Danielle Ryan
RT
Facebook, citing company policies on “hate organizations,”
has now banned Infowars, Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Louis
Farrakhan, among others. If that was not bad enough, now even merely
posting a link to Infowars content could get you in trouble, too.
When I criticized the earlier bans against Jones, I prefaced it by saying that I was not a fan, lest anyone assume my words were tantamount to an endorsement of his content or opinions. But there should be no need for such a semi-apologetic disclaimer. This is straight-up censorship and it should be condemned, regardless of anyone’s personal feelings toward the targets.
It is undeniable that huge platforms like Facebook and Twitter are liberal organizations; liberal in the sense that they are committed to protecting the neo-liberal establishment and are far more sympathetic to the Democrats than Republicans. Conservatives are (rightly) up in arms about the latest expression of those allegiances - but if they really care about internet censorship and want to make the strongest possible argument against it, conservatives will also acknowledge that this is actually not just a left or right issue.
Facebook has taken extremely worrying steps against anti-establishment leftists, anti-war activists and socialists on the platform, too. In another so-called effort to get rid of "fake news," it tweaked its algorithms in a way that sent traffic to socialist, government accountability and other progressive pages plummeting. Conservative agitators like Jones are not the only target. Dissent, in general, is the target - and there plenty more examples to prove it.
Read more
RT
When social media platforms simultaneously banned Alex Jones
last summer, I wrote that the decision was merely a “warning shot
against dissent.” The latest Facebook bans against more conservative
figures proves that point.
When I criticized the earlier bans against Jones, I prefaced it by saying that I was not a fan, lest anyone assume my words were tantamount to an endorsement of his content or opinions. But there should be no need for such a semi-apologetic disclaimer. This is straight-up censorship and it should be condemned, regardless of anyone’s personal feelings toward the targets.
It is undeniable that huge platforms like Facebook and Twitter are liberal organizations; liberal in the sense that they are committed to protecting the neo-liberal establishment and are far more sympathetic to the Democrats than Republicans. Conservatives are (rightly) up in arms about the latest expression of those allegiances - but if they really care about internet censorship and want to make the strongest possible argument against it, conservatives will also acknowledge that this is actually not just a left or right issue.
Facebook has taken extremely worrying steps against anti-establishment leftists, anti-war activists and socialists on the platform, too. In another so-called effort to get rid of "fake news," it tweaked its algorithms in a way that sent traffic to socialist, government accountability and other progressive pages plummeting. Conservative agitators like Jones are not the only target. Dissent, in general, is the target - and there plenty more examples to prove it.
Read more
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