Conservative Musings

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Showing posts with label You Tube. Show all posts

Monday, May 6, 2019

Is Free Speech Ending In The US?

Saturday, August 25, 2018

Leftist Attacks Increase Traffic!

Social Media Bans on Alex Jones Had a Consequence That Was Never Intended

BY KARA PENDLETON
AUGUST 24, 2018 AT 3:01PM

Love him or hate him, radio show host Alex Jones has an undeniable knack for marketing. Even with tech giants targeting his Infowars empire, Jones has turned lemons into lemonade, capitalizing on what some refer to as the “Streisand Effect.”

Earlier this month, multiple platforms removed Jones’ content. According to UPI, “Google’s YouTube removed Jones’ InfoWars channel Monday after taking other action in previous months. The move followed similar decisions by Apple and Spotify, which removed Jones’ podcasts shortly before Facebook removed Jones’ fan page and the one for his radio show InfoWars on Monday.”

Twitter did not follow suit, much to the outrage of some. CEO Jack Dorsey explained in a tweet thread that Jones had not violated any rules that would allow for such a move:

Anyone, tech giants included, who thought what appeared to be a coordinated effort to silence Jones would work, is in for a huge disappointment. According to data from website traffic statistics tracking site Alexa, Infowars is thriving. In fact, it is continuing to improve.

Back in October 2017, Infowars had a global rank of 3136. Its ranking in the United States was 1001.

Very Serious Account@realveryserious

· Dec 29, 2017

Replying to @Alex__Katz

I was wondering the same thing. If their numbers are anything like Alex jones claims they'd be number 1 right? Maybe they didn't count them as conservative for some reason

PeterNorway@classiclib3ral

Alexa doesn't have perfect data but Infowars should definitely have made it into that list. I think they just weren't included as one of the "conservative news sites" pic.twitter.com/NOWDQnQEPj

10:38 PM - Dec 29, 2017

4

See PeterNorway's other Tweets

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Just days after the massive hit from social media platforms in early August 2018, Infowars’ global rating jumped to 3,513 after experiencing a major drop off in July. In the United States, its rating was even better than it had been in October, at 699:

Today, August 24, 2018, the numbers are even better. The global ranking for Infowars is 3167. And the U.S ranking is 591, which is significantly better than it was in October:

The website traffic statistics for Infowars, according to Alexa.

(Screenshot/Alexa)

According to The Economist, when singer and actress Barbra Streisand sued in 2013 to have photos of her Malibu home removed from the California Coastal Records Project archives, she inadvertently gave birth to the “Streisand Effect.” Essentially, “trying to hide something makes it more visible.”

Her action drove scores of people to seek out the images, creating the opposite effect of what she wanted. The efforts of the tech giants to keep the public away from Jones and his content did the same thing. They created a “Streisand Effect” for Jones.

Jones has been capitalizing on the attacks, and it has been paying off for the “conspiracy theorist” who already regularly opines on the efforts of the global elite to shut down him and others who have similar views. The appearance of a coordinated attack on Jones only added to the outrage of some who are against the global elite.

Should Alex Jones and Inforwars have been deplatformed?

But he is not alone in driving traffic to his site. Free speech advocates have also been aiding his cause, by defending his right to speak and have his platform, even if they personally disagree with him.

One example comes from television show host Bill Maher, who told his audience, “If you’re a liberal, you’re supposed to be for free speech.” He added, “That’s free speech for the speech you hate. That’s what free speech means.”

Just as with the backfiring of attacks on the NRA drove new members to join, new support for Jones has materialized, some just on principle, alone. For some, the more the left attacks a thing, the more they will push back, even if they weren’t originally customers or supporters:

Chick-fil-A, the NRA and Alex Jones are just a few of the examples the left has yet to learn from. As long as they continue to attack freedom, there will always be those among us pushing back to preserve it.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Joseph Farah's Plea Is EVERY Free Thinking Americans Plea.

First, the came for Alex Jones ...

The pretense and subtlety are over, ‘Digital Cartel’ now overtly attacking ‘offensive’ voices

By Joseph Farah

I’ve been warning everyone who would listen about the greatest threat to freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion in America today.

It’s not government.

Instead, the overt attack on America’s First Amendment comes from the corporate behemoth internet gatekeepers who are in ideological lockstep with each other – from Google to YouTube to Facebook to Twitter to Apple to Amazon.

