Sandy Hook families want to seize Alex Jones' social media accounts

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/sandy-hook-families-want-seize-alex-jones-social-media-accounts-2024-06-13/

by anigbrowl • 2 years ago

42 40 2 years ago

The whole Alex Jones saga, more than anything else, makes it impossible for me to find any common ground with "the other side". For the life of me I can't understand how this became a political issue in the first place. And I'm not even talking about gun control - I'm talking about the horrific demonization (for profit) of a group of people whose only "crime" was that their six and seven year old kids were brutally slaughtered. I just can't fathom how anyone with a ounce of humanity can defend Alex Jones.

rlt2• 2 years ago

Framing it as “the other side” is part of the problem.

There are extremes on both sides, and Alex Jones, and the small faction of his followers who harassed the Sandy Hook parents, are about as extreme as it gets.

SonOfKyuss• 2 years ago

If you can’t see that one side has let the extremist faction become a mainstream voice of their movement, you’re part of the problem.

LastTrain• 2 years ago

OK. What is a similar extreme on the other side, that shares a similar market penetration that Alex Jones has?

sweeter• 2 years ago

"both sides bad" is a really brave, totally nuanced, take that no one ever has /s

zztop44• 2 years ago

He interviewed Trump in 2015 (by which time he’d been spreading Sandy Hook conspiracies for years), and even now post-bankruptcy he still interviews Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson and plenty of other fairly mainstream Republican figures.

There’s no one so shameless and harmful on the Left who is anywhere near as close to the mainstream of their political movement as Jones. Whereas the Right is absolutely littered with such figures.

I think that framing it as “two households, both alike in (in)dignity” is a much bigger problem.

reramuyc2• 2 years ago

I am not a fan of him but I feel they just want to destroy him, and frankly goes against cruel and unusual punishment!

hn_throwaway_992• 2 years ago

There are extremes on both sides

I agree with this. I may not 100% agree that the extremists on both sides are as extreme, but for the sake of argument I'll fully grant you this point.

My issue though, is that I don't feel that anyone can say with a straight face that the extremists on the left/liberal/Democratic side have has much influence and power with the party apparatus as on the right/conservative/Republican side. Sure, Alex Jones and his small faction of followers are about as extreme as it gets, but then I'd like to think you'd see Republican leaders up and down denouncing him and distancing themselves from him. Instead I see influential figures on the right like Steve Bannon, former chief strategist in the White House, defend him:

Republican strategist Steve Bannon suggested Jones and his supporters surround the building, requiring anyone attempting to kick him out to “come through a chain of patriots.” - https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2024/06/06/...

The reason I can't stomach "the other side" is not that they have insane grifter extremists like Jones. It's that so many other more folks on that side with real power somehow and for some reason defend Jones.

bun_terminator5• 2 years ago

I just think it's crazy that words can be illegal. Especially billions-of-dollars illegal. Regardless of what it's about

lores4• 2 years ago

Causing harm is illegal. Words are not magic.

dehrmann3• 2 years ago

Jones' X account, which has 2.3 million followers, is "no different than a customer list of any other liquidating business," the Sandy Hook families argued.

It's very different because it's a public outlet of free speech, and its only value to someone is to suppress his speech since any other use is basically libel.

n3storm2• 2 years ago

He based his speech agenda on revenue, not on truth or accuracy.

dehrmann3• 2 years ago

And he's being held responsible for that, but he still has an ongoing right to free speech. If he lies again (he will, especially now that he has nothing to lose), he'll be back in court.

civilitty• 2 years ago

Twitter is not a public outlet of free speech and you'd have to be an absolutely batshit lunatic to claim it is after everything that's happened with Musk's acquisition.

dragonwriter2• 2 years ago

It's very different because it's a public outlet of free speech, and its only value to someone is to suppress his speech since any other use is basically libel.

I'm not sure where you get the idea that "any other use is basically libel".

dehrmann3• 2 years ago

Posting something as @realalexjones, especially when it was his account in the past, is akin to saying "Alex Jones said X," which is fine if he actually said it. If he didn't, it's libel.

dools• 2 years ago

"has given up on trying to reach a settlement that would reduce the $1.5 billion that he owes to the relatives of 20 students and six staff members killed in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut"

1.5 billion dollars.

So fucking good.

throwaway9143• 2 years ago

Sounds fair to me. Let the families broadcast to his audience daily the harms of criminal speech, until they all unsubscribe. Or better yet, to promote their own products, so that they can recoup some of the $1.5B damage Alex Jones has done to them. Better that then giving this grifter another tweet to cause damage to the collective psyche of the world.

KevinMS• 2 years ago

looks like it has serious first amendment problems

Sandy Hook families want to seize Alex Jones' social media accounts

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