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Alex Jones is a fringe lunatic who peddles hate, anger, conspiracy, and illogical statements. I’m glad people like him are banned. Some would argue that some on the left (antifa) also are hate groups. Some say that tech is censoring conservatism. With that I disagree. Breitbart is alive and well, as is daily wire, Fox News, and many other right wing outlets. However they don’t (overall) peddle hate, anger, and conspiracy to the levels of Alex Jones. I don’t see Steve Bannon or Ben Shapiro wearing reptilian masks and going on and about gay frogs.

Exactly. There’s a difference between ideology and outright lies and hate speech.
 
Well, I hate to break it to you Tim, but understand that I was raised to be independent, so I don't need a nanny protecting me or my children. You can call it what you want, but at the end of the day its still censorship.

Now if Tim really believes this, then just provide a switch to select curated or not and see how many want curated versus not censored. I'll bet a significant portion will select no censorship. But no, that'll never happen because it will expose the political bias that Tim denies.

I think adding a button like that is an excellent idea. Removal, I agree, is censorship, which I don't typically side with. But....a quote I've heard as of late, that I happen to like is: The first amendment guarantees your freedom of speech.....but it does not guarantee defense of any consequences that come from your speech. In the age of Social Media / Broadband / 24 hour News Cycle....people that haven't understood that better do so quickly. Better people have been buried publicly for less. You better have your facts behind you to back your argument, or your credibility will circle the drain so fast it isn't funny. I know how ugly that can be interpreted...but it's true. It also doesn't help Alex Jones that he is the political equivalent of the WWE. He is sheer entertainment.

I also think the explanation of his removal was doublespeak, and that Alex Jones simply got quite unpopular, very quickly, on many platforms due to him spouting nonsense. That said, the National Enquirer has been making things up for years.

Back to Alex Jones however....no matter what political stance he has: He has admitted publicly, in court, that his radio personality is in fact a personality and a means of making money, and that his words are that of a character. This came up during a child custody hearing in which the mother was trying to gain full custody based on Alex's sanity being questioned due to his public statements / broadcasts.

That says it for me: Entertainment, with a few partial facts sprinkled on top to make it at least plausible. It's kinda like Rush Limbaugh, or CNN.....manipulated pieces of fact used to spout of editorial type stories that masquerade as journalism.

I don't like the precedent that banning him starts, especially on the level of an Apple, a Twitter, etc. This guy also should not be made a broadcast martyr either.
 
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Talk is cheap Timmy and you're so full of **** it's nauseating. When you stop taking kickbacks from Google, a company you take every opportunity to defame for their privacy, to have them be the default for Safari then come talk about how much you value privacy. Til then stuff it
 
Yeah this is all a liberal conspiracy. Everything I see, all the time. All fabricated by communists. There are no far right podcasts in the... oh wait, there they are. All of them but one.

The point at which the raving lunatic Jones started urging his listeners to take up arms with which to attack other Americans on account of their political party affiliation, he went beyond shouting fire in a crowded building. Apple doesn’t owe him anything, much less a platform on their private service.

Still happy you guys eliminated the Equal Time reg to kill off and replace rigorous journalism with dedicated outlets of political extremism? Thirty years of this worsening mess goes right back to that stroke of genius. Good job.
 
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So if a man was standing outside of a school zone cussing out little kids as they go by, is your answer to just don't listen to them? What if that sick behavior spawns more useful idiots to do the same because it is now going viral. Just ignore it? Sometimes you have to step up and do something on platforms and territory you own to keep it attractive for all involved.

That isn't even remotely analogous.

A school kid walking to school would have no choice but to hear the obscenities being shouted in public.
Here on the other handle, you can simply not listen to his podcast or download his app.
 
Wonder if the people defending Alex Jones’ right to not be censored would have the same opinion of Hitler. Blocking hate speech and lies is NOT censorship. It’s called being a decent human being leading a decent company.

Edit: to those arguing censorship: would you say stopping someone from screaming fire or yelling at kids is “censorship”. Hate speech is NOT protected speech. Anyone that advocates for violence will have no sympathy from me.
 
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Wonder if the people defending Alex Jones’ right to not be censored would have the same opinion of Hitler. Blocking hate speech and lies is NOT censorship. It’s called being a decent human being leading a decent company.
I'll defend anyone's right to free speech and that includes white supremecists, BLM, Skinheads and any other group. You can't have free speech for one and not for others. You CAN counter hate speech.

