[i_am_nomad]

I've never listened to it, and in fact I have no idea who that guy is or what he talks about, except that he's supposedly a conspiracy theorist. For those of you who have, what made his show so objectionable (to Apple, anyway)?

[yontherubicon]

Well, they're calling it hate speech. He doesn't talk about any particular ethnic group (not even Jews, despite what his detractors might say).

He's against IIRC having trans children take puberty blockers, which might be an issue, but TBH an argument can be made for the well-being of the child.

No, I think this is an issue of twitter-mob pressure against Itunes after Spotify announced they would keep Infowars content. And there are, AFAIK very few people who care one way or the other. It's more a slim minority of people who hate Alex Jones' views and wish to have his content blocked much the same way trolls are trying to take out Rick and Morty.

[JumpCrisscross]

> not even Jews, despite what his detractors might say

He’s talked extensively about the Jewish mafia. He promoted violence against the made-up “Pizzagate” B.S. and only backed down because Texan libel law is particularly stern. I support Alex Jones’ right to speak, but I don’t think—particularly in the era of the Internet—Apple should support him.

[yontherubicon]

>Jewish Mafia

There's a Jewish Mafia?

>Pizzagate

He talked about it, sure, but if you can find me where he promotes violence against Alefantis then I'll eat my hat.

[JumpCrisscross]

> There's a Jewish Mafia?

According to Jones [1][2].

(To be clear, there was a strain of Jewish-American organized crime around the turn of the last century [3], but that isn't what Jones was referring to.)

[1] https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/10/26/13418304/...

[2] https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/alex-jones-five-...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish-American_organized_crim...

[yontherubicon]

The source from Vox is Media Matters, which is literally a Democrat party source. I watched the video therein, and it's farily clear he's talking about the Emmanuels, not Jews as a whole.

Also, even if there were a Jewish mafia, discussing Jewish organized crime is no more anti-Jewish than discussing Italian organized crime is anti-Italian.

[pteredactyl]

You mean Murder, Inc?

There are mobs of all races, ethnic groups.

Although I can't speak specifically to the points mentioned by Jones, all those sources you cite are suspect.

[dmix]

Vox is a cancerous place to cite any political opinion...

[wuliwong]

If I was opposed to the Sicilian mafia, that doesn't make me racist against all Sicilians. I don't understand how this is different.

[__m]

He claimed the Sandy Hook shooting never happened for example and that the parents of the victims were actors

[s_m_t]

So why now. Sandy Hook was five years ago.

[seren]

Parents of Sandy Hook victims are attacking Jones in a defamation lawsuit this year claiming they are harassed by people believing they are paid actors and the children did not even exist (or are still alive).

So this is raising the profile of Alex Jones.

As an aside, losing your child is probably one of the most horrific event that could happen in one's life. And moreover, imagine being harassed and accused of fabricating it and not even being able to go to the tomb. This is really hellish.

Article on the audience : https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/01/us/politics/infowars-sand...

[threeseed]

Because that's just an example. He has plenty of objectionable content.

[briandear]

Louis Farrakhan is on Apple Music and is far more objectionable in terms of his views of Jews than anything ever said by Alex Jones.

https://www.adl.org/blog/louis-farrakhan-delivers-yet-anothe...

[briandear]

If we are to go down this route, I should hope South Park Mexican is removed from Apple Music next. I am no fan of Alex Jones, but he traffics in conspiracies for entertainment value. He’s a shock jock for the tin foil hat crowd. That doesn’t excuse his ideas, but South Park Mexican is serving 45 years for sexually assaulting a 9 year old girl and his music is available right now on Apple Music — an actual, convicted child rapist can make royalties from Apple Music but Alex Jones gets banned? Jones is guilty of bad taste, SPM is guilty of raping a 9 year old girl.

[tzs]

Jones may intend his conspiracies to be for entertainment value, but that is not how many of his listeners and watchers take them. They take them as accurate news that they can and do rely on to guide behavior.

Based on a little bit of skipping around in SPM's oeuvre on Spotify, I didn't hear anything that seemed out of the ordinary for hip hop. I did not hear anything that suggested that his music would be taken as anything other than entertainment by listeners.

Services are choosing to stop carrying Jones because they believe that the product itself that they were helping distribute is harmful. With SPM there doesn't seem to be anything harmful about the product itself. It is just that a terrible person makes money from it.

That's a pretty big difference.

[tpush]

Alex Jones' podcast is banned because of the things he said in the podcast itself, not because he is a massive shitbag (understatement).

I don't know this South Park Mexican guy, but unless his _content_ on Apple Music is objectionable, there's no reason to remove it.

[crooked-v]

He lies constantly and has actively slandered mass murder victims.

[vixen99]

Unsubstantiated! If you want to make such a major accusation then why not make an effort and take the trouble to provide at least some reason to believe. And no, this is absolutely not a defence of Alex Jones. It's a plea for constructive comment that might be helpful if one's trying to assess an issue.

[TeMPOraL]

He says lots of polarizing bullshit.

He's not crazy. He's just driving sales to his on-line store this way. These days, even conspiracy nutjobs aren't honestly crazy.

[orionblastar]

A right winged conspiracy theorist that sometimes makes things up for ratings like Sandy Hook was fake with crisis actors.

He once had to admit that he does it for entertainment when lawsuits happened.

But otherwise he is a right wing nutter. Apple chose not to support his podcast anymore.

[ch4ck]

He supports POTUS.

[phs318u]

He supports denial of reality, and he's reaching (part of) his audience on Apple's platform. They are within their rights to elect to remove him if he violates their terms of service.

I'm pretty sure there are plenty of other podcasts that support POTUS that haven't been removed.

[sctb]

Please don't post drive-by partisan flamebait here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[threeseed]

So does Fox News and their content is available everywhere.

[okket]

Fox News is problematic, may be even extreme (Sean Hannity et al) but I would not put them in the same league as InfoWars. At least not as long as Shepard Smith gets airtime there.

See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHjFS5f1IT0

[briandear]

If we are to complain about Hannity, then we have to include Maddow. Assuming we are trying to be intellectually consistent. She’s just as “extreme” but from the other side.

[okket]

Classic false equivalence. You are right that Maddow is similar in style, but on a fact-to-fact based comparison, Hannity is some orders of magnitude more extreme.