The Antics of Alex Jones

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Re: The Antics of Alex Jones

Postby Elvis » Mon Aug 06, 2018 6:03 pm

Interesting that all three services banned him on the same day:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/06/apple-pulls-alex-jones-infowars-podcasts-for-hate-speech.html

Facebook, Apple and YouTube remove pages and podcasts from Alex Jones for hate speech, policy violations


- Apple confirmed on Monday that it had removed five out of six podcasts, which includes Jones' infamous The Alex Jones Show.

- Facebook has also removed four pages that belong to Jones.

- YouTube followed suit later, removing his channel from its platform.

- Apple and Facebook said Jones violated hate speech policies on their respective platforms.

- YouTube removed Jones' official channel because he continued to livestream on other channels even though he was banned for 90 days due to previous violations.


Ryan Browne



Apple, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest clamped down on content by Alex Jones Monday.

Apple confirmed on Monday that it had removed five out of six podcasts, which includes Jones' infamous "The Alex Jones Show" as well as a number of other InfoWars audio streams. The news was originally reported by BuzzFeed News.

Facebook and Google made similar decisions later on Monday. Facebook removed four pages controlled by him, while Google removed the official "Alex Jones Channel" on its platform. The YouTube channel for InfoWars, the media company owned by Alex Jones, still remains live. Pinterest also removed the InfoWars board.

Jones, a controversial conspiracy theorist who has claimed that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax, has been hit with other content bans from the likes of Spotify.

Apple's move seems slightly more dramatic — the company has taken down entire libraries of InfoWars podcasts, rather than a select few episodes.

"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," an Apple spokesperson said in a statement on Monday.

"Podcasts that violate these guidelines are removed from our directory making them no longer searchable or available for download or streaming. We believe in representing a wide range of views, so long as people are respectful to those with differing opinions."
Facebook ban

Later on Monday morning, Facebook announced it was removing four of Jones' pages for persistently uploading content in breach of the social network's content guidelines.

The company said it made the decision after receiving additional complaints about inappropriate content on Jones' pages. The pages were removed "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." The decision was made independently of any other companies removing content from their sites, a Facebook spokesperson said.

In July, Facebook removed four of Jones' videos and hit his own personal profile with a 30-day ban over what the firm deemed as a violation of its policies on bullying and hate speech. The company said at the time the official InfoWars page, among others where Jones was an administrator, were getting close to the threshold of being banned from the site due to repeated violations.

The company explained on Monday that when it deletes content, the removal counts as a strike — essentially a warning — against the person that uploaded it. In the case of pages, Facebook said it holds both a page and an administrator who posts content in violation of its rules accountable.

But it also said that the reason for removing Jones' pages was in no way related to concerns over fake news.

"All four pages have been unpublished for repeated violations of Community Standards and accumulating too many strikes," the company said in a blog post.

"While much of the discussion around Infowars has been related to false news, which is a serious issue that we are working to address by demoting links marked wrong by fact checkers and suggesting additional content, none of the violations that spurred today's removals were related to this."

Facebook in particular has faced calls to remove Jones from the platform altogether. Last month, the company was asked by a CNN journalist why it had not banned InfoWars completely, given its aim to crack down on fake news. Facebook — along with CEO Mark Zuckerberg — defended the decision not to remove InfoWars.

Tech giants have faced calls from both sides of the political spectrum to be more transparent about the way they approach content flagging and banning. On the left, there are critics who say these firms are not doing enough to take down harmful and offensive content, while on the right there are some who think internet firms are routinely censoring conservative posts.



As private companies, there is nothing in law to bar them from removing user-generated videos and audio as they see fit. But a number of mostly conservative commentators have framed the issue as a matter of freedom of speech.

On Friday, Apple officially became the first publicly-listed U.S. company to reach a market capitalization of $1 trillion.
YouTube

YouTube removed Jones' official channel later Monday morning.

"All users agree to comply with our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines when they sign up to use YouTube," a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement. "When users violate these policies repeatedly, like our policies against hate speech and harassment or our terms prohibiting circumvention of our enforcement measures, we terminate their accounts."