And to your point, blocking hate speech IS censorship regardless if you don't believe it is.
 
Well, I hate to break it to you Tim, but understand that I was raised to be independent, so I don't need a nanny protecting me or my children. You can call it what you want, but at the end of the day its still censorship.

Now if Tim really believes this, then just provide a switch to select curated or not and see how many want curated versus not censored. I'll bet a significant portion will select no censorship. But no, that'll never happen because it will expose the political bias that Tim denies.
Err, you already have a choice. The walled garden (curate) vs the Internet (non-curated). Seriously, you can fire up Safari and do whatever you want on the internet. Don't tell me you don't know what the internet is.
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Talk is cheap Timmy and you're so full of **** it's nauseating. When you stop taking kickbacks from Google, a company you take every opportunity to defame for their privacy, to have them be the default for Safari then come talk about how much you value privacy. Til then stuff it
Then show it to him by not using all Apple products. Plain and simple.
 
People aren't worried about the encryption but the government data requests. Unless I'm mistaken, businesses in China can only use servers in China, so because of that the Chinese servers will be audited way more. I don't know if the location of the data by itself has any effect on its chance of being audited.
 
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Cook said that the removal of the Infowars show from Apple podcasts is an example of the importance of human curation.

"Curation". The double-speak is real.

Cook also said that Apple does not lean one way or the other politically, and it wasn't taking a political stance removing Jones' offensive content.

Lie. Apple donated $1 million to the Democrat front-group SPLC under the guise of "stopping hate". And another $1 million to the Democrat front-group ADL. The same ADL which declared Pepe "a hate symbol" when it became so effectively employed against leftism.

$1 million to an organization which declared a cartoon frog -- used as "feels good man" / "feels bad man" in pictures and chat clients for years, used by celebrities for years, and used in other fine contexts for years -- as "hate speech" when it triggered the Shillary supporters too hard.
 
I'll defend anyone's right to free speech and that includes white supremecists, BLM, Skinheads and any other group. You can't have free speech for one and not for others. You CAN counter hate speech.

And to your point, blocking hate speech IS censorship regardless if you don't believe it is.
To many, their speech is "free" speech while whoever disagrees with them is not free speech.
 
Alex Jones is a fringe lunatic who peddles hate, anger, conspiracy, and illogical statements. I’m glad people like him are banned. Some would argue that some on the left (antifa) also are hate groups. Some say that tech is censoring conservatism. With that I disagree. Breitbart is alive and well, as is daily wire, Fox News, and many other right wing outlets. However they don’t (overall) peddle hate, anger, and conspiracy to the levels of Alex Jones. I don’t see Steve Bannon or Ben Shapiro wearing reptilian masks and going on and about gay frogs.

Which is cute and all, but when Apple donates millions to the SPLC, with a thinly disguised history of bigotry and questionable operations, it makes Tim Cook into a big fat hypocrite.

He overreacted in Charlottesville and before thinking and waiting for the dust to settle, threw this money (funds belonging to a publicly traded corporation) at a group of highly partisan left activists. I’m guessing there’s a good chance Cook has a personal connection with someone at the SPLC, and this tragedy became a convenient way to get his political activist friends paid.

If he wants to help people and play non-partisan, frankly he needs to get his head out of Democrat (or Republican) groups, read more, and get better political advisors. Cook is the guy who started hardcore political lobbying at Apple, and predictably lobbying always gets partisan.

On the bright side, he’s done great managing Steve’s company in the years since. Now would be the perfect time for Cook to retire and ride off into the sunset.
 
Blocking Alex Jones is not cool at all. I am no fan of InfoWars whatsoever, he's a tool, but censorship is the worst. If you don't like him, don't listen, but the option should still be there. Apple shouldn't tell you whats good to listen to and what's bad to listen to. Let each person have that be their own decision to make.
 
Wonder if the people defending Alex Jones’ right to not be censored would have the same opinion of Hitler. Blocking hate speech and lies is NOT censorship. It’s called being a decent human being leading a decent company.
Blocking hate speech is censorship. But I don't blame Apple for banning him because Apple has their free speech too. I mean, they also banned porn.

Also, lies can sometimes be crimes, like in the cases of slander that Alex Jones could some day be found guilty of.
 
