This should disturb everyone. Whether you’re Republican or Democrat, you should be for free speech. And what is free speech? Look at the tag line for this little blog: “If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” That was be uber-Leftist Noam Chomsky. He also wrote “Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech.â€
It isn’t for speech we approve of. Are there limits? Sure. When you’re threatening people with violence. Who has a problem with ISIS and al Qaeda sites being shut down? But, this was about Infowars and Alex Jones being removed from social media platforms, simply because they are pretty wacko. And how does a sitting U.S. Senator, who took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution, respond?
Infowars is the tip of a giant iceberg of hate and lies that uses sites like Facebook and YouTube to tear our nation apart. These companies must do more than take down one website. The survival of our democracy depends on it.
— Chris Murphy ???? (@ChrisMurphyCT) August 6, 2018
Democrats brand everything that doesn’t accord with their beliefs as “hate”. And rather than rebutting it, they want to censor it. Shut it down. Those of us on the right could say there’s lots of hate emanating from the left towards us. But, we do not attempt to shut them down, because we believe in free speech. It’s vastly disturbing that Chris Murphy would advocate for companies to censor users like this. It may not violate the letter of the 1st Amendment, but it sure violates the spirit.
There’s quite a bit of support for Chris’ call for acting like the Chinese government, and then there’s tweets like this (more at Twitchy)
Nothing says freedom like a member of congress calling on companies to silence speech and dissent. https://t.co/6VJYn3D2Oa
— BTME (@btme87) August 7, 2018
CNN is also upset about something else
InfoWars app still in Google, Apple stores after companies move against other content
Big tech made a show on Sunday night and Monday of moving against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his media company InfoWars. But Apple and Google are both still selling its app, which contains some of the same type of content that both tech giants have pulled from elsewhere on their platforms.
Both stores categorize InfoWars as “news.” On the Apple App Store, InfoWars’ app has gone as high as #23 among free news apps, ahead of offerings from legitimate news outlets like the Associated Press, CBS News, USA Today, NPR, Bloomberg, MSNBC, Washington Post, NBC News, Politico and the Financial Times.
InfoWars and Jones regularly traffic in conspiracy theories, including the claim that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax and that the September 11, 2001 terror attacks were an inside job.
It’s also disturbing that a major media outlet would be narcing in a way meant to get Infowars and Jones pulled. Because of wacky conspiracy theories. Ones which really do not do more than, at worst, cause a few people some hurt feelings.
