Alex jones / infowars has been banned across the board. I think its wrong.I do not like jones work, I do not think Infowars is a good source of information, but Jones has a right to speak and right to platform.They say he tried to circumvent a livestreaming ban by promoting a second channel.Support the show (http://timcast.com/donate) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| So, not that long ago, we heard that Alex Jones was personally suspended from Facebook. | ||
| I made a video talking about how if we're going to ban fake news, we should start with CNN. | ||
| And I'm not... The title was hyperbole. | ||
| The point was not that everything CNN does is fake news. | ||
| I think they do pretty standard reporting. | ||
| I'm not a big fan of their opinion panel stuff, but when it comes to, like, things happening in the world, CNN's fine. | ||
| In fact, I think CNN's better than You know, many of the partisan outlets. | ||
| I'm not a big fan of their commentary. | ||
| I'm not a big fan of anyone's commentary. | ||
| The point I'm trying to make is that CNN has had a series of gaffes, most notably when Don Lemon suggested that a black hole may have swallowed an airplane. | ||
| That is absolutely insane, and in my video I talked about how Alex Jones says a lot of crazy things, but Look, Don Lemon suggesting a black hole could swallow a plane and actually having a panelist say that even a small black hole could swallow the whole universe is just on par with, like, it's just absolutely psychotic how insane that was. | ||
| Alex Jones has been banned from, I believe, four platforms now. | ||
| Uh, actually more than that. | ||
| So, you know, Apple has pulled this podcast, YouTube has taken down the Alex Jones InfoWars channel, and I'm hearing a second channel. | ||
| So I'm just trying to do, you know, a quick kind of breaking news update, because this is serious. | ||
| And, you know, talk about the ramifications. | ||
| So I have an article pulled up. | ||
| Facebook, Apple, YouTube, and Spotify have banned InfoWars' Alex Jones. | ||
| And there's a conundrum here. | ||
| Because personally, I'm not a fan of Alex Jones. | ||
| I'm not a fan of a lot of what InfoWars does. | ||
| I'm not a fan of the hyperbolic, hyperpartisan content they produce. | ||
| But I've been fairly defensive of it. | ||
| You know, the challenge is, I view InfoWars as particularly fringy. | ||
| Like, some of the stuff he says is just nuts. | ||
| It was something maybe like 10 years ago. | ||
| I saw a news report, I think it was like C-SPAN, and someone saw Jones and they said, hey, it's Alex Jones, and immediately started like ranting and screaming about, you know, stealing your income tax. | ||
| And then there was the Piers Morgan incident where Alex Jones, you know, yelled, 1776 will rise again. | ||
|
unidentified
|
1776, rah! | |
| And I'm like, this guy is not a good I don't know, example of, you know, he has these certain principles that he's, you know, free speech and all that stuff, but he really does a disservice to it. | ||
| However, I think InfoWars is the canary in the coal mine, and as much as, again, I can say it a million times, I'm not really a fan of, I don't like what InfoWars does, I don't like what Alex Jones does, I defend their right to have their channel and say these crazy things for a few important, there's a few reasons. | ||
| I mean, first of all, People should be allowed to express themselves even if they're nuts. | ||
| I mean, let's entertain the idea that Alex Jones is actually a crackpot tinfoil, you know, lunatic. | ||
| Which many people in the mainstream, they hold that view. | ||
| Does that mean that somebody who has something wrong with their mind isn't allowed to speak? | ||
| They're not allowed to use Facebook. | ||
| They're not allowed to use YouTube. | ||
| What if somebody is actually mentally ill and they have a YouTube channel? | ||
| And they start ranting and raving about the, you know, moon gremlins trying to steal their cheese. | ||
| Do they have a right to speak? | ||
| In my opinion, they do. | ||
| Just because... It worries me that we're trying to draw a distinction between what we think is sane and what other people, you know, and what should be allowed to be said. | ||
| Because I'm particularly concerned about a society where we set a threshold on intelligence and acceptable thought. | ||
| A lot of people talk about How it's thought crime, you know, if you don't adhere to the narrative, you're a thought criminal and you'll get banned. | ||
| But it's not just that. | ||
| It's like, let's literally say there's a YouTube channel with someone who's mentally ill. | ||
| I still believe they have a right to their channel. | ||
| I believe they have a right to talk about aliens stealing their cheese. | ||
