Alex Jones and Nick Fuentes Taken Off Youtube Hours After Reinstatement

Posted3 months agoActive3 months ago

voxadam

22 points

11 comments

independent.co.ukOtherstory

controversialnegative

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Free SpeechCensorshipSocial Media Moderation

Key topics

Free Speech

Censorship

Social Media Moderation

YouTube reinstated and then quickly banned Alex Jones and Nick Fuentes' channels, sparking debate about free speech and the role of social media platforms in moderating content.

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Sep 25, 2025 at 7:06 PM EDT
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Discussion (11 comments)

Showing 9 comments of 11

physarum_salad

3 months ago

1 reply

Banning makes things more popular, it's a psychological reaction as old as time. This tiny teaser is likely to make both even more popular. Dorks at ytube getting their second of megladopamine is not going to solve the current crisis in free speech: everyone banning everyone they disagree with.

techblueberry

3 months ago

In the short term maybe, in the long term? I think most people choose their platforms over their people. No matter how exciting someone is, I'm 10x more likely to just find someone else on youtube than move to rumble. And if most people start on youtube rather than rumble you're not getting into the algorithmic feed. Not to mention the fact that the like fifteen minutes of fame thing I imagine is real. You can only put your attention so many places, you think Alex Jones or Nick Fuentes are making continued, sustained growth just by virtue of one moment quickly fading into the past where they were banned?

Maybe it's sad, but I suspect censorship works more than we want to admit.

JadoJodo

3 months ago

2 replies

I’ve never been able to tell if Alex Jones is “real” or just a character. I’ve seen him on Rogan and clips of his InfoWars stuff and he’s just so far off the scale that it makes me wonder if it’s just a very very very weird bit.

It sorta reminds me of George Noory (of Coast to Coast AM fame) where he “believes” everything that anyone calls in about.

burnt-resistor

3 months ago

1 reply

All evidence points to a character performing to feed the hobgoblins of the mind of morally and intellectually stunted people while selling them scam products. Zero integrity and no concern for negative impact on society, just grift. Basically, nonchalance about being a memetic terrorist without any shame.

mkfs

3 months ago

> memetic terrorist

From what I can tell, Jones, who's been on the air in some capacity since the mid 90s, has only two significant "IRL" incidents directly attributable to him: the raid on Comet Ping Pong--which resulted in shots fired, but no injuries (or rescued children)--and the execrable harassment of Sandy Hook families.

Meanwhile the Young Turks had an actual mass shooter, Gavin Long, who made videos directly referencing the show, and rather than resulting in their cancellation, the entire thing was memory-holed. Even their wikipedia doesn't mention it.

Granted, from time to time you do hear about "eccentric" acts of violence (e.g., against 5G towers, or people lashing out due to "gang-stalking"), and it's not difficult to imagine Jones having some influence on them.

mkfs

3 months ago