Doesn't matter. They can ban him for any reason they want. Hate speech is whatever a mod determines it is. I could say "People with usernames that start with a 'g' are the worst," and if a mod decides that's hate speech then boom—banned.
Unchecked corporate power to control public discourse was considered bad not long ago, wasn't it?
Maybe I'm still stuck at the anti net neutrality mindset we had a while ago and can't flip fast enough to now suddenly trust ISPs and platform providers to regulate my news diet.
Because Facebook is not public discourse. Facebook is a private message board.
The radio show isn't banned. They can host it on their on platform with their own money. It's simply no longer being promoted and paid for by a private website.
Alex Jones has his own website. He can go to the FCC and get a broadcast license and play by the same rules as everyone else and broadcast his show on terrestrial radio if he wishes.
His speech isn't being stifled. No one is telling him he's not allowed to say it, and his listeners are free to continue to listen to his drivel.
Back in the day, we had the "fairness doctrine". If media gave an interview to a Democrat, say, they also had to give an approximately equivalent interview to a Republican. (Approximately equivalent in terms of length, not necessarily in terms of content.)
But they didn't have to give one to a member of the Communist Party, or to a National Socialist, or to a member of the KKK. It was major players only. They didn't have to give equal treatment to the fringe, of any flavor.