| Because there will come a time When someone rants and raves about how a dark-hooded figure has been roaming the streets of their town stealing cheese from people's kitchens, and everyone laughs at how crazy they are, and then it turns out there is somebody else who's mentally ill running around stealing cheese. | ||
| The point is... | ||
| Some things aren't based in reality, and it's concerning when people believe myths and these conspiracy theories, but some things are based in reality, and they sound incredible, they sound unbelievable. | ||
| And it worries me, then, if I'm gonna make a YouTube video where I say, guys, I have evidence to suggest that the government is implicated in this practice, and then everyone says, that's crazy, that could never happen, so they call me nuts, and they ban my content, they call me a conspiracy theorist. | ||
| I think most good journalists are conspiracy theorists to an extent. | ||
| You have to be curious. | ||
| You have to want to investigate. | ||
| When someone hands you a lead and they say like, you know, pull this thread. | ||
| If you're not at least willing to entertain the idea because you refuse to believe that something crazy could be possible, you're not a good journalist. | ||
| You're not going to investigate. | ||
| So let's take a quick look. | ||
| I don't want to spend too much time. | ||
| I do want to talk a little bit more, but I want to crack down here on this news. | ||
| We've got The Guardian. | ||
| It's funny I said crack down, probably because I was reading this. | ||
| Crack down on U.S. | ||
| conspiracy theorists for promoting violence and hate speech. | ||
| That's their official reason. | ||
| I want to point out something that a lot of people have said that's very strange, and that's all of these these platforms have banned InfoWars within 12 | ||
|
unidentified
|
hours. | |
| There has been an ongoing push from activists, you know, most people on the left, | ||
| to get rid of InfoWars. And I feel kind of... | ||
| I'm conflicted. | ||
| I really don't like fake news. | ||
| I really, really don't like it. | ||
| You know, I call out the media all the time. | ||
| And I don't watch InfoWars. | ||
| I don't really pay attention to them. | ||
| And the main reason is that I don't really view them as a credible source, for the most part. | ||
| I don't think they're always wrong. | ||
| But I typically won't bother with going to their site for any relevant information. | ||
| I know they have a huge fan base. | ||
| And so it does become concerning to me when something like InfoWars grows as fast as it does. | ||
| I can sit here and criticize these digital media partisan outlets all day and night. | ||
| And when I look at InfoWars, I know a lot of people who are on YouTube, because it's an alternative media platform, are not going to like it. | ||
| But look, Vox and InfoWars, they're digital news publishers. | ||
| They suffer from the same problems. | ||
| There's a difference between attempts at journalistic integrity, the decay of journalism, and the rise of digital news outlets. | ||
| So, here we have the statement, it said, following that suspension, a Facebook spokesperson said, | ||
| more content from the same pages has been reported to us upon review. | ||
| We have taken it down for glorifying violence, which violates our graphic violence policy, | ||
| and using dehumanizing language to describe people who are transgender, Muslim, and immigrants, | ||
| which violates our hate speech policies. | ||
| The spokesperson noted that despite the focus on Jones' role in spreading conspiracy theories | ||
| around events such as 9-11 attacks and Sandy Hook school shooting, | ||
| None of the violations that spurred today's removals were related to this. | ||
| And I'm gonna go ahead and disagree, while I'm sure Facebook, YouTube, and whoever else found reason, said, okay, we're gonna view this video and say this is a violation of hate speech. | ||
| I'm pretty sure the high-profile scandals surrounding InfoWars, such as the Sandy Hook thing, 9-11 attacks, that's what gets him attention. | ||
| That's why everyone focuses on him, because he says these things. | ||
| You know, when he goes on and criticizes Islam or the trans community and things like that, yeah, they probably get flagged, but you're not going to see that on CNN. | ||
| They're not going to run a 20-minute, you know, whatever. | ||
| So I do believe this is more related to bad PR for the platform. | ||
| There was a, I could be wrong about this, I could have sworn it was an article that talked about, it was like the six degrees of InfoWars, where if you go on YouTube and keep clicking suggested videos, eventually you find InfoWars or something. | ||
