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PayPal is the latest company to ban InfoWars
InfoWars has been issued another ban, this time from PayPal. The company notified InfoWars on Thursday that it would no longer process the site's store transactions, giving InfoWars 10 days to find a new processor. PayPal said the site had violated its "acceptable use policy," according to InfoWars. The payment company confirmed the move to The Verge. "Our values are the foundation for the decision we made this week," said a spokesperson. "We undertook an extensive review of the InfoWars sites, and found instances that promoted hate or discriminatory intolerance against certain communities and religions, which run counter to our core value of inclusion."
Twitter suspends more accounts for 'coordinated manipulation'
Twitter's long been under fire for its approach to bots and extremist accounts, but now it appears to be taking a more proactive stance towards its community guidelines. Last week it suspended 284 accounts for engaging in what it called "coordinated manipulation," now it's gotten rid of a further 486.
Tumblr revamps its rules to clamp down on hate and violence
If Alex Jones thought he could catch a break after steering his followers to Tumblr... well, he might not want to get too comfortable. Tumblr (owned by our parent brand Oath) is revamping its Community Guidelines with stricter policies, most notably against hate speech and violence. It's starting by dropping "gray area" statements from its anti-hate policy that implied users should only report hate speech when it's "especially heinous." It wants users to bring up any instance where Tumblr users promote hate or violence, whether it targets race, religion, gender identity or other factors.
Facebook bans Myanmar military officials following damning UN report
Facebook is taking action to halt the spread of hate speech and misinformation in Myanmar, banning Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the Myawady military TV network and other people and groups. It said that international experts, working with the UN Human Rights Council, "found evidence that many of these individuals and organizations committed or enabled serious human rights abuses in the country." In total, it removed 18 Facebook accounts, 52 pages and one Instagram account.
Facebook is investigating its role in Myanmar violence
Facebook has hired an outside company to look into its role in spreading hate speech and enabling ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, Vice News reports. The human rights audit is being conducted by San Francisco-based Business for Social Responsibility and was reportedly launched in recent months. A Facebook source confirmed the audit to Vice News.
Twitter bans far-right group Proud Boys ahead of Washington rally
Just because Twitter is reluctant to take action against some of its more malicious users doesn't mean it isn't cracking down against others. Twitter has confirmed to BuzzFeed News that it banned the accounts of the far-right group Proud Boys for reportedly breaking its rules prohibiting "violent extremist groups." The social network shut down the group's main account, its satellite accounts and that of its founder Gavin McInnes. While the company didn't specify what prompted the move, it came just after a violent August 4th protest in Portland, Oregon, and just ahead of the extreme right-wing Washington, DC rally on August 12th.
Anne Frank Center asks Facebook to remove Holocaust denial pages
The Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect is calling out Facebook for allowing Holocaust denial pages on its site. And the center is doing so through a petition in which it's requesting Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg take them down. "When these pages spread lies and untruths, it is veiled hatred and anti-semitism designed to cast doubt on facts," the center says in the Change.org petition. "There is a difference between providing a platform for free expression and knowingly spreading false information and lies. Denying the Holocaust causes harm."
Microsoft threatened to unplug Gab over anti-Semitic posts
After Milo Yiannopoulos got banned from Twitter, he and his followers moved to Gab, a social network priding itself on free speech that has become popular with conservatives and the alt-right. But it appears the platform's hosting provider Microsoft Azure isn't okay with the most extreme views appearing on Gab. Today, the tech giant gave the site two days to pull two posts with anti-Semitic content or it would stop serving it, which could have taken Gab down for weeks or months. They were soon deleted by the individual who made the posts: Far-right Senate candidate Patrick Little.
InfoWars fans flock to apps following recent bans
While a number of tech companies have purged their sites of Alex Jones podcasts and accounts over the last couple of days, not all InfoWars-related content has been taken down. And what's still available continues to attract interest. CNBC reports today that the InfoWars app, which is still available through the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, is being downloaded quite a bit, taking the fourth spot in Apple's chart of top free news-related apps. As of writing, the app was number 12 in Google's chart of top free news and magazine apps.
Twitter: InfoWars isn't currently violating our policies
After YouTube pulled several of Alex Jones' videos two weeks ago for violating its hate speech policies, more and more services similarly removed content uploaded by him and his InfoWars network, culminating today in bans on Facebook and Apple's audio platforms. But amid the top media providers and social networks, one was notably silent: Twitter. As of today, the company's official position remains that Jones, InfoWars and associated accounts are not currently violating its rules, a Twitter spokesperson told Engadget.
YouTube removes Alex Jones’ official channel for violating guidelines
YouTube is the latest service to remove Alex Jones' content, which follows Facebook, Apple and Spotify yanking InfoWars pages and podcasts over the last day or so. Engadget has confirmed that YouTube has taken down the verified Alex Jones Channel (which had more than 2.4 million subscribers) for violating community guidelines, and has contacted YouTube for additional details.
Facebook bans Alex Jones and InfoWars pages
Facebook has removed four pages from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, saying that the channels "repeatedly" violated its hate speech and bullying policies. Last week, Facebook removed four videos from the channels and suspended the controversial radio personality for 30 days. However, today it wrote that since the earlier action didn't seem to deter Jones, it was taking stronger measures.
Stitcher removes Alex Jones’ podcast from its platform
While Facebook, YouTube and Spotify have taken down a handful of videos and podcast episodes from Alex Jones' pages, Stitcher has now gone a step further, removing his entire podcast from its platform. Last night on Twitter, the company said that it had reviewed Jones' podcasts and "found he has, on multiple occasions, harassed or allowed harassment of private individuals and organizations." Stitcher also noted that Jones' targeted harassment -- which has been directed towards parents of Sandy Hook victims and students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, among others -- has led his listeners "to engage in similar harassment and other damaging activity." Because of these actions, it said it would remove Jones' podcasts from the Stitcher platform.
Spotify has taken down multiple episodes of Alex Jones’ podcast
Spotify has taken down a number of episodes of Alex Jones' podcast for violating its hate speech policy. First noted by New York Times reporter Ben Sisario, the move follows similar actions taken by Facebook and YouTube. "We take reports of hate content seriously and review any podcast episode or song that is flagged by our community," a spokesperson told Engadget. "Spotify can confirm it has removed specific episodes of 'The Alex Jones Show' podcast for violating our hate content policy."
YouTube removes multiple Alex Jones videos for hate speech
YouTube has taken down four videos from Alex Jones' channel, The Verge reports, and has issued the channel a strike. When a channel is found to be in violation of YouTube's community guidelines, the violating content is removed and the channel is given a strike. If a channel gets three strikes within three months, it's terminated by YouTube. The Verge's sources say that of the four videos removed by YouTube, two featured hate speech against Muslims, one included hate speech against transgender people and another titled "How to prevent liberalism" featured Jones mocking a child who had been pushed down by an adult man.
Mark Zuckerberg: CEO, billionaire, troll
We imagine the scene at Facebook right now is like Kim Jong-il's funeral. Employees weeping in hallways, dripping anguished snot onto keyboards, beating their chests with unsold Facebook phones in an orgy of anguish at the injustice of media coverage regarding Mark Zuckerberg's unprompted defense this week of giving Holocaust deniers a voice on the platform. But I think we've finally figured out what's going on at Facebook after all.
Twitter acquires online safety company to bolster anti-abuse efforts
Twitter has repeatedly come under fire for not doing enough to stop hate speech, allowing outside groups to sow political discord and failing to limit the spread of misinformation. To address these issues, the company announced earlier this year that it was looking for outside experts to help in its effort to promote healthy, open and civil conversations on its platform. Now, it's acquiring a company that might be able to boost those efforts internally.
Leaked Facebook documents show its shifting hate speech policies
Over the last year or so, Facebook's public statements have reflected the ongoing process of its moderation policies, both when it comes to election fraud and the even pricklier issue of hate speech. Now, beyond its publicly available Community Standards and various apologies, Motherboard has published internal documents showing what it's actually policing, and how that has changed over time.
Facebook has already removed 583 million fake accounts this year
Last month, Facebook published its internal community enforcement guidelines for the first time and today, the company has provided some numbers to show what that enforcement really looks like. In a new report that will be published quarterly, Facebook breaks down its enforcement efforts across six main areas -- graphic violence, adult nudity and sexual activity, terrorist propaganda, hate speech, spam and fake accounts. The report details how much of that content was seen by Facebook users, how much of it was removed and how much of it was taken down before any Facebook users reported it.
Facebook: AI will protect you
Artificial intelligence is a key part of everything Facebook does, from chatbots in Messenger to powering the personalized recommendations you get on apps like Instagram. But, as great as the technology is to create new and deeper experiences for users, Facebook says the most important role of AI lies in keeping its community safe. Today at F8, the company's chief technology officer, Mike Schroepfer, highlighted how valuable the tech has become to combating abuse on its platform, including hate speech, bullying and terrorist content. Schroepfer pointed to stats Facebook revealed last month that showed that its AI tools removed almost two million pieces of terrorist propaganda, with 99 percent of those being spotted before a human even reported them.
