Alt-Right News Site "Infowars" Shut Down!
Infowars' Website Shut Down for Good?
As of approximately 12:00PM Central Time Zone, Infowars' website has been suffering from what founder and lead talk-show host Alex Jones describes as a "Cyber-Attack", although Jones has not provided the source that he believes the attacks are coming from. The picture above provides a picture of what the website has been reduced to, with links being provided to their store and their donation feature, as well as Newswars and PrisonPlanet which are alternative publications closely associated with Infowars' main site.
As far as Jones and his crew have stated, there is no timetable for the return of the full version of the website. Jones is encouraging people to support them financially through purchasing their products and donating, as he wants to take this to the judicial system on the premise that his 1st-Amendment right has been breached. Jones has stated on-air that he believed that a deep-state coo against him would eventually take them off of the air and remove him from the internet.
Could he be on to something, given the preceding events until this moment?
Apple Took the First Bite
On the 6th of August popular “Big Tech” companies moved against the popular alt-right news media site as they removed Alex Jones and Infowars outlets from their platforms, citing violation(s) of Terms of Service. Apple was the first proverbial domino to fall, providing Buzzfeed News with this official statement: “Apple does not tolerate hate speech, and we have clear guidelines that creators and developers must follow to ensure we provide a safe environment for all of our users…”
Once Apple took the step forward, other tech giants YouTube and Facebook moved to ban Infowars, providing similar reasoning for their proceeding. Prior to the official permanent ban, YouTube had given Alex Jones two strikes for submitting content that they considered to be against their community guidelines. More specifically, YouTube removed four videos of Jones’ but decided to group the removals together to compose one of Jones' two strikes in accordance with their management system.
Response from Alex Jones
Alex Jones, who the mainstream media has often called a Conspiracy Theorist, responded to the actions by claiming that "Infowars is the most censored program in the world because [they] know the truth..."
Jones has often been critical of the Mainstream Media, whom he consistently implies are angry with him for snuffing out their viewer counts and ratings. Interestingly enough, many of the media publications whom Jones criticizes took advantage of this weak spot in the Infowars armour to critique Jones.
In essence, Jones claims that he was censored by these tech-giants in what he describes as a "communist-style crackdown", solely being opposed for telling the truth. Jones often accuses the Chinese government of controlling technical companies, and states on air frequently that there is a "Communist-Chinese takeover" being enacted on the American people as a part of a greater global scheme to enact a World-Government.
Violation of Free Speech?
The 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution is defined as:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
In light of these recent events, one should ask themselves... is Alex Jones on to something? Is this truly a violation of the 1st Amendment?
Infowars is a media publication... they're significant in size and attention, and controversial in nature. Regardless, is it a violation of their United States Constitutional right to a non-censored press?
Step away for a moment and think, unbiased of your opinion on Alex Jones. It isn't just taking him down from Facebook, or YouTube, or removing his content from prominent social-media platforms...
Jones claims that they're attacking his entire website.
If the press is protected under the 1st Amendment, but Infowars is being censored, what conclusion should we reach?
Additionally, if this proves to be an attack on Alex Jones and Infowars, and the attack is successful at shutting them down... Who is next in line?
Vote now!
1st Amendment Violation?
© 2018 Trevor Cunningham