| And, I think YouTube really wants to clean up news and conspiracy within, you know, on its platform, because there are a lot of fringy and crackpotty people on YouTube. | ||
| I think they should be allowed to be. | ||
| I think people are allowed to have crazy ideas. | ||
| And it worries me that there's going to be some kind of big authority, be it the government or a collection of large tech companies that share similar views, that determine some people are just not smart enough to speak. | ||
| That's really worrisome. | ||
| You know, no one's guaranteed access to these platforms, but... | ||
| It is a concern to me when political discourse can be shaped by these massive near-monopolies. | ||
| But it's a double-edged... I don't want to say double-edged sword. | ||
| It's a conundrum. | ||
| Do private businesses have a right to do what they want? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| I don't know what the solution is. | ||
| I really don't. | ||
| I'm concerned that On the one hand, I don't think I'm necessarily at risk, because InfoWars, you know, they're getting him for hate speech, if that's what they're claiming, and I pretty much use mainstream sources for a lot of my content, but I have had videos taken down for BS reasons. | ||
| They were eventually reinstated. | ||
| You know, I imagine it like a cliff eroding, and InfoWars is the fringe, they're the precipice. | ||
| And then sure enough, the wave keeps crashing against it, and it crumbles. | ||
| Well, who's next in line? | ||
| I don't think I'm next in line, but I know that if the cliff keeps eroding, all that will be left is that one solitary peak of mainstream media. | ||
| And so it really is worrisome. | ||
| But there's an op-ed from just a little while ago. | ||
| This is from actually today, apparently. | ||
| Or maybe updated today, but from Ars Technica. | ||
| Alex Jones is a crackpot, but banning him from Facebook might be a bad idea if updated it. | ||
| And I want to stress something. I am of the opinion that Alex Jones is a loon. | ||
| I do not like him. | ||
| I think, uh, a lot of people, they keep yelling at me because I said, uh, I have a video where they take it out of context where I say that Alex Jones doesn't make things up because I don't think he makes things up. | ||
| I think he takes things that are other people's ideas or fringy or ridiculous and then reports on them, right? | ||
| So there's a difference between sitting here and thinking, what fake nonsense can I write today? | ||
| And Google searching conspiracies and then, you know, reporting that you've got a source for it. | ||
| And so, ultimately, I guess it's nuance. | ||
| I guess you could say I am describing him making things up, sure. | ||
| And admittedly, I don't watch InfoWars. | ||
| But the point is, he has a right to speak. | ||
| People have a right to watch his content. | ||
| And I'm concerned that if they're going to call him crazy and take him down, we're starting to develop a culture that's going to tell people what is or is not real. | ||
| And that's really worrisome. | ||
| I mean, there's big companies that sponsor news organizations, and they're going to say, hey look, we're going to sell our beer with you, but if you report bad about our beer, we're not going to sell ads on your channel anymore. | ||
| And so a lot of these companies will actually back away and say, okay, we won't report on what you're doing. | ||
| And that's a concern. | ||
| If a news organization or alternative media or independent journalist comes out and says this beer company is using substandard materials and it's an accusation, how is that independent journalist going to fight back against that big institution? | ||
| They're not going to be able to. | ||
| And when these massive institutions are actually paying the ad revenue to these other news organizations, the big companies aren't going to fight back. | ||
| And so it becomes particularly worrisome when large alternative media sites are taken down, alternative media channels. | ||
| Again, I can say it a million times, I know a lot of people, you know, a lot of fans of InfoWars on YouTube, I don't like it. | ||
| But that's fine, because you guys have a right to watch their videos, they have a right to produce their videos. | ||
| You know, I know Paul Joseph Watson, I believe he's unaffected by this. | ||
| But again, I can say it a million times, I agree, I don't read the op-ed yet, but I agree that it's really bad to pull down Alex Jones, because I feel like my analogy is there, it's the edge of the cliff, the wave of pressure from the mainstream, from these news organizations, from activists, keeps crashing into the cliff, and then it just rips that big chunk off, and there goes InfoWars. | ||
