn't apply" so-called argument that nobody is arguing with. It's about access - when bans can be achieved by nothing more than public outcry, nobody and no ideology is safe.
So celebrate away. As Bouffant says, now Jones has a sympathetic audience and a perfectly effective communication platform. Good job, there.
The answer to your first question, by the way, is nobody wanted to 'go first'. As soon as Apple took the plunge, everybody jumped on board...
I'm not shedding any tears over Jones - he's one whacked dood - but I am often amazed at the historical willingness of people to participate in their own subjugation and oppression.
I'm sure that now that we have empowered American oligarchs to block any unpopular content the US will be a much better place for all of us...
speaking of remixes - years ago i really liked 'dick is a killer' -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTDzdjM0McI
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