Wonder if the people defending Alex Jones’ right to not be censored would have the same opinion of Hitler. Blocking hate speech and lies is NOT censorship. It’s called being a decent human being leading a decent company.
Be careful. Some of his followers identify as nazi so the answer might not be one you like.
 
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I’m glad people like him are banned. Some would argue that some on the left (antifa) also are hate groups.
Antifa is a terrorist group and deserves to be banned everywhere it can be reasonably shown that they're recruiting people for their violent and speech-suppressing activities, which they even state as their mission.
 
Blocking Alex Jones is not cool at all. I am no fan of InfoWars whatsoever, he's a tool, but censorship is the worst. If you don't like him, don't listen, but the option should still be there. Apple shouldn't tell you whats good to listen to and what's bad to listen to. Let each person have that be their own decision to make.
Apple also has freedom of speech and if that means getting rid of Alex Jones, so be it. Apple has no obligation to provide a platform for him. If you don't like that, I'm sure there's an apk of the info wars app floating for android somewhere.
 
To say that apple doesn’t lean one way or the other politically is a total lie.
From what I have both observed and read, I would say that Apple is "less" political than other big tech companies but that is not the same thing as being "non" political. I have not seen anything out of Apple that approaches the level of political bias at Google.
 
Apple also has freedom of speech and if that means getting rid of Alex Jones, so be it. Apple has no obligation to provide a platform for him. If you don't like that, I'm sure there's an apk of the info wars app floating for android somewhere.
Now I agree with this. The first amendment applies to the government, not to companies like Apple. There is still something called the internet where there’s no restrictions.

Thus I am not understanding those who are so concerned they cannot get adult-rated materials from the App Store. Seriously, there’s the freaking internet browser called safari, use that.
 
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Alex Jones is a fringe lunatic who peddles hate, anger, conspiracy, and illogical statements. I’m glad people like him are banned. Some would argue that some on the left (antifa) also are hate groups. Some say that tech is censoring conservatism. With that I disagree. Breitbart is alive and well, as is daily wire, Fox News, and many other right wing outlets. However they don’t (overall) peddle hate, anger, and conspiracy to the levels of Alex Jones. I don’t see Steve Bannon or Ben Shapiro wearing reptilian masks and going on and about gay frogs.
Reptilian masks? Gay frogs? Wait, what? What have I been missing?:eek:

That sounds like that kind of stuff I would have seen a couple of years ago when I used an HTC 10 as my daily driver for awhile. Their default news app was mostly promoting very tabloidy stuff. A lot of it was very traumatic dehumanizing articles that dwelled on the most reprehensible side of humanity, like cases of extreme child and animal torture.

I was actually glad to go back to iPhone and curated news if that barrage of brutality and weirdness was the alternative.

But I admit sometimes I do miss the really weird (non violent) stuff, like the nonstop parade of Nibiru articles. Clearly, if I don’t know about reptilian masks and gay frogs I’ve been missing something interesting.

I don’t really know what Alex Jones said or did to get himself banned as he did. I heard a huge part was what he has been saying about Sandy Hook. If he’s been promoting Sandy Hook denials, then I suppose that would do it.

I understand what a false flag is, but people have to understand that it’s easy to deny something if you’re just reading or hearing about it over the internet.

For example lately in my web meanderings, I’ve seen people vehemently deny now that anyone actually died in 9-11. They’re either too young to remember it or too geographically remote from it. My husband’s friend lost a brother in it and my husband lost a childhood friend. Hearing people claim it was some elaborate hoax and nobody died just astounds me. It’s incredibly offensive to those of us who know the truth that yes, real people actually died. Everyone can debate all they like about how and why, but don’t deny that truth that people died. What’s more, it’s a horrific distortion of history.

I can’t imagine how the Sandy Hook families must feel hearing their painful loss called some kind of hoax and that they’re all actors. Jeez. :confused:

I don’t care much for censorship but I can see why Tim Cook, being as conscious of Apple’s image as he is, would be concerned about Apple allowing something that false and hurtful to proliferate and morph into something dangerous to innocent people.
 
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Well, I hate to break it to you Tim, but understand that I was raised to be independent, so I don't need a nanny protecting me or my children. You can call it what you want, but at the end of the day its still censorship.

Now if Tim really believes this, then just provide a switch to select curated or not and see how many want curated versus not censored. I'll bet a significant portion will select no censorship. But no, that'll never happen because it will expose the political bias that Tim denies.

I agree, if anything just let the users choose. Let people make their own decisions.
 
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