Posted on 08/11/2018 8:24:55 PM PDT by Mariner
Some of the nation’s largest technology and social media companies have tried to stop Alex Jones and his conspiracy theories. But in a digital world, their attempts seem to have barely slowed him down.
After YouTube, Facebook and others this week removed content by Jones and his website, the InfoWars leader, talk show host and Austin resident fired back, accusing the companies of censorship and urging his audience to fight back against what he called an “unprecedented attack.”
Meanwhile, Jones’ website and other online platforms have remained popular destinations.
InfoWars continues to see more than 1 million page visits per day and has trended upward this month, according to Amazon’s Alexa website traffic report, which also said InfoWars averages more than 25 million page views per month.
Consumers still can access InfoWars through the same tech companies that just banned it. Google still offers the Infowars app for Android users, and Apple customers can download it through the App Store.
As of Friday, the show’s phone app remained near the top of the charts in both the Apple App and Google Play stores. Infowars Official, an app that lets viewers stream Jones’ shows and read news of the day, was ranked fourth among trending apps in the Google Play store Friday. In the news category on Apple’s App Store, Infowars earned the fourth slot under the top free apps, behind Twitter and News Break, a local and breaking news service, revealing a sudden boost of user downloads.
(Excerpt) Read more at mystatesman.com ...
You can search for anything you want but they control who or what link will show at or near the top and any idiot knows that.
Interesting story on fake likes created by bots.
The advertisers are being robbed.
When you see huge numbers for some video you can bet it is faked.
Facebook stock price was created by fake numbers for the IPO. The numbers they put out would mean a few billion people are using the site. It is a scam.
The Flourishing Business of Fake YouTube Views
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/11/technology/youtube-fake-view-sellers.html
The free market has a funny way of evening things out and especially individuals targeted by private company actions. For instance, those unwilling to sell wedding cakes to homo sexual marriage entrepreneurs step in and fill that void. That’s the beauty of the free market
F the Zuck (it rhymes).
I can confirm—the Google store does not have the Infowars app.
I haven’t listened to the guy in years—too much drama for my taste.
This is all new territory, but good public policy imho would be to punish any corporation that sorta looked like a public carrier (whether it technically was one or not) that tried to censor users based on their political views.
Anti-trust looks like the best tool in the tool-kit to get the job done.
(Facebook, Google, Amazon etal are becoming zucking dangerous and this is not a good time to hide behind momma’s skirts of libertarian ideology.)
I usually did not go to his site but because of the leftists trying to ban him, I bookmarked his website and signed up for his email updates.
Leftists in the US are domestic enemies of the US Constitution.
JoMa
just like milo remember him?
For how long? I'm no fan of Alex Jones. I think he's complete full-on batshit crazy and a whack job who's said some of the most offensive things I've ever heard (9-11 was an inside job and Sandy Hook never happened, they're all crisis actors.)
And yet, this was a coordinated attack by Google/YouTube, Apple, FascistBook etc.. to try and silence him. It backfired, they failed (as they shoud have) and Alex Jones not only kept his audience, he expanded it.
Alex Jones can easily be taken down. Remove him from DNS. Major ISP's can block him at the National POP's and stop carrying his traffic. It's not difficult to do, I know because I was an ISP in the 90's. All it takes is coordination (some would call that COLLUSION) and Google/YouTube, Apple, Fascistbook, etc.. showed the rest of the tech industry just how to do it.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Warned that Big Tech ‘Edge Providers’ Are the Censors, Not ISPs and he was exactly correct. We're seeing that happen today.
Alex Jones is the warning shot. It won't be long before EVERY dissenting voice on the Internet that's not progressive left is silenced.
We need an alternative to the Internet. An Alternate DNS for starters that won't filter for political bias.
A million hits a day on this website is hardly a threat to the big six of media. Now if he gets to Drudge level of daily hits that's another story entirely.
Well said. I typically call out the lying liberal lamestream media specifically when I make these types of statements. I have friends across the political spectrum (save for the "progressive/extremist progressives") and frankly no one believes the media anymore.
