After getting kicked off several of the country’s biggest social media and tech platforms — namely Apple, Facebook and Google — Alex Jones’s allies complained that he had been deprived of his First Amendment rights to free speech.
Facebook has permanently BANNED Infowars.
For unspecified “hate speech”. They didn’t even tell us what the offending posts were.
This sets a chilling precedent for free speech.
To all other conservative news outlets – you are next.
The great censorship purge has truly begun. pic.twitter.com/v7Yo9hI0q3
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) August 6, 2018
Social Media Goes Gestapo! https://t.co/2RVROsN27H
— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) August 7, 2018
Jones himself posted on Twitter, one platform that hasn’t removed his content, “Now, who will stand against Tyranny and who will stand for free speech?”
The removal of Jones and Infowars came after months of mounting pressure on technology companies to stop the spread of misinformation online. Jones and InfoWars have used social media to push unfounded conspiracy theories for years, and Jones faces multiple defamation claims.
But scholars of free speech have already concluded that many of the things Jones has said online are not actually protected by the First Amendment. In a recent court filing, four law professors who specialize in free speech issues said that Jones’s sites are filled with “absurd conspiracy theories” and urged a federal judge considering a lawsuit against him not to let him hide behind the First Amendment.
“False speech does not serve the public interest the way that true speech does,” the scholars wrote, according to The New York Times. “And indeed, there is no constitutional value in false statements of fact.”
Thanks for reading InsideHook. Sign up for our daily newsletter and be in the know.
