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Post by Kliquid on Nov 30, 2010 5:53:03 GMT -5
This video may be removed as early as tomorrow.
Both Google and its subsidiary company You Tube have banned Alex Jones and his websites, as attempts to curtail free speech widen.
Within the past 2-3 weeks, Jones and his team have confirmed that after years of being listed under Google News, one of the largest platforms for news dissemination, that PrisonPlanet.com and Infowars.com have been blocked from its search results, effectively censoring their content from wide web coverage. Only smaller sites that re-post the content have appeared in Google searches since early November.
In a separate matter, TheAlexJonesChannel on YouTube has learned that it will be either frozen or blocked from uploading new content for several weeks following a "Community Guidelines" violation decision. According to YouTube's support team, users from its site flagged a video on the channel that contained controversial video of the Apache helicopter "collateral murder" that occurred in Iraq in 2007 and was released by Wikileaks. When TheAlexJonesChannel attempted to challenge the removal of this video via YouTube's counter-notification form, it was subsequently told that the account would be disabled and new content blocked (apparently due to the challenge, as no other strikes exist on the account).
The graphic content in the video-- which documents real events the Pentagon never wanted released-- has been posted by hundreds of other channels on YouTube, including major media outlets like CBS News and Russia Today without being flagged or removed, yet TheAlexJonesChannel has been told that its posting of a smaller portion of this incident is offensive or otherwise against its community guidelines. This appears to be double standard as even the age-verification barrier set-up for some of the postings was not offered for TheAlexJonesChannel version; it was simple deleted by user demand and YouTube mandate.
It is evident that the system revels in any chance to dampen the loud voice that Alex Jones, Infowars.com/PrisonPlanet.com and its supporters have raised on the Internet, effectively challenging the status quo and mainstream media spin on major news and events. With the easy passage of the web censorship bill, it is further clear that what is happening now to Infowars.com and Alex Jones will soon happen to anyone without a politically-correct message, particularly when that message is capable of resonating throughout large parts of the globe.
It is up to supporters and lovers of freedom to challenge censorship and oppression on the web, because only resistance can slow the attempts to curtail free speech and expression online. As Frederick Douglass said, "Find out just what the people will submit to and you've found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." This will be prove to be more true than ever in the age of the Internet.
What a sham.
Look, Alex Jones is considered a "crazy" person by a lot of people, but it wouldn't take long at all for me to find things on Youtube that are clearly more ridiculous.
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Post by slappy on Nov 30, 2010 6:04:34 GMT -5
 ing bullshit. [/Iron Sheik] |
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Post by slappy on Nov 30, 2010 6:11:13 GMT -5
Is there an e-mail address at which I can complain to?
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Post by slappy on Nov 30, 2010 6:42:36 GMT -5
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Post by Kliquid on Nov 30, 2010 7:03:06 GMT -5
Is there an e-mail address at which I can complain to? I'm not sure. I'm sure Alex will talk about it more in the coming days. |
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Post by Mole on Nov 30, 2010 7:07:39 GMT -5
While I think it's odd that it's being taken down (if it's true), the last thing anyone should expect from an online community is free speech. If you agree to a TOS, you've given up your rights.
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Post by Kliquid on Nov 30, 2010 7:13:56 GMT -5
While I think it's odd that it's being taken down (if it's true), the last thing anyone should expect from an online community is free speech. If you agree to a TOS, you've given up your rights. Absolutely, and I don't think they're trying to say that what Youtube/Google doing is illegal. Only that what they are doing is attempting to position themselves as a source for free-speech news and free-speech media, while regulating and disallowing certain outlets. This would be like if IGN suddenly refused to allow Xbox games on their website. While they are a private company and can do what they want, they have also established themselves as the premier (or a premier) gaming website - and a nondiscriminatory one at that. So while what they would be doing would not be illegal and it may appease the Playstation and Nintendo fanboys, they are doing a major disservice to their viewers (and customers) by removing a very popular gaming system from their website. |
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Post by carly1988 on Nov 30, 2010 7:37:53 GMT -5
Thank God.
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Post by Happy Pizza on Nov 30, 2010 10:33:54 GMT -5
While I think it's odd that it's being taken down (if it's true), the last thing anyone should expect from an online community is free speech. If you agree to a TOS, you've given up your rights. Absolutely, and I don't think they're trying to say that what Youtube/Google doing is illegal. Only that what they are doing is attempting to position themselves as a source for free-speech news and free-speech media, while regulating and disallowing certain outlets. This would be like if IGN suddenly refused to allow Xbox games on their website. While they are a private company and can do what they want, they have also established themselves as the premier (or a premier) gaming website - and a nondiscriminatory one at that. So while what they would be doing would not be illegal and it may appease the Playstation and Nintendo fanboys, they are doing a major disservice to their viewers (and customers) by removing a very popular gaming system from their website. I see what you're saying, but from the get-go Youtube has only allowed what they want to be on their site to remain there. You say IGN has a rep to uphold, well Youtube has a rep for allowing people to find whatever they want...except porn, gore videos, or clips owned by Warner Music Group or Viacom, etc. If they allowed literally anything to be uploaded then this would be different, but they are a corporation and reserve the right to take down whatever they want whenever they want. |
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Post by Hulkamaniac on Nov 30, 2010 10:41:33 GMT -5
I wonder exactly what Youtube is trying to accomplish. It's one thing to be an alternative media source. It's another thing to be the be all and end all for conspiracy theories. Maybe that's what they are trying to get away from.
