{"id":187866,"date":"2019-05-05T08:55:41","date_gmt":"2019-05-05T08:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=187866"},"modified":"2019-05-08T04:14:54","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T04:14:54","slug":"facebook-ban-on-alex-jones-and-others-is-a-form-of-modern-day-book-burning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=187866","title":{"rendered":"Facebook ban on Alex Jones and others is a form of modern-day book burning"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Danielle Ryan \u2013 RT May 3, 2019<\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">When social media platforms simultaneously banned Alex Jones last summer, I wrote that the decision was merely a \u201cwarning shot against dissent.\u201d The latest Facebook bans against more conservative figures proves that point.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Facebook, citing company policies on<em> \u201chate organizations,\u201d<\/em> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">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\u2019s personal feelings toward the targets.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I\u2019m fully creeped out by journalists cheering censorship.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Bridget Phetasy (@BridgetPhetasy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BridgetPhetasy\/status\/1124059255647109120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 2, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/op-ed\/435466-alex-jones-ban-internet-censorship\/\">initial ban<\/a><\/strong><\/span> on Jones was an attempt to test the waters; to see how people might react to a popular figure being wiped from social media existence. When establishment journalists whooped and cheered in celebration, Facebook (and the rest) were emboldened. Consequently, we are now sliding down the slippery slope of internet censorship at frighteningly quick pace \u2014 and they are still cheering. Most news reports on the new ban have framed it positively as Facebook \u2018taking action\u2019 and finally doing the right thing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">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 \u2014 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">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 <em>\u201cfake news,\u201d<\/em> 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 \u2014 and there plenty more examples to prove it.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I agree. I grew up in a world where speech is censored. It\u2019s not a good thing. It\u2019s what you expect from dictatorships though, not from supposedly liberal-leaning entities.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Yasmine Mohammed ?\u064a\u0627\u0633\u0645\u064a\u0646 \u0645\u062d\u0645\u062f (@YasMohammedxx) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/YasMohammedxx\/status\/1124106438970712064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 3, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">In 2017, journalist Abby Martin\u2019s former RT show, which covered issues like fracking, inequality, police brutality and US war crimes, was condemned by US intelligence agencies for fomenting<em> \u201cradical discontent\u201d<\/em> in a report that was lauded endlessly by mainstream news personalities. RT has since <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/451773-facebook-block-maffick-media-censorship\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>been a target<\/strong><\/span><\/a> of Facebook censorship.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Leftist Venezuelan news websites that stand against the Washington consensus and offer an alternate perspective on US involvement in Latin America have also been targeted. Facebook <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/435961-telesur-facebook-ban-us-censorship\/\">temporarily suspended<\/a><\/strong><\/span> Telesur and VenezuelaAnalysis without cause last year, for example. Twitter also <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/458183-venezuela-twitter-suspend-verified-guaido\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>suspended<\/strong><\/span><\/a> a number of official Venezuelan government and media accounts \u2014 a direct effort to meddle in the country\u2019s political crisis on behalf of the US government and in support of an opposition leader who was never elected (but who was <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/458183-venezuela-twitter-suspend-verified-guaido\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>awarde<span style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\">d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a> with a blue-tick verification despite calling for a military coup).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><em>\u201cIn a corporatist system of government, corporate censorship is state censorship,\u201d<\/em> independent journalist Caitlin Johnstone wrote on Twitter. Indeed, as we have seen, these tech companies are inexorably linked to the US government. They cave to censorship pressure from members of Congress, they partner with US government-funded think tanks to weed out content that goes against mainstream narratives \u2014 and they do it all under the guise of protecting freedom and democracy. It is no stretch, therefore, to call Facebook censorship a kind of state censorship.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this is all only going to get worse. We already have sketchy CIA-linked organizations like NewsGuard giving <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/448555-newsguard-app-fake-news\/\">\u2018<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>trust ratings<\/strong><\/span>\u2019<\/a> to websites, which (surprise!) single out sites like the unimpeachable WikiLeaks as being unreliable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Meanwhile, journalism nonprofits and pro-establishment newspapers are <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/458272-poynter-retracts-unreliable-sources\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>disseminatin<\/strong><\/span>g<\/a> lists of <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/369598-washington-post-fake-propaganda\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>unsanctioned websites<\/strong><\/span><\/a> from which we should apparently shield our impressionable eyes. We\u2019ve seen multiple suggestions from people in power that something called <em>\u201cmedia literacy\u201d<\/em> be taught to children from a young age; media literacy in this case being a strange euphemism for \u2018early indoctrination into a fully pro-establishment mindset.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Don\u2019t suppress speech you do not like\u2014counter it. <\/p>\n<p>The truth will set us free\u2014not censorship.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LilaGraceRose\/status\/1124137834158256129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 3, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Many in favor of social media censorship argue that Facebook is a <em><a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/451872-facebook-private-company-censorship\/\">\u201c<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>private company<\/strong><\/span>\u201d<\/a><\/em> that can ban whoever it wants and that the US constitution\u2019s first amendment on free speech does not apply. Such an argument can\u2019t hold water when you consider how inextricably linked companies like Facebook and Twitter are to the government \u2014 and how they are effectively monopolies when it comes to information-sharing online.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Mother Jones blogger Kevin Drum <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/kevin-drum\/2019\/05\/facebook-has-banned-alex-jones-should-they-have\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>wrote<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, private company argument aside,<em> \u201c&#8230;freedom of speech is an American tradition, not just a legal concept, and social media is where people speak these days. If you get banned from Facebook and half a dozen other big platforms, you\u2019ve been effectively silenced.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The right to freely pick and choose what news, information, and opinions we want to expose ourselves to is paramount in a free and open society. Yet, once Facebook shows willingness to ban <em>some<\/em> people, it will be pressured to ban more and more. Where does it end?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Facebook\u2019s reasoning and references to \u2018hate speech\u2019 and \u2018promoting violence\u2019 also fall flat when you consider that US government officials use social media to call for military actions that will result in mass violence and death on a regular basis \u2014 and they aren\u2019t just promoting it, they\u2019re actually doing it. When Alex Jones starts going outside and killing people in mass rampages, come back to me about banning him then.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">What those celebrating these bans fail to understand is that censorship is never the solution. No matter how heinous the speech, stifling and suppressing it is never the answer. In fact, it will only serve to increase anger, social discontent, and division. The only appropriate response to speech or thought which one finds incorrect and even abhorrent is to either ignore it \u2014 or counter and debate it with better arguments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Banning it is a form of modern-day book burning \u2014 and instead of condemning this as an assault on freedom of speech and information, mainstream journalists are nodding in unison about how terrible the book is.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/op-ed\/458314-alex-jones-facebook-censorship\/\">Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The truth is dawning on many as to the dictatorial nature of the Internet giants<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-controlling-the-news-andor-the-free-exchange-of-ideas-and-information"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=187866"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187870,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187866\/revisions\/187870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=187866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=187866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=187866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}