Jones, a right-wing provocateur, suddenly found himself banned from most major social platforms last week, after years in which he was free to use them to promulgate a variety of false claims. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP, File) ( Jay Janner / Austin American-Statesman )Twitter, which one of its executives once called the “free speech wing of the free speech party,” remains a lonely holdout on Jones. It’s particularly difficult for huge tech companies to balance public good and free speech with the need to protect their users from harassment, abuse, fake news and manipulation. “But it’s difficult to come up with a principle to say why Alex Jones and not others would be removed.” While most companies have policies against “hate speech,” defining what constitutes hate speech can be difficult, he added. One country’s free speech is another country’s hate speech, punishable by jail time.

Source: thestar August 11, 2018 00:56 UTC