(Newswire.net — August 10, 2018) — Social media banned controversial journalist Alex Jones, well known for advocating conspiracy theories that are sometimes proven to be the truth. After canceling services for Jones’ Info Wars news company tech giants banned Venecuelanalysis.com for exposing fake news in the U.S.
What was described as the measure against hate speech in Jones’ case seemed like a ‘directive from above’ because four tech giants, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram canceled and blocked Info Wars at exactly the same time.
The site, which had a multi-million audience, has accused social networks of silencing freedom of speech, pointing to the fact that the four largest social networking companies blocked their website in one day, adding that globalists have a coordinated plan to suppress the right to freedom of opinion of anyone who thinks differently from their set norms.
The pursuit of alternative media on the Internet has reached a new stage. Only a few days after Info Wars was censured, Facebook shut down the Venecuelan page that criticizes the US government for double standards in world’s policy.
The site says it is funded by donations and they list as its team Western-born journalists and filmmakers, as well as endorsements from dozens of Western intellectuals, including Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali and Oliver Stone.
Such a move triggered fierce condemnation from fighters for freedom of speech in the United States, and well-known journalist and writer Ben Shapiro said on the occasion: “Once you start saying that hate speech is a justification for blocking people on social networks, enter an area that is more than open for interpretation, since the left does not have the same standards of hate speech when it comes to their statements.”
Jones was supported by a number of alternative media. Voice of Europe website with over 300,000 Facebook fans announced that he would share Alex Jones news on his site every day until the ban on the Info Wars is withdrawn.
The controversial move by tech companies has again sparked a debate on their position in society and how to regulate citizens’ rights on social networks. Private companies do not, in theory, have an obligation to give an individual freedom of speech, but on the other hand, the state is obliged to provide it.
Although Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram are private companies they do not have the status of a private company in the legal systems of the countries in which they operate. Exploiting a quasi-public property situation, global tech giants could not deal with business in the way they are now dealing because they effectively hold a monopoly and do not have relevant competition on the market which is illegal.
Google is holding an absolute monopoly in the internet video market, while Facebook, who is also the owner of Instagram, dominates social networks without relevance to competition, which also constitutes a monopoly and an illegal operation.
By doing so, these companies should accept that they are a quasi-public good that is not subject to being treated as a monopoly, but in return they are obliged to ensure freedom of speech regardless of national, religious, racial or political affiliations, or to sell their companies in several parts to break the position of monopoly.
What is more important though is the fact that as a private company in the US, Facebook and Google are under the control of the US government. That basically means that the US controls the global situation by controlling global media. Hiding facts on the Internet against US policy and feeding the world population with censored content is the single most dangerous thing in the history of media.
“If you don’t read the news you are uninformed. If you read the news you are misinformed,” said Oscar winning actor Denzel Washington when asked about fake news.
With his record of bullying and toying with conspiracy theories, Alex Jones was simply a convenient target for Silicon Valley to introduce the censorship of undesirable voices on social media, and blocking the Venezuelanalyse Facebook page indicates that more bans would soon come.
Facebook recently partnered up with the Atlantic Council, a NATO-backed think tank, to “protect democracy” and root out “misinformation and foreign interference” on the platform. Venezuela’s neighbor Colombia became a NATO “global partner” in June, the first and only Latin American nation to do so.