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Censorship or justice? Twitter debate rages over tech giants’ simultaneous InfoWars ban

6-8-2018 < RT 83 297 words
 

Twitter is on fire with debate over almost simultaneous decisions by Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Spotify to take action against controversial right-wing YouTube host Alex Jones’ and his InfoWars channel citing “hate speech”.


InfoWars Editor-at-large Paul Joseph Watson tweeted on Monday that Facebook had “permanently banned” the outlets page for “unspecified” hate speech and described the move as setting a “chilling precedent for free speech”.


Facebook confirmed the banning in a blog post, saying the four InfoWars pages were targeted due to “repeated violations of Community Standards and accumulating too many strikes”. In a statement, Apple said it “does not tolerate hate speech” and said it believes in “representing a wide range of views” so long as people are “respectful” of those with differing opinions.


YouTube quickly followed suit with a statement that said Jones’ account had been “terminated for violating YouTube's Community Guidelines”. Spotify said it had removed all of Jones’ podcast episodes due to “hate content”.


Twitter has been flooded with reactions to the decisions. Some people were delighted to see the controversial host banned and expressed disappointment that Twitter had not yet moved against InfoWars.






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