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Post by slappy on Nov 30, 2010 10:49:09 GMT -5
Instead of focusing on conspiracy theories, they should focus on the comments section and get rid of the sexist, homophobic, racist, and xenophobic remarks members make.
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Post by Hulkamaniac on Nov 30, 2010 11:00:47 GMT -5
Instead of focusing on conspiracy theories, they should focus on the comments section and get rid of the sexist, homophobic, racist, and xenophobic remarks members make. Dang. If they went through here and got rid of the conspiracy theories, sexist, homophobic, racist and xenophobic remarks, there would be no posts here any more. If you didn't believe 9/11 was an inside job and you weren't a misogynistic, wetback, homosexual you'd know that. |
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Post by Oskanowski on Nov 30, 2010 11:25:23 GMT -5
Don't really make sense. IF anything it just proves him and conspiracy theorist right. They keep sexual videos/racist/etc.. vids, but remove ones about the Government doing wrong. sounds fishy.
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Post by Hulkamaniac on Nov 30, 2010 11:31:06 GMT -5
Google is run by the government.
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Dexter Morgan
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jul 8, 2008 15:30:18 GMT -5
Posts: 3,130
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Post by Dexter Morgan on Nov 30, 2010 11:41:48 GMT -5
Don't really make sense. IF anything it just proves him and conspiracy theorist right. They keep sexual videos/racist/etc.. vids, but remove ones about the Government doing wrong. sounds fishy. Or they are removing it because they are tried of accidentally clicking on one and hearing some middle aged man bitch and moan about shit. |
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Post by Oskanowski on Nov 30, 2010 12:11:28 GMT -5
Don't really make sense. IF anything it just proves him and conspiracy theorist right. They keep sexual videos/racist/etc.. vids, but remove ones about the Government doing wrong. sounds fishy. Or they are removing it because they are tried of accidentally clicking on one and hearing some middle aged man bitch and moan about poop. |
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Post by Ian from 616Entertainment. on Nov 30, 2010 16:10:47 GMT -5
I used to hate this guy until I listened to Joe Rogan's podcast. He and Joe are buddies, Joe agrees that a lot of what Alex says is a little kooky, but the guy is damn entertaining.
I can agree with that.
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Post by Kliquid on Nov 30, 2010 16:37:08 GMT -5
I see what you're saying, but from the get-go Youtube has only allowed what they want to be on their site to remain there. You say IGN has a rep to uphold, well Youtube has a rep for allowing people to find whatever they want...except porn, gore videos, or clips owned by Warner Music Group or Viacom, etc. If they allowed literally anything to be uploaded then this would be different, but they are a corporation and reserve the right to take down whatever they want whenever they want. Like I said, I absolutely understand that they have the right to do it. But when Google's mission statement is "to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful," I believe they are going against their own policy to remove information. Alex Jones may be out of his mind on some issues, but he has flat-out been completely right on many topics, including the use of the TSA scanners, which he was warning people about a LONG time before they went into use. Youtube's Community Guidelines specifically mention all of the things that you did, with them being against their rules. But what, exactly, does the Alex Jones channel have on it that violates the Community Guidelines? Perhaps a five-second clip of a video that DOZENS of other people and larger media outlets have uploaded in its entirety? It's just a complete lack of consistency on Google/Youtube's part. They try to establish themselves as the "go-to" location for news and free speech, but then they completely go back on it by banning a media outlet. Or they are removing it because they are tried of accidentally clicking on one and hearing some middle aged man bitch and moan about poop. What kind of moron "accidentally" clicks a video on Youtube and watches the entire thing? |
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Post by Hulkamaniac on Nov 30, 2010 16:43:43 GMT -5
To be fair a) not everything Alex is saying about the situation is accurate and b) we haven't heard anything from Google/Youtube.
Alex himself admits that Google has banned his site from the Google News section. Could it simply be that Google sees his site as a pure commentary site and not News? I'm sure his stuff still shows up in other google search results. I went to his site, cut the first few sentences of a random article and pasted them in google. I got his site as the very first result.
As for the Youtube thing, we have no idea what the facts are, just Alex's side.
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Post by slappy on Nov 30, 2010 16:45:28 GMT -5
To be fair a) not everything Alex is saying about the situation is accurate and b) we haven't heard anything from Google/Youtube. Alex himself admits that Google has banned his site from the Google News section. Could it simply be that Google sees his site as a pure commentary site and not News? I'm sure his stuff still shows up in other google search results. I went to his site, cut the first few sentences of a random article and pasted them in google. I got his site as the very first result. As for the Youtube thing, we have no idea what the facts are, just Alex's side.  |
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