Should Twitter ban Alex Jones?

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irugirnrxk

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irugirnrxk
Aug 20, 2018 19 Comments

obviously. I am a firm believer in strong 1st amendment rights but this is a ludicrous debate to me. people like Alex Jones that argue in bad faith deserve the right to say things, but they do not deserve the right to broadcast speech via a private company, and I think twitter had a moral obligation to prevent holocaust deniers and sandy hook truthers from broadcasting on their (not government owned) platform

tldr - twitter should ban Alex Jones

I'm really interested in how twitter people feel about this

TC 170 / 3 yoe

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TOP 19 Comments
  • Google
    ⬜️

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    Dude's a twat and I won't shed tears over him.

    But the fact that a small handful of tech companies can so quickly "de-platform" an unpopular person is disconcerting, especially since this ban was spurred by another partisan activist group.

    Edit: also 170k TC? Ask for a raise man.
    Aug 20, 2018 3
    • Google
      ⬜️

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      Tech companies aside what's really bothering me about this is that people, including journalists, are calling Twitter to remove AJ even before he violated any platform rules. This goes doubly so for activists who tried to use his ban as precedent to have other orgs they disagree with banned, like NRA TV.

      Companies should have editorial control over their platform just as much as movie studios did during the red scare. Unfortunately there's a visible effort by those who want to co-opt it to go after more than just the clearly detestable.
      Aug 20, 2018
    • Uber
      irugirnrxk

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      irugirnrxk
      OP
      we agree! I don't think they should be banned at all. in fact I would be against Twitter banning them since they are obviously no where near Alex Jones tier insanity
      Aug 20, 2018
  • Indeed / Eng
    WrinklMgee

    Go to company page Indeed Eng

    WrinklMgee
    Ban all the #metoo people for invoking mob justice without due process
    Aug 20, 2018 0
  • Snapchat / Product
    iamcamera

    Go to company page Snapchat Product

    iamcamera
    Obviously he doesn't have a legal 'right' to broadcast on Twitter or Facebook—Something that will only get more complicated to defend in the not so far-flung future. But the current day question is ultimately: Does the punishment fit the crime?

    tldr: No.

    I think the mistake was for them to cite hate speech (Facebook esp.) as the primary justification (something something constitution). 'Inciting violence' would’ve been a more defensible rationale, but may not be something that holds up in court (strongest evidence is mainly in one video). But it doesn't have to, AAPL/FB/TWTR are free to deem him a harm to the community (I would agree) and ban-worthy (I wouldn't agree).

    What I think this boils down to is precedent (not to say this is somehow suddenly a super slippery slope and we should all panic). I think the right decision would have been to take the video that was was inciting violence down (‘put your guns by your bedside get ready for the war’ etc), with a temp ban + warning not to upload content that incites violence.

    The fact is the decision (which came ‘from the top’) was in-part ideologically fueled, which makes it that much more complicated. And I don’t mean to say liberal vs conservative, just differing meta ideologies and their interpretations of what ‘doing the right thing' is. In any case, it’s too easy in our tweet-ified age to yell what you see as so obviously right and the only valid argument, without realizing such behavior actually prevents progress in the right direction.

    So no I don’t think Twitter needs to ban him. But they do need to come up with creative ways to enforce the kind of community they want on the platform.
    Aug 20, 2018 1
  • Lol what does any of this topic have to do with your TC or yoe?
    Aug 20, 2018 1
  • Uber
    znbfui

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    znbfui
    Earth should ban Alex Jones
    Aug 20, 2018 0