“Ben Wizner, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) speech, privacy and technology project, warned Monday that bans against Alex Jones and Infowars could set a dangerous precedent,” Megan Keller reports for The Hill. “Wizner told HuffPost that the hate speech policies many social media companies cited when they banned Jones can be ‘misused and abused.'”
“Earlier this month, Jones’s content was pulled from Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Vimeo for violating policies related to hate speech,” Keller reports. “He was later hit with a temporary suspension by Twitter as well.”
“Wizner said companies had a constitutional right to regulate speech on their platforms, but added that hate speech ‘turns out to be an extremely subjective term,'” Keller reports. “In particular, Wizner told HuffPost that he is worried about massive private companies holding the power to define that ambiguous category… President Trump has also expressed his own concerns about platforms’ attempts to police content. On Monday, he told Reuters that it is ‘dangerous’ for Facebook and Twitter to limit who can and cannot speak on their platforms.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yup.
Of course, the inherent danger of censorship is that you make the censored more alluring by elevating their musings into ideas too “dangerous” to hear. – MacDailyNews, August 6, 2018
Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman. — Louis D. Brandeis
“Hate speech” too often means, “I hate your speech, so I’m going to try to shut you up.” – MacDailyNews, August 8, 2018
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. — Evelyn Beatrice Hall
SEE ALSO:
President Trump blasts social media ‘censorship’ – August 18, 2018
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: I ‘fully admit’ our bias is ‘more left-leaning’ – August 20, 2018
Twitter bans Alex Jones from posting on Twitter for seven days – August 15, 2018
Apple is monitoring Alex Jones’ Infowars app for content violations as it becomes 3rd-most downloaded app this week – August 9, 2018
Alex Jones: Infowars has racked up 5.6 million new subscribers in the past 48 hours – August 8, 2018
Tim Cook sends Mark Zuckerberg, YouTube, and Spotify scrambling over Infowars’ Alex Jones – August 8, 2018
Jack Dorsey explains why Twitter isn’t banning Alex Jones and Infowars – August 8, 2018
Infowars’ Alex Jones blasts Apple, Google, others; warns on internet censorship – August 7, 2018
Apple’s ‘Infowars’ move thrusts tech giant into the debate over censoring content on internet platforms – August 6, 2018
Apple removes most of Alex Jones’ Infowars podcasts from iTunes Store – August 6, 2018