Jones publishes many of the same videos that violated Facebook's policies to YouTube. YouTube has taken action against Jones in the past, including removing some of his videos. He was currently barred from live streaming for violating YouTube policies, but continued to live stream on other channels, according to YouTube. His actions led the company to remove his official account, the company said.
Pinterest

Pinterest removed the official InfoWars board on Monday afternoon after multiple people alerted the company to policy violations.

"Consistent with our existing policies, we take action against accounts that repeatedly save content that could lead to harm," a Pinterest spokesperson said. "People come to Pinterest to discover ideas for their lives, and we continue to enforce our principles to maintain a safe, useful and inspiring experience for our users."
Spotify

Spotify last week pulled several of Jones' podcasts, citing the violation of its policies on hateful content. On Monday, however, the streaming service completely removed "The Alex Jones Show" from the platform, a spokesperson for the company told CNBC Monday.

Spotify continued to review the podcast over the weekend and arrived at the conclusion that enough of it went against its code on hateful content to warrant a complete deletion of the show.

Spotify's policies mean that more than one contravention can result in a podcast creator being barred from the platform altogether. The company had been confronted with the threat of some users leaving the platform for not being tough enough on the right-wing online personality.
Twitter

Jones responded to the bans Monday in a series of tweets and a live stream on Periscope, which is owned by Twitter. His accounts for both platforms remained up and active through the day.

Twitter takes action on content that is flagged for abuse or other violations of company policy, the company told CNBC, but InfoWars and its associated accounts had yet to violate the guidelines for either platform. Those accounts will remain active for now.
Tech's politics problem

The problem of online political content as a whole has proven to be a contentious one for digital companies.

Two weeks ago, Facebook faced the biggest one-day market rout in history, shedding more than $100 billion from its market value in the space of just one trading day.

That followed concerns that the company's data scandal, in which the data of 87 million users were shared improperly with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, had affected second-quarter revenues.



Issues around data privacy and fake news have become almost intertwined as politicians and regulators examine how to deal with claims that digital platforms were used as a tool to influence major elections including the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the U.K. Brexit referendum.

Therefore, tech firms have been at the center of the debacle, with analysts questioning whether they could be the target of increased regulation. In May, the European Union put in place its huge data law shake-up, dubbed GDPR (the General Data Protection Regulation, requiring companies to obtain explicit consent from customers as to how their data is used, or else face a fine of either 20 million euros ($23 million) or 4 percent of their global annual revenues.

- Additional reporting by CNBC's Michelle Castillo , Sara Salinas, Sally Shin and Steve Kovach
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Re: The Antics of Alex Jones

Postby liminalOyster » Mon Aug 06, 2018 8:35 pm

I dont have a single kind word to say about the man and yet I can imagine a very plausible future in which this looks very disturbing in retrospect.
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Re: The Antics of Alex Jones

Postby Jerky » Tue Aug 07, 2018 3:11 am

This was a long time coming, and he CERTAINLY surpassed the threshold in terms of his "freedom of speech" having sufficient real-world negative effects on actual, living, breathing human beings to warrant the curtailing of that freedom. He's proven himself incapable of wielding a public voice with any degree of self-control or consideration for the ramifications of his never-ending torrent of calls to violence, slander, lies and misinformation, and in no way do I feel that any large private communications platform should feel forced to carry his vile and dangerous content "just because". His material belongs on shortwave radio and mimeographed pamphlets handed out on street corners by vagrants.

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Re: The Antics of Alex Jones

Postby Pele'sDaughter » Tue Aug 07, 2018 7:35 am

Of course, that's no doubt what they want you to think and, with Jones, it's so easy. I'm sure they're just draining the swamp before the mid-terms. He'll be back. If not, people will notice the many vile channels that aren't being treated with shunning and disdain.
Don't believe anything they say.
And at the same time,
Don't believe that they say anything without a reason.
---Immanuel Kant
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Re: The Antics of Alex Jones

Postby JackRiddler » Sat Aug 11, 2018 8:43 am

.

Uncouth language alert!

