Social Media Censorship

Social Media Censorship

By Brendan Cranfield, 2019

Social media has been around since 1997 and has grown overtime in both popularity and influence. These platforms allow people to communicate in many forms such as videos, live streams, messages, etc.
These draw attention from many people who want to be in the spotlight such as creators on YouTube, politicians, news reporters, artists, directors, producers, etc. The use of these platforms range from people being able to be warned about potential road hazards or danger zones within their local area, but social media also has a bad side that can be used and abused by anyone to draw attention to issues which would lead to fake news being spread about people or the issue at hand.

Social media is something to both fear and admire for those particular qualities but every individual using platforms like twitter and Facebook need to be aware of what they read online and how much might be fake news, due to all the potential abuse of the online platforms, guidelines have been created to stop individuals from abusing the site or their viewers.
People found violating the rules of social media may receive a temporary ban for up to 90 days or they can receive a permanent ban from the site which stops individuals from expressing their own beliefs and values. Many politicians and news reporters see this ban as "Censorship" in which the team in charge of the social media platform ban these people to stop them spreading information or stop them from discussing their own views. A popular radio show host was banned along with his business permanently from twitter, Facebook, Vimeo and YouTube back in July of 2018. Alex Jones was temporarily banned multiple times for posting messages and videos that broke the guidelines of the platforms and where forcibly taken down.

There are many examples of how Alex Jones and others on social media can use platforms to abuse and spread fake news such as:
During the parkland shooting Alex Jones on his show "Infowars" referred to David Hogg as a "Crisis actor" to encourage students and parents to stand up to the American government and protest against guns and gun violence.
Another example was Alex Jones telling his audience that he believed the Sandy Hook Shooting was a hoax created by the parents who were also labeled crisis actors by Jones and his audience, they believed that the parents of the sandy hook shooting were trying to fake a tragedy and promote an anti-gun agenda which caused Mr. Jones' audience to send hateful messages and death threats to the families which continued until one of the parents of the children committed suicide and Mr. Jones faced a lawsuit against other parents for spreading false information and encouraging people to attack the families online.

Censorship of social media is both a good and bad thing because it stops political people and influencers online from encouraging violence towards other people they disagree with. Alex Jones
recently got into an online dispute with Joe Rogan, the host of a popular podcast known as "The Joe Rogan Experience". The dispute was caused by Mr. Rogan saying that he can't have Mr. Jones on his podcast because of all the drama surrounding Mr. Jones at that particular time. Mr. Jones then started a feud on the internet about how Joe Rogan was in on a conspiracy against him to censor him which all lead back to George Soros, who Mr. Jones references many times in his conspiracy theories.

Why is Alex Jones so important to social media and censorship you may ask? What could one man possibly be able to do with a platform? How much harm can he cause by spreading fake news or twisted news?
Well if you look back on the history of Alex Jones and his reputation, you'll find that he has around 2 million viewers per week on average in which majority of them support him and his views as well as contribute to his conspiracies by sharing them with others. The impact Alex Jones has on his audience and the people he's talking about can be extreme such as sending death threats to multiple people such as the owners of Comet Ping Pong which is a pizzeria in Washington D.C. and famous in pizzagate conspiracies, as well as East Side Pies for a similar pizzagate conspiracy, as well as The parents in the sandy hook shooting, as well as Jared Holt who helped kick Mr. Jones and Infowars off spotify, they've even gone as far as to threaten a Connecticut judge, Robert Mueller, etc.

People like Alex Jones who have a big enough following who listen to them and agree without any research should be kicked off of social media
not for censorship but to protect others online from receiving any form of bullying or harassment towards people. Platforms enable people to have more power and influence and can have unknown consequences for everyone in their family, state and country. Hitler is a good example of what can happen when the wrong person gets the right platform, Hitler rose to power by being charismatic and encouraging his followers to hate jewish people and fix Germany back to before the treaty of Versailles which increased his influence and power.
Alex Jones is nothing like Hitler but for this reason I believe some censorship on social media is a good thing as long as it remains non-biased and only removes those with the possibility to do more harm than good.


References
Alex Jones Is About To Explode. (2016, June 29). Retrieved from https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/alex-jones-is-about-to-explode/ [Accessed 9th September 2019]

Coaston, J. (2018, August 6). YouTube, Facebook, and Apple's ban on Alex Jones, explained. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/2018/8/6/17655658/alex-jones-facebook-youtube-conspiracy-theories [Accessed 9th September 2019]

Dani Di Placido. (2019, February 8). Alex Jones And Joe Rogan Are In The Midst Of A Hilarious Feud. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2019/02/07/alex-jones-and-joe-rogan-are-in-the-midst-of-a-hilarious-feud/#1534d9824f8c [Accessed 9th September 2019]

Facebook and YouTube Give Alex Jones a Wrist Slap. (2018, July 27). Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/27/technology/alex-jones-facebook-youtube.html [Accessed 9th September 2019]

Garber, M. (2018, August 3). The Lasting Trauma of Alex Jones's Lies. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/08/the-lasting-trauma-of-alex-joness-lies/566573/ [Accessed 9th September 2019]

Hern, A. (2018, July 27). Facebook suspends US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/27/facebook-suspends-us-conspiracy-theorist-alex-jones [Accessed 9th September 2019]

Hern, A. (2018, August 6). Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Spotify ban Infowars' Alex Jones. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/06/apple-removes-podcasts-infowars-alex-jones [Accessed 10th September 2019]

Nast, C. (2019, May 2). Facebook Bans Alex Jones, Other Extremists'but Not as Planned. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-bans-alex-jones-extremists/ [Accessed 10th September 2019]

Riley, C. (2018, August 6). YouTube, Apple and Facebook remove content from InfoWars and Alex Jones. Retrieved from https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/06/technology/facebook-infowars-alex-jones/index.html [Accessed 10th September 2019]

Spangler, T. (n.d.). YouTube Deletes Videos Posted by Infowars, Suspends Alt-Right Channel From Live-Streaming. Retrieved from https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/youtube-deletes-alex-jones-infowars-videos-1202886565/ [Accessed 9th September 2019]

Vimeo removes Alex Jones's InfoWars: "We do not want to profit from content of this nature". (2018, August 13). Retrieved from https://www.newsweek.com/vimeo-removes-alex-jones-infowars-profit-discriminatory-hateful-1070036 [Accessed 11th September 2019]

YouTube issues warning to Infowars founder Alex Jones, takes down four videos. (2018, July 25). Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/youtube-issues-warning-infowars-founder-alex-jones-takes-down-four-n894591 [Accessed 12th September 2019]


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