The internet is currently full with commentary about the removal from Facebook and You Tube and other social media platforms of Alex Jones and his Infowars channel. Many of these commentators seem to see this matter in a similar way to how I do, which is that although Infowars is not to our taste, it’s bad form and an affront to the whole concept of freedom of speech. This digital unpersoning of Alex Jones is also a piece of sledgehammer like evidence of how vaguely worded and capricious ‘hate speech’ policies and laws are used to silence opinions that certain groups may not like.

Before anybody gets the idea that I’m some sort of Alex Jones fanboy, here’s what I think about him and his output. Now Alex Jones the man may be a perfectly nice chap, he might be kind to animals and children and be a paragon of virtue in his private life. But I find his public persona, and it may well be a constructed persona and the content of Infowars, with the exception of the work of Paul Joseph Watson, risible, unreliable and cringe-making. Infowars makes stuff that panders to the very lowest common denominator of tin foil hatter. There is more intellectual shite in the output of Infowars than in an entire conference hall filled with anti vaccination lunatics. Jones’ output is often fact-lite and heavily editorialised and spun to punch the buttons of those who are all too easily triggered into believing any old conspiraloon wibble. I think out of the hundreds of posts that I’ve made on this site, I can recall only one occasion where I thought it appropriate to use Infowars as a source, as it is something that I am normally extremely loath to do . Unfortunately as fate would have it, it was Infowars that had a particular interview with someone that I could not get elsewhere (and oh how I searched in frustration for a site that would not have the taint of Infowars for this particular information).

As I said, I have little time for Alex Jones or his Infowars wibble. I personally find his product revolting and feel that those who believe his stuff are missing some of their critical faculties. But, and it’s a huge ‘but’, despite my dislike of the man’s output, the censoring of his product, for that is what is effectively happening, by big tech companies is seriously chilling. It is an extreme affront to the whole concept of freedom of speech. The censoring of Alex Jones is something that should worry everyone not just those who are fans or consumers of Alex Jones media products.

The use of ‘hate speech’ provisions in social media companies terms of service, may look to many who are unaware of the vagueness of these proscriptions, like a sensible way of dealing with the truly mad such as the Hitler worshippers who pop up on social media from time to time. This is also how these proscriptions have been sold by both government and Big Tech to the public. Unfortunately, as we are seeing not just in the Alex Jones case but in other cases, these rules and laws are used primarily to bully, harass and silence those voices that certain groups, such as the Left, Orthodox Islam and the cry-bullies of identity politics activists, do not like. The Alex Jones banning also, for the United States at least, has serious short term political implications as Jones and his social media channels were apparently a gathering place for Trump supporters and it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that Alex Jones may have been in part banned in order to strengthen the position of the Democrats in the forthcoming American Mid Term elections. If I was an American I would worry at what looks like an attempt by the Left to unjustly influence these elections.

I don’t have to like Alex Jones to be worried about his removal from social media. Speech isn’t free unless all voices have the opportunity to speak. I tend to side with Mr Ben Shapiro on the issue of freedom of speech which is that rather than speech restrictions as a way to deal with hateful speech, what is needed is more free speech. We cannot properly deal with Alex Jones and what he represents without hearing his ideas and being able to examine them in the open. This idea does not just apply to Alex Jones but to every other idea and ideology that is expressed. I believe that the social media companies should stop making Alex Jones a martyr by behaving like digital brownshirts and let him speak to his audience. The public, not a small coterie of leftist activists or for groups whose primary occupation is ‘being offended’, should decide whether Alex Jones is worth listening to or not. If we do not protect the speech of those who may well be the worst promoters of complete bollocks, then the right of all of us to speak freely is also threatened. I find that I am morally obliged to stand up for Mr Jones, not because of who he is or what he has said, but because of the way that he and his organisation have been treated.