You are entitled to think the dropping of Jones is some kind of signaling event or prelude to the corporations' asserting control over speech that endangers us all, but I am equally entitled to laugh at the notion. This is merely today's example in an endless string dating back in different forms through all times of the recent historical past. We've never not been in danger, and the events that mattered, that set precedents in the current development, like Steven Salaita or George Ciccarello-Maier or the Youtube adpocalypse, didn't stir up enough attention or outrage (unlike fake shit like "PC Victim #1" and self-help scam artist Jordan Peterson who last week was declared a political prisoner by the exemplary Saudi monarchy).

Sullivan or the 1919-20 red scare that gave birth to the ACLU or Assange and Manning in 2010-11 (and since, most of the time!) are necessary battles. Throw in Zenger for some historical perspective. The cause of Jones is not a hill for anyone other than his patsies to die on, and he and his patsy fans including some sadly on this board can go fuck themselves multiply. His debased schtick makes Father Coughlin look totally respectable. His rotation is lies and crap info, highly destructive and stupid distortions of important issues that he gets to commandeer and shit on for years, poison pills against real opposition, absolutely endless hate speech and incitement for fascism.

The problem is certainly not that privately owned distribution platforms choose to cut this motherfucker out. The problem is that these privately owned distribution platforms are a goddamn monopoly who took over the Internet ages ago and have already been censoring for years whomever they feel like, not just this motherfucker who still has his presumably hundred-million-dollar empire running and can find his alternate distribution and will continue to commit his evil on the world with the assistance of his patsy army.

Thank you Jeffrey St. Clair, even if I'd differ on some nuances:

+ The unplugging of InfoWars from its corporate platforms was a stupid and cynical move to silence a cynical and stupid man after Alex Jones started to hurt their bottom line. As with all forms of censorship, Jones will portray himself as a martyr and probably make even more money. Still, I can’t imagine a true feral journalist like Jean-Paul Marat whimpering that the Bourbon-owned postal service refused to distribute his L’Ami du Peuple rag to the Sans Culottes…

+ Whether the “Left” defended Alex Jones’ fascist theatrics on free speech grounds or wanted to see his mouth firmly muzzled with a red ball gag, we can be certain of one thing: the desires of the “Left” played no role in the decisions of the social media companies to yank his plug.

+ Almost to the day Cockburn died, he referred to CounterPunch as a “Twitter-free Zone,” blissfully unaware that Nat had set up a CP Twitter account a couple years earlier. But Alex understood that relying on FB or Twitter meant that you submitted to their corporate rules & whims not our own.

+ The underground press was underground for a reason. The Left never had any expectation that the titans of capitalism would play fairly with publications whose stated goal was to take them down and put their owners in the tumbrils.

+ The lesson the Left should take from the Jones Affair is that if you’re organizing on Social Media platforms you’re building movement on a trapdoor that will open beneath your feet the moment you become a threat. [FUCK, IT'S TRUE.]

+ I wish Gil Scott-Heron was still around to rap: “The revolution will not be Tweeted.” [IF IT COMES, IT WILL ALSO BE TWEETED, BUT THAT WON'T BE THE MAIN THING.]

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/08/10 ... rs-lament/

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Re: The Antics of Alex Jones

Postby dada » Sat Aug 11, 2018 10:04 am

"+ The underground press was underground for a reason. The Left never had any expectation that the titans of capitalism would play fairly with publications whose stated goal was to take them down and put their owners in the tumbrils."

I think this could be manufactured nowadays, too. Underground press as theatre, performance art. A lot of it, at least. Enough of it.

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Both his words and manner of speech seemed at first totally unfamiliar to me, and yet somehow they stirred memories - as an actor might be stirred by the forgotten lines of some role he had played far away and long ago.
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Re: The Antics of Alex Jones

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Aug 15, 2018 7:03 am

On Periscope, Alex Jones tells supporters to get their “battle rifles” ready against antifa, the mainstream media, and “Chicom operatives”

Jones: It's time to act before the media carries out a “false flag”

August 14, 2018 5:14 PM EDT
ALEX JONES (HOST): It now stands with you and the U.S. military who I know already understand who the Chicom operatives and the traitors are to understand who's trying to take the First Amendment, who’s trying to bankrupt the country, who’s trying to shut down everything, who went ahead and admitted they wanted to bankrupt health care in America to bring us to our knees. We’re under attack and you know that, and you pointed out mainstream media is the enemy.