| And as much as, you know, I'm standing way, way back away from the cliff watching it crumble, I know that that wave is going to keep hitting. | ||
| That every day that wave will crash against the shores, and eventually it will continue to erode, and eventually I will find myself on that fringe. | ||
| Eventually, I'm concerned that we're going to develop a culture that says the only acceptable reality is what is espoused from cable news networks. | ||
| And that's scary. | ||
| You know, we had a world that was kind of like that for a while. | ||
| It wasn't absolutely like that. | ||
| We had different news outlets and there were small news outlets competing. | ||
| But now it seems like that's where we're at. | ||
| And a big piece of the culture war is alternative news, individuals who get their news from alternative sources versus mainstream sources. | ||
| If you sit around and just watch mainstream sources, I mean, my God, look at what happened with Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys where they said it was going to be a bunch of fascist white supremacists. | ||
| You know, to an extent, you have a bunch of, you know, kind of fringy ideas, but it's just a bunch of kind of middle-aged dudes standing around. | ||
| Some young guys, like not everybody was... I think it's skewed a little older. | ||
| There's some younger people there, but not violent at all. | ||
| And so I've actually got a video coming up at four where me, Luke Rudowsky, and Dan Dix, we talked about our experience. | ||
| Because when you read the Daily Beast, you read the Huffington Post, when you read The Hill, it frames it like it was these crazy right-wingers starting fights. | ||
| But actually, the conservative side of that rally, the Proud Boys, Patriot Prayer, were kind of just standing around. | ||
| There were some scuffles. | ||
| Yeah, don't get me wrong. | ||
| There were some, you know, some back and forth. | ||
| Nothing like what we saw on June 30th. | ||
| And for the most part, I mean, there's a journalist who got smashed in the head with a glass bottle from someone on the Antifa side. | ||
| The police started firing on the Antifa side because they said they saw weapons and then they wouldn't clear the street. | ||
| It's complicated. | ||
| I don't think the conservatives were perfect. | ||
| But the point I'm trying to make is that if you read these mainstream sources, you'd have no idea what actually happened the way they frame it. | ||
| So this is all really scary to me. | ||
| I don't want to rant on this forever. | ||
| I'll probably put up some more videos talking about this. | ||
| I think tomorrow, based on what I've seen today, I'm actually really worried because there is, you know, Facebook's trying to get bank account information. | ||
| Candace Owens was attacked. | ||
| Now we have Facebook being taken down and I feel like something happened over the past few days that was like a floodgate opening up and wow. | ||
| You know I've said it's getting worse every day and I really am concerned with today being so... | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| A lot's happened. | ||
| Comment below. | ||
| This is a special bonus video. | ||
| I've got another video coming up at 4 p.m. | ||
| As per usual, I do my regularly scheduled video, but this is just a little bonus video. | ||
| I had to do it because Alex Jones being taken down across the board is... This is huge news. | ||
| This is major breaking news. | ||
| So, I'll have some updates tomorrow. | ||
| We'll see what happens. | ||
| I think my video tomorrow is going to be a deeper dive into what's going on with InfoWars, you know, how within 12 hours all these platforms banned them, what we're seeing with the street violence in the media, and it's gonna elaborate on, you know, what happened in Portland, how the media is framing it like white supremacists, Charlottesville, and it's just, it's scary. | ||
| It really is. | ||
| So, anyway, stick around. | ||
| Again, there's another video coming up in about two hours that talks about street violence And it's actually about how, for the most part, at this rally, the conservative side, which they're calling the far-right, you know, fringy side, was actually having calm, peaceful conversations with anti-Trump protesters, no problem. | ||
| So stick around and hopefully you guys want to watch that too. | ||
| So anyway, you can follow me on Twitter at TimCast. | ||
| I'm gonna have some more videos up on my second channel today. | ||
| That'll be at 6 p.m. | ||
| I literally just got back from the flight. | ||
| I haven't slept, but gotta work. | ||
| So thanks for hanging out. | ||
| Another video at 4 p.m. | ||
| More videos on my second channel at 6 p.m. |