This week, YouTube and Facebook followed Apple’s lead in banishing Alex Jones, the iconic, high-energy voice that rails against globalism and the Deep State daily on radio, podcasts and his own Infowars TV show. He was an easy target and a predictable one – a controversial figure, without doubt, and a high-profile one with a sizable following.

Not everyone wants to defend Alex Jones – certainly not everything he says.

Yet, the First Amendment wasn’t crafted by America’s founding geniuses to protect tepid, non-controversial speech. It was crafted to protect just this kind of fiery dialogue – the kind that offendssome people, some sensibilities. Alex Jones is a good choice to start the censorship juggernaut rolling if you think like the Southern Poverty Law Center. And one thing Apple, Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon all have in common is their love of, reverence for, and partnerships with this extremist band of smear merchants who never met anyone right of center that they didn’t label a “hater,” a “fascist,” a “Nazi” or a “racist” – including, of course, the current president of the United States.

So, first the Digital Cartel came for Alex Jones.

Who will be next? I don’t know, but I don’t plan to find myself in the position in which Martin Niemöller found himself in Nazi Germany. He’s most famous for this prescient quotation: “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out – Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out – Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.”

I’m going to defend Alex Jones’ right to say what he wants – even if I sometimes, or even often, find myself in disagreement with him. And I’m going to condemn this cabal of bloated mega-corporations imposing their ideology on America’s most vital public square – the digital media.

Maybe you say, “Well, Farah, don’t these corporations have the absolute right to approve and disapprove of the viewpoints they carry – just like you do?” The answer may be surprising: No, they don’t. None of these conglomerates are publishers, content producers, part of the “press.” They are more akin to “utilities” – like the telephone companies of old, or the electricity producers who have a public obligation to be fair and neutral in offering the services they provide to all, without regard to race, religion and ideology. They don’t have to like Alex Jones. They don’t have to listen to Alex Jones. But if they are going to hold these privileged positions of making lots of money by distributing all manner of content, data and information to the public, they dare not think of themselves as ideological gatekeepers against "offensive" political speech. And they better not designate the disgraced partisan hacks of the SPLC as their content cops, which is precisely what they have done – all of them!

I know I sound like a broken record on this theme, but I’m going to keep pounding on it until the public catches on to the threat these trillion-dollar monopolies pose to America’s precious institutions of free speech, the free press and freedom of religion. We need congressional hearings. We need action in Washington. We need President Trump to recognize who the biggest purveyors of fake news really are. It’s not just CNN and the Huffington Post. It’s their distribution arms – Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Apple and Amazon – the Digital Cartel.

It's time to throw down the gauntlet, draw a marker in the sand, file class-action lawsuits, summon our leaders to action.

Are we going to let this cabal render the First Amendment null and void?

I’ve been telling you how they have attacked WND relentlessly and ruthlessly through its politically and religiously discriminatory algorithms. I’ve told you how they have been coming after the independent media, especially since the 2016 election that so disappointed all of them.

Do you really want to talk about supposed Russian interference in our free society when this powerful monolithic cartel is setting the rules of debate for Americans out in plain sight – openly censoring voices they don’t like while systematically elevating those they do like? What a sick joke!

As for me, I will defend the voices of dissent, and even controversy, as long as I have a soapbox upon which to stand. I know they are coming after me and the world's first independent online news company, which I founded 21 years ago. Once again, I ask you to stand with me, or else find yourself living in a country you won’t long recognize. No privacy. No freedom.

Please support us, or risk finding yourself living in a very different and scary version of America soon.

Help us to raise a much-needed additional $100,000 through August – our biggest crisis period yet, as we battle for survival against the cartel. We’re already nearly 20 percent of the way there, thanks to many of you. You may not be able to give $1,000 or even $100. But everyone who understands the stakes can contribute $10 or even $3.

Monday, July 6, 2015

Al Jazeera Having Hard Time Attracting American Views, Sticks Their Finger In Their Eye!

FILE - In this July 4, 2015 file photo, fireworks explode behind a United States flag during a Fourth of July celebration at State Fair Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J. A video posted on an Al Jazeera YouTube channel over the Fourth of July weekend mocks Americans for dubious "achievements" in obesity, pornography production and gun ownership. The satirical item, under two minutes long, was produced out of San Francisco by a digital arm of the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news network. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

By DAVID BAUDER - AP Television Writer

Monday, July 6th 2015, 4:06 pm EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — A video posted on an Al Jazeera YouTube channel over the Fourth of July weekend mocks Americans for dubious "achievements" in obesity, pornography production and gun ownership.