But now it’s time to act on the enemy before they do a false flag. I know the Justice Department's crippled, a bunch of followers and cowards. But there’s groups, there’s grand juries, there’s -- you called for it and it’s time politically and economically and judiciously and legally and criminally to move against these people. It’s got to be done now. Get together the people you know aren’t traitors, and aren’t cowards, and aren’t hedging their frickin’ bets like all these other assholes do, and let’s go, let’s do it. Because they’re coming. Now, in your wisdom you may be playing possum and waiting for them to come in. But America needs to know that they’ve got their little pathetic commie red teams ready. And they’ve got their targets picked out: the sheriffs, the judges, the police chiefs, the patriots, the veterans, the talk show hosts, everybody. And everyone’s going to be amazed when they come and when those cowards come and it’s going to hit in the middle of the night, and they’re coming. And they’re coming. And they’re coming.

They think they can really take down America. And this is it. So, people need to have their battle rifles and everything ready at their bedsides and you got to be ready because the media is so disciplined in their deception. Antifa attacked all these people at the White House, beat up reporters, beat up women, children, no coverage. And they’ve got discipline folks, they’ve got criminal discipline because they’re a bunch of followers.
https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2018 ... dia/220995
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
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Re: The Antics of Alex Jones

Postby Iamwhomiam » Wed Aug 15, 2018 12:45 pm

What a piece of work he is. I think he's growing his beard to let us know he's evolving.

Alex Jones threatens Sandy Hook parents with cease and desist letters if they keep talking about his conspiracy theories

In video posted to Twitter, Jones tells parents to stop talking about him “in the memory of your children”

Video ››› August 14, 2018 10:46 AM EDT ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
ALEX JONES (HOST): So I’m asking the families: In the memory of your children and the memory of the truth -- you say it’s super hurtful to hear these things, I agree. So I’m saying how do you continue to say that and say I said it if it’s so hurtful? I’m asking you to quit in my voice saying your children didn’t die. I’m asking in my voice and my name to quit saying I’m sending people to your house. I’m asking you through my name, like [late-night talk show host] Conan O’Brien with a cut-out of somebody saying things, to stop saying that I’m doing this because I’m not. I’ve apologized, I’ve done it all. So, at a certain point, do cease and desist letters have to go out? With a letter and videos and everything so it’s on record?

Because people take the families of victims, and they should, hold them up. I remember talking about the deadly dust killing people in the World Trade Center and they covered it up for decades and now it’s admitted. They do that and they hold it up. But the First Amendment’s pretty important but I don’t know how they’re going to say Alex Jones is mean, he’s making people come be deposed, Alex Jones is mean, he’s put P.I.’s on the street. Alex Jones is mean. Because see, I’m the one under assault. I’m the one being misrepresented. I’m the one that people are speaking through my voice, holding a picture of me up, and then saying I’m saying these things and all I’m saying is metaphysically I didn’t create this, I didn’t start this, so I can’t give you quarter. But I’ve tried to give the whole thing quarter and have been your biggest ally for years in saying, “No, I think it happened.” And if I’m so dangerous and so bad and so many people listen to me, so many dangerous people, then please don’t say that I’m saying your children didn’t die or that mass shootings don’t happen or that Parkland didn’t happen or any of this because you know that’s not what I’ve said, lawyers. And you know I didn’t sue the families. And you know I waived attorney’s fees that no one has ever done. But, see, just like [special counsel Robert] Mueller does these fake indictments, that’s the proof of collusion, it’s the same thing. File a suit, say the things in the suit, and then say that all of it’s true.


https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2018/08/14/alex-jones-threatens-sandy-hook-parents-cease-and-desist-letters-if-they-keep-talking-about-his/220989
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Re: The Antics of Alex Jones

Postby PufPuf93 » Wed Aug 15, 2018 2:27 pm

My first exposure to Alex Jones was many years ago when he infiltrated and filmed Bohemian Grove festivities.

The Bohemian Grove clips were entertaining and even camp for conspiracy theory stuff (and we were so much younger then).

But Alex Jones turned out to be an obnoxious right wing asshole.

