
While Alex Jones spreads hateful and often fake messages, making entities like Facebook responsible over what is okay and what isn’t sets a dangerous precedent, believes Timothy B. Lee of ARS Technica. This risks turning Jones into a martyr, fueling his conspiracy theories of liberal repression of free speech. Additionally, it poses the question of what other content social media sites should be labelling as inappropriate for their mediums. Facebook’s approach of filtering content by the reliability of its creators, giving prominence to truthful sources, is a better approach that avoids direct censorship. Banning Jones was excessive.
Keep on reading at ARS technicaAlex Jones has repeatedly violated social media guidelines and was deservedly banned by Apple, Facebook, YouTube and Spotify, asserts Mike Snider of USA Today. He engaged in hate speech and harassment on their platforms. Arguments that this decision is a limitation of Jones’ right to free speech are erroneous as it is not extended to social media. Apple, Facebook and Spotify are private companies that are allowed to regulate their platforms as they please. The right-wing pundit’s bigoted rhetoric, which is offensive to Muslims, immigrants and the LGBT community, does not have the right of to spread on social media.
Keep on reading at USA Today