The satirical item, under two minutes long, was produced out of San Francisco by a digital arm of the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news network. It has not been seen on television, including on the beleaguered Al Jazeera America channel.

Debuting on the weekend set aside for celebrating the birth of the U.S., the video is entitled "Americans Show Why USA is the #1 Country in the World." It begins with a man who explains that most people probably know that Americans lead the world in Olympic medals won, Nobel laureates and billionaires.

Then it goes on to list other benchmarks, including the large number of people imprisoned and the amount of guns owned. The U.S. also has a leading percentage of obese people, one man said.

"A third of us can't even see our own toes," he said.

A man holding red, white and blue balloons claims that Americans make 89 percent of the world's pornography. "That makes porn as American as church on Sunday," the man said.

At its end, a man in a stars-and-stripes hat said that "if anybody ever tells you that American is not that great, just say, 'God bless the country with the most deaths by lawnmowers.'" A guitar plays "America the Beautiful" in the background.

The Al Jazeera Plus network began in 2013, and is described on its website as a "global news community for the connected generation." The outfit says that its goal is to "highlight human struggles and achievements, empower impassioned voices and challenge the status quo."

A spokeswoman for Al Jazeera America said that the channel is editorially distinct from the television network.

"One of the things that defines America is free speech," said Jocelyn Austin, network spokeswoman. "The Americans in San Francisco who made this July Fourth video are entitled to speak about their country. Similar videos have been done in this style about issues in other countries, and the network airs all opinions without necessarily endorsing them."

By mid-afternoon on Monday, the video had been seen more than 157,000 times, according to the Al Jazeera Plus web site. Of 30 videos displayed on the web site, only two others had as many as 10,000 views.

The Al Jazeera America television network has had trouble getting a foothold in this country, and was targeted in lawsuits filed by former employees this spring that alleged the network and its management were biased against non-Arabs both on the air and in how it treated employees. The network has called the allegations unfounded.

___

Friday, December 26, 2014

Americans Spit In The Eye Of North Korea. "The Interview" Will End Up Being A Blockbuster.

Sony Thanks Moviegoers for $1 Million 'The Interview' Opening

Friday, 26 Dec 2014 12:47 PM

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On the heels of a $1 million-plus Christmas Day launch for "The Interview," Sony Pictures' top distribution executive has thanked moviegoers for their support of the controversy-laden political comedy. "Considering the incredibly challenging circumstances, we are extremely grateful to the people all over the country who came out to experience 'The Interview' on the first day of its unconventional release," said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for Sony Pictures, in a statement Friday morning.
"The audience reaction was fantastic -- the limited release, in under 10% of the amount of theaters originally planned, featured numerous sell-outs and a first-day gross over $1 million."

"The Interview" finished in 15th place for Christmas Day and played at 331 independent theaters in the U.S., following more than a month of intensive news coverage -- starting with a massive cyber-attack on Sony, a Dec. 16 threat by hackers to launch a 9/11 style attack on theaters showing the movie, the studio's decision to withdraw the movie on Dec. 17 and an about-face six days later.
The opening day numbers for "The Interview" were impressive in light of Sony launching a VOD release on Wednesday morning via YouTube, Google Play, Microsoft's Xbox Video and its own http://www.seetheinterview.com site. Major chains such as AMC, Regal and Carmike are refusing to book "The Interview" due to the VOD release.
As a result, "The Interview" wound up playing in smaller venues and its per screen average for the day came in around $3,000. By comparison, Disney's "Into the Woods" took in about double that per-screen total as the musical played particularly well in big-city multiplexes.
Overall Christmas Day business was better than expected on three titles -- Universal's "Unbroken" with $15.6 million at 3,131 sites; Disney's "Into the Woods" with $15.1 million at 2,440; and New Line-MGM's "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" with $13.6 million at 3,875.

All three are likely to wind up with at least $40 million each for the four-day Christmas weekend.
Angelina Jolie's war drama "Unbroken" notched the third highest Christmas Day opening in history and the highest Thursday Christmas Day opening.