At one time I thought Alex Jones was some sort of a federal alphabet agency plant to roil the gullible masses rather than a social danger.
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Re: The Antics of Alex Jones

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Aug 16, 2018 4:03 pm

CORRECTION: FCC targets pirate radio station that broadcasts Alex Jones
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 08/15/18 07:57 PM EDT 1,426
40,493


The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has shut down a pirate radio station known for its broadcasts of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

The Austin American-Statesman reported Wednesday that the station, Liberty Radio, was hit with a $15,000 fine and at least temporarily pulled from the airwaves.

The newspaper reported that a lawsuit filed in federal court in Austin alleged that Liberty Radio had functioned without a license since at least 2013, and had been transmitting from a tower at an Austin apartment complex.


Liberty Radio, or LRN.FM, stopped airing on the radio in December, but still streams online.

The FCC is charging that the station was also illegally broadcasting on an FM wavelength.

The Associated Press reported that Walter Olenick and M. Rae Nadler-Olenick were named as the defendants in the lawsuit, and the apartment complex from which the station was transmitting is linked to them.

The Olenicks reportedly told the FCC that they would not pay the fine and would treat any agency representatives as trespassers.

Media reports, including the local Statesman, described the station as Jones's "flagship" outlet; NPR reported Thursday that it had picked up the nickname "Alex Jones Radio" over the years.

The station does air rebroadcasts of "The Alex Jones Show."

However, station host Danny Sessom wrote in a Facebook post late Wednesday that media reports describing the station as Jones's "flagship" are "actual fake news," noting that Jones didn't broadcast from the station.

Jones, a conspiracy theorist who founded the site Infowars, has recently been banned by several platforms, including Facebook and YouTube, for allegedly violating their terms of service.

Infowars and Jones's content has also been pulled from Spotify and Vimeo, and Twitter placed restrictions on their accounts.

Jones has been forcefully criticized for some of the conspiracy theories he promotes. The parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have sued him for saying the massacre was staged and a cover-up was orchestrated by the parents of the children.

— Editors' note: This story was updated at 3:20 p.m. Thursday to reflect that Liberty Radio is a pirate station that rebroadcasts Alex Jones's programming.
http://thehill.com/policy/technology/te ... io-station
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: The Antics of Alex Jones

Postby elfismiles » Thu Aug 16, 2018 5:17 pm

I've met the Olenick's a few times over the years. They seem like good folks to me ... despite local news coverage trying to demonize them.

While Alex has definitely been "involved" in the local Austin pirate radio landscape, this station, to my knowledge, had no direct connection to Alex other than restreaming his content, along with that of many others:
www.txlr.net

I've posted a bit here and there about this before on RI:

One Giant Leap ... for Conspiramedia?
Post by elfismiles » 07 Sep 2009
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=25094

seemslikeadream » 16 Aug 2018 20:03 wrote:
CORRECTION: FCC targets pirate radio station that broadcasts Alex Jones
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 08/15/18 07:57 PM EDT 1,426
40,493

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has shut down a pirate radio station known for its broadcasts of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
. . .
— Editors' note: This story was updated at 3:20 p.m. Thursday to reflect that Liberty Radio is a pirate station that rebroadcasts Alex Jones's programming.
http://thehill.com/policy/technology/te ... io-station
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Re: The Antics of Alex Jones

Postby Spiro C. Thiery » Fri Aug 17, 2018 5:32 am

I find the dude repellent and dangerous, but this summer has led me for the first time to consider his latter career in general and this summer in particular to be one big psy op. The way it is being handled appears too misguided in its timing to be anything but a means to something other than the thing itself.
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Re: The Antics of Alex Jones

Postby dada » Fri Aug 17, 2018 1:03 pm

Looking at stats on alexa, Jones' website gets around 250k unique viewers a day. Assume more than usual at the moment, since he's an internet martyr this week.

I like to keep the stats in the back of my mind as I read about this garbage man. Remember that there are around 250 million adults in the US. And some of his viewers come from Canada, Australia, England, Germany. Not a whole lot, even with all the free media advertising he gets.

What he says is disgusting, but you know, Howard Stern is disgusting, too. And Howard had a lot more ears on him in his heyday. Yes, they are two different kinds of disgusting, and alex is agitating for war. But there is some disgusting overlap between the two.

