Facebook’s handling of Alex Jones is a microcosm of its content policy problem

Good analysis from TechCrunch:

“Unfortunately for Facebook, it’s yet another lose-lose situation of its own making. During its intense, extended growth spurt, Facebook allowed all kinds of potentially controversial and dangerous content to flourish for years. Now, when the company abruptly cracks down on accounts that violate its longstanding policies forbidding hate speech, divisive figures like Alex Jones can cry censorship, roiling hundreds of thousands of followers in the process.

Like other tech companies, Facebook is now paying mightily for the worry-free years it enjoyed before coming under intense scrutiny for the toxic side effects of all that growth.”

I'm not going to get into the whole issue of whether the image is anti-Semitic or not, but it just looks really grotesque to me, something that was clearly intended to bait clueless, vulnerable people and push their tribal and FUD-based buttons. The kind of thing you'd make to shill for top karma in a "/conspiracy/" net-community, or use as the custom thumbnail for a "trending and recommended for you, zillions of views!" YT video.

I despise Facebook and never use it, but I don’t buy this. All of the fringe nuts, hatemongers and free speech absolutists combined are a drop in their DAU bucket. Most people don’t care if anti-vaxxers, Nazis, or the extremes of civil libertarianism dislike this. Facebook doesn’t need to optimize for “please everyone” they need to spin PR in their favor, and they need to grow internationally. Stomping on someone like Alex Jones won’t even register outside of a handful of people in this country and maybe Canada.