[mehblahwhatevs]

I don't necessarily like this action.

People are quick to point out that FB and Youtube are private entities and such but the reality is that they've become so ubiquitous in our lives that if they start censorship based on the company's preferred politics, beliefs, etc. than it will have an effect on all of us.

Can mobile apps (like WhatsApp) inspect messages and decide to boot users if they're saying things that aren't in line with the company's positions?

Can ISPs do that too?

[jlarocco]

Same here. I don't agree with anything he says, but banning him from these platforms sets a bad precedent. The way to fight ignorance is with education.

If anything, this will enforce their persecution complex. Now Alex Jones will say, "See? Big media doesn't want you to know the things I'm telling you." And he'll be right.

[dragontamer]

> The way to fight ignorance is with education.

And ignorance fights back with education. Removing Thomas Jefferson from textbooks for example. Or replacing evolution with creationism / intelligent design theory.

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html

People rewrite education to suit their political slants. You ain't gonna win in education until you win at politics.

[dmix]

> You ain't gonna win in education until you win at politics.

Unless politics doesn't control education... which is a direction we're fortunately slowly moving towards.

[lgleason]

There is a lot of talk in Washington about regulation of these industries for this very reason. TV and Newspapers are responsible for their content and as such can say who they do and do not put in their publications. The internet companies were given safe harbor because they claimed to be "neutral". Not they are not and as such should be regulated like their competition.

Without safe harbor they never would have been able to grow like they did, but they had remain neutral. Now that they aren't it's time to subject them to the regulations TV, Newspapers etc have... and watch their profitability decline.

[komali2]

WhatsApp can do that, yes! People are talking about "the line" society would draw, and I expect you just found it!

ISPs should not do that, it violates net neutrality.

[undseg]

That completely arbitrary.

There's no reason WhatsApp shouldn't be treated as a "dumb pipe for messaging" just like an ISP is widely regarded as necessary to be treated as such for data in general.

Where's the difference? Both are companies that want to make profits and face competition. If ISPs were a public state service, then that would be where to draw the line.

[wmil]

Wasn't Google Docs doing that?