Not saying this to dismiss the Jones phenomena, it's definitely feeding into something that needs to be shut down, for public safety's sake. But I find keeping it in perspective helps me to stay sharp, not let the feelings that reading about it generates overcome me. After all the publicity, media darling with White House cred, guy is still just a small time clown, shit-stirring the far fringes of the far fringe. People who live in fear of shapeshifting lizardpeople stealing their chi.
Both his words and manner of speech seemed at first totally unfamiliar to me, and yet somehow they stirred memories - as an actor might be stirred by the forgotten lines of some role he had played far away and long ago.
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Re: The Antics of Alex Jones

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Aug 17, 2018 9:04 pm

Alex Jones Destroyed Evidence In Sandy Hook Defamation Cases, Motion Says

It argues that mounting pressure from multiple lawsuits led the Infowars host and conspiracy theorist to willfully destroy evidence.

Sebastian Murdock
Alex Jones, the conspiracy theory-peddling host of Infowars, deleted evidence that links him to multiple defamation lawsuits brought against him by the families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, according to a new motion.

The motion filed Friday in Texas by attorney Mark Bankston accuses Jones of having “intentionally deleted a variety of social media pages and video content relating to the Sandy Hook shooting” earlier this month.

Jones is currently facing three separate defamation lawsuits from the parents of children who were gunned down in the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.

Jones has repeatedly called the parents “crisis actors” and has said interviews with outlets including CNN were faked with green screens. He published a video last year titled “Sandy Hook Vampires Exposed.”

Many of Jones’ followers believe the shooting was a hoax perpetrated by the government, and they still harass the parents of victims.

The new motion was filed on behalf of Neil Heslin, who lost his 6-year-old son in the shooting. It argues that mounting pressure from the lawsuits drove Jones to “destroy evidence of his actual malice and defamatory conduct. Infowars deleted critical evidence at the precise moment plaintiff and his experts were attempting to marshal that evidence.”

Jones and his lawyer could be fined thousands of dollars if a judge finds that evidence was willfully destroyed, The New York Times points out. This could become another nail in a slowly assembled coffin for Jones’ livelihood. Major tech companies including YouTube and Facebook have banned Jones from their platforms in recent weeks, presumably leading him to lose revenue.

Jones is also facing two other defamation lawsuits, including one from a man whom Infowars falsely identified as the Parkland, Florida, school shooter earlier this year. That man is also being represented by Bankston.

A Texas judge is currently deciding whether to accept Jones’ motions to dismiss the Parkland case and a Sandy Hook case involving parents Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa. Jones’ attorney, Mark Enoch, attempted earlier this month to make public the addresses of Pozner and De La Rosa. After HuffPost reported on the story, he said in a new court filing that was not his intent.

A hearing for Jones’ motion to dismiss Heslin’s case is set to take place on Aug. 30 in Austin, Texas.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/al ... b93e93c64e
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: The Antics of Alex Jones

Postby elfismiles » Sat Aug 18, 2018 10:12 am

Infowars Website Traffic Explodes After Silicon Valley Blacklists Alex Jones Empire
by Tyler Durden / Sun, 08/12/2018 - 20:44
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08- ... nes-empire

dada » 17 Aug 2018 17:03 wrote:Looking at stats on alexa, Jones' website gets around 250k unique viewers a day. Assume more than usual at the moment, since he's an internet martyr this week.

I like to keep the stats in the back of my mind as I read about this garbage man. Remember that there are around 250 million adults in the US. And some of his viewers come from Canada, Australia, England, Germany. Not a whole lot, even with all the free media advertising he gets.

What he says is disgusting, but you know, Howard Stern is disgusting, too. And Howard had a lot more ears on him in his heyday. Yes, they are two different kinds of disgusting, and alex is agitating for war. But there is some disgusting overlap between the two.

Not saying this to dismiss the Jones phenomena, it's definitely feeding into something that needs to be shut down, for public safety's sake. But I find keeping it in perspective helps me to stay sharp, not let the feelings that reading about it generates overcome me. After all the publicity, media darling with White House cred, guy is still just a small time clown, shit-stirring the far fringes of the far fringe. People who live in fear of shapeshifting lizardpeople stealing their chi.
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