Freedom of speech is a badly misunderstood concept. Here’s why Christians must get this right.
Silicon Valley has never had the friendliest relationship with conservatives. Last year, Google fired James Damore for circulating a memo about the differences between men and women. Before that, Brendan Eich was forced out of Mozilla for donating to California’s traditional marriage campaign.
Now, tech giants are flexing their muscles by going after conspiracy theorist and libertarian shock-jock, Alex Jones. Recently, Apple permanently removed Jones from its mobile app store, citing violations of its policy against objectionable content. He was kicked off Twitter after the company says he repeatedly broke its rules against abuse and harassment. Facebook and Google recently removed Jones’ content from their platforms, as well.
Now, the immediate reaction of many conservatives and even some Christians to this news has been to defend Jones. Republican senator and former presidential candidate Ted Cruz asked, “Who made Facebook the arbiter of political speech?” Jonah Goldberg at National Review called the move a “glimpse at the future in which big internet silences dissident voices on the right.” Jones himself has accused Silicon Valley of “censoring” him, and many of his fans have called this a violation of free speech.
Now, no one should listen to Alex Jones on social media or anywhere else – let me just say that. His is a brand of conspiracy theories and outright lies.