Why just Friday my ex and I took our oldest son back to college and stopped to get gas and something to eat on the way there. I picked up a Chicago Tribune and a USA Today, showed it to the ex and commented how thin the papers are now compared to the last time I bothered to look at them which was some years ago. She said "no one reads the newspapers anymore, they're all full of lies."
I was shocked she said that. She used to LOVE reading the Sunday newspaper! A complete stranger turned around as we stood in line to pay for our gas and food and nodded her head in agreement with my ex.
I think that's a perfect demonstration of just how badly the lying liberal lamestream media has fallen out here in the heartland.
Real good move. Now EVERYBODY knows who Alex Jones is. The lollipop kids have made him a star.
One can argue that there are "alternatives" to the companies you just named however if we look at the size, scope, influence of Fascistbook, Google, Amazon etc.. they are in effect monopolies.
Google for example has Bing and Yahoo as "competitors." All of Google's "other" competitors that I'm aware of are nothing more than front ends into Google to perform searches.
Yahoo as a search engine is a joke. Bing is still trying to catch up to Google in breadth and depth of search results.
The FedGov has an "interest" in regulating monopolies for a variety of reasons, the biggest of which is spurring competition, allegedly. Given the size, breadth, depth, name recognition, technical superiority (and ability to manipulate results, let's not forget that...) how long would it take someone to stand up a credible competitor to Google? With all of Microsoft's resources and how much they've thrown at Bing over the last ten years, I don't know of anyone who'd call them a credible competitor.
I don't know if anti-trust is the answer (it may be ....) I'd like to see an audit of Google, Fascistbook, Apple, etc.. and examine their financials to see how their market values are being cooked up/manipulated and prosecute any financial shenanigans. I'm a follow the money kinda guy. I'd bet the farm they're manipulating their values as a way to hold off competition.
They were right to scream. Alex has clout on his own, but Google, Facebook, and Twitter have been systematically shutting down conservative voices in advance of the election in November.
Wake up!!!
Then I go to a 5-bands-for-$10 night at my local club and, yea, 2-3 of the bands are bad but the others are pretty decent. The decent ones have it worked out..,.they have a solid merch display, (the smarter ones have a Paypal widget to process transactions AND a cash box to make change for a $20), they probably do have a FB site but they also have their OWN website (it may not be as cool as Iron Maiden's site but it's still good) and they ask for your email address. I can usually get a tshirt and CD for $15, I have some good music in my collection and I help society by promoting good, new music so I don't face an old age of Bruce Springsteen all the time on the only station in town.
The good bands pour their money into gas to the next gig, you get emails from the road and the studio that drives traffic to their OWN WEB SITE as opposed to the FB page. This is where I believe the whole Alex Jones situation may become an Achilles Heel for these social media platforms...because if others see him THRIVE away from FB et al, then maybe we get a DIY revival.
” Remove him from DNS. Major ISP’s can block him at the National POP’s and stop carrying his traffic. “
Against the law.
A properly registered domain name remains in the DNS as long as the owner pays the fees, or until a court orders otherwise.
While technically it’s very easy to take down any internet property, the law is nearly insurmountable.
As long as Infowars is paying their own publication fees (Bandwidth, Domain and IANA), they are untouchable. As is every other publisher.
It’s those looking for a cheap or free ride that are at risk, and I have no sympathy for them. Dependent upon Google hosting and artificially reduced publication fees, or the free ride of Facebook/Youtube.
That’s what all the whinging about. People upset at not having access to a subsidized or free service that is privately owned.
It’s akin to compelling Fox News to carry Jim Acosta. Absurd on it’s face.
“You can search for anything you want but they control who or what link will show at or near the top and any idiot knows that.”
If you search for Infowars, you get infowars.com.
And any idiot knows that.
“If they can sensor him they can sensor anyone, even though they tell the truth.”
That’s really the point.
They cannot censor him. And they have not.
“You didn’t answer the question so your prima facie evidence implicates you.”
Why would I answer the rhetorical questions of somebody insistent on a point of view, but completely ignorant of the subject?
THAT’S what would make me stupid.
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