The Great Censorship Purge has begun. Facebook has permanently banned InfoWars for the broad and ambiguous crime of ‘hate speech.’ Apple also reportedly wiped iTunes and its podcasting app clean of content by Alex Jones, following similar moves by Youtube and Spotify.
“It’s a coordinated purge,” Paul Joseph Watson said. “This is a total abuse of power.” “Whether you love or loathe Infowars, this now confirms that Big Tech is working with legacy media to silence independent media. In places like Russia, the government shuts down the press, in America, CNN, Apple and Facebook fulfill that role.”
Watson revealed Facebook banned InfoWars “for unspecified ‘hate speech,” saying: “They didn’t even tell us what the offending posts were. This sets a chilling precedent for free speech. To all other conservative news outlets – you are next. The great censorship purge has truly begun.”
Also see: Facebook deletes Avi Yemini’s page which attracted more than 170,000 followers.
Whether you hate Alex Jones is beside the point. Do you love the fact a handful of tech monopolists have the power to simultaneously purge him from the internet?
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) August 6, 2018
Apple similarly accused InfoWars of violating hate speech guidelines. In a statement to The Washington Post, an Apple spokesperson said they do not tolerate “hate speech,” claiming: “We have clear guidelines that creators and developers must follow to ensure we provide a safe environment for all of our users. Podcasts that violate these guidelines are removed from our directory making them no longer searchable or available for download or streaming. We believe in representing a wide range of views, so long as people are respectful to those with differing opinions.”
We're supposed to believe that all of Alex Jones & Infowars pages simultaneously violated the terms & conditions of Apple, Facebook, Youtube, & Spotify resulting in their synchronized deletion?
— Millie Weaver (@Millie__Weaver) August 7, 2018
Allum Bokhari senior tech correspondent at Breitbart urged people to write to their representatives, saying: “There was a time when people would defend each others’ right to free speech despite disagreements. This is not one of those times. If Republicans and the Trump movement doesn’t make this into an issue, no-one will.”
We have handed over the public square to private companies.
These companies can now decide who gets to participate in political debate.
This is where most people debate and share ideas and now we have no right to the public discussion.
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) August 6, 2018
Also see: Facebook is changing: ‘We’re taking action’ against ‘fake news.’
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