Alex Jones is in freakout mode over Facebook’s plans to crack down on fake news

Alex Jones‘ bonafides when it comes to making misinformation and conspiracy theories go viral are solidified in the online world. Now that Facebook has announced its new plans to crack down on the spread of “fake news” on its platform, the InfoWars host knows he’s in trouble.

In a blog post this Thursday, Facebook’s executive responsible for the newsfeed, Adam Mosseri announced that the social media giant will start utilizing third-party fact-checking organizations like Snopes, Factcheck.org, and Politifact to verify the factual integrity of articles shared in the newsfeed.

“Communist Chinese internet censorship has come to the United States,” Jones declared on his show this Thursday.

Jones then used questionable fake news lists as a way to undermine Facebook’s announcement. He also completely mischaracterized Facebook’s plans, claiming that it will use its algorithm to clamp down on “patriotic, or conservative, or Libertarian” articles that are going viral.

But that’s not how FB’s new system works at all. If a user sees something they believe to false in their newsfeed, they can simply report the link to FB as untrustworthy, where it will then be presented to third-party fact-checkers who will decide on the link’s legitimacy. If it’s deemed to be fake news, it will be marked with a warning to users who could potentially share it, but it will not be removed from the newsfeed.

“I’m not a litigious person,” Jones said. “But you talk about interfering in businesses, you’re talk about libel, you’re talking about slander, you’re talking about an attempt to do harm, to make people not come to your site…”

“Will CNN be taken down because they put out fake poll numbers, because they said Hillary would win and got caught being directed by the White House and Hillary? The answer is ‘no, no, no’ — and all the algorithms are already going into place.”

Jones, who’s claimed that the Sandy Hook massacre of children in Newtown, Connecticut was a hoax, that the government is creating gay people, that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated by the U.S. government, among others, is justified in feeling targeted. Whether or not Facebook’s plans will affect how Jones publishes content is another story.

Media Matters caught Jones scrubbing content from his website that promoted the false claim that Hillary Clinton’s campaign was involved in a child sex-trafficking operation that was run out of a D.C. pizzeria, after an InfoWars fan entered the pizzeria with an assault rifle and fired off a few rounds.

Watch his rant in the video below:

https://youtu.be/IZUtGSxPe9E?t=1h30m23s

[This post has been updated] Featured image via YouTube

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.

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