Apple CEO Tim Cook received a “Courage Against Hate” award from the Anti-Defamation League yesterday for censoring online speech, including Infowars’ Alex Jones, whom Cook referred to as a “violent conspiracy theorist”.
“At Apple, we believe technology needs to have a clear point of view,” said Cook during his acceptance speech. “This is no time to get tied up in knots. We only have one message for those who seek to push hate, division, or violence: You have no place on our platforms. You have no home here. From the earliest days of iTunes to Apple Music today we have always prohibited music with a history of white supremacy. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do. And as we showed this year, we won’t give a platform to violent conspiracy theorists. Why? Because it’s the right things to do.”
As the Verge noted, Cook’s “violent conspiracy theorists” line “refers to Alex Jones’ Infowars,” which is a defamatory statement because neither Alex Jones or Infowars have ever advocated violence of any kind.
Apple CEO Tim Cook suggests it's "a
sin" to not ban certain people from social media and technology
platforms: "We only have one message for those who seek to push
hate, division, and violence: You have no place on our platforms.
You have no home here." pic.twitter.com/gO5qB6bBuO— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) December
4, 2018
See the censored video where Alex Jones breaks down why Tim Cook and the ChiComs see him as Public Enemy #1.
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt subsequently linked “hate speech” with criticism of immigration before praising Cook as “courageous” for banning Alex Jones.
“Apple was the first company to remove Alex Jones’s hateful anti-government conspiratorial rants from their platform, and other tech companies, as we know, followed their lead,” he said.
Cook also suggested it was “a sin” not to ban certain individuals from social media platforms.
However, as the past few months have vehemently proven, the banning of prominent conservatives by Big Tech giants has nothing to do with preventing “hate speech” and everything to do with silencing political opposition.
Journalist Laura Loomer was banned for criticizing the brutal practice of female genital mutilation, while conservative pundit and combat veteran Jesse Kelly was banned for no identifiable reason whatsoever.
Reaction to the award from free speech advocates was not so glowing.
“Republican politicians are too stupid to address the issue of censorship,” tweeted journalist Tim Pool. “Activists accuse everyone of being a white supremacist, even people who aren’t white. They have already banned people for criticizing politicians under the guise of “hate speech”.
Republican politicians are too stupid to address
the issue of censorship.Activists accuse everyone of being a white supremacist, even people
who aren't white.They have already banned people for criticizing politicians under
the guise of "hate speach" https://t.co/L6wx3HfWnX— Tim Pool (@Timcast) December
4, 2018
“Apple fired me for not being as woke as the rest of my team,” remarked Alejandrina Gonzalez. “My SJW manager would stalk my social media everyday and then email me commenting about what I said.”
Apple fired me for not being as woke as the rest
of my team ??
My SJW manager would stalk my social media everyday and then email
me commenting about what I said.— Alejandrina Gonzalez (@alejandrina_gr) December
4, 2018
“The question is who defines the ground rules- what constitutes “division?” Would the “resistance” & “persistence” count as division? Actually, isn’t the current state of @twitter conversation divisive?” remarked the Free Our Internet campaign.
The question is who defines the ground rules-
what constitutes “division?” Would the “resistance” & “persistence”
count as division? Actually, isn’t the current state of @twitter
conversation divisive? https://t.co/tudYFGIhXc— Free Our Internet (@Free_Our_Net) December
4, 2018
“That means it’s not a “platform” but a “publisher” & thus should be able to be sued for what it publishes,” said Mark Krikorian.
That means it's not a "platform"
but a "publisher" & thus should be able to be sued for
what it publishes. https://t.co/zKgf9Yr85A— Mark Krikorian (@MarkSKrikorian) December
4, 2018
“They understand how much power they have now and know the media won’t challenge them as long as they continue deplatforming their enemy,” observed Patrick Courrielche.
They understand how much power they have now
and know the media won’t challenge them as long as they continue deplatforming
their enemy. https://t.co/6vKAjTzF50— Patrick Courrielche ???? (@courrielche) December
4, 2018
“If you don’t understand why this is scary you need to research history more,” warned Ben Askren.
If you don't understand why this is scary
you need to research history more. https://t.co/VEOEjsUQYL— Ben Askren (@Benaskren) December
4, 2018
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor at large of Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.
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