Suspensions of Infowars sparks debate on freedom of expression and hate speech

Reuters’ Rich McKay reports that Apple, YouTube, and others drop conspiracy theorist Alex Jones because the Infowars author ‘had broken community standards’. McKay quoted Facebook as saying it removed Alex Jones’  pages ‘for glorifying violence, which violates our graphic violence policy, and using dehumanizing language to describe people who are transgender, Muslims and immigrants, which violates our hate speech policies’. In response to the takedown, CNN published We need to talk about Alex Jones, with LZ Granderson saying ‘I don’t like what Alex Jones says, but I like that I can call him an idiot’. Kelly Hawes in the Rushville Republican also highlights freedom of expression, starting his article Free speech should apply to everyone by writing ‘The solution to our broken public discourse is not to ban guys like Alex Jones from social media.’ A similar debate is ongoing with the British case of Tommy Robinson, released from jail after what The Atlantic called The British Trial That Became a Free-Speech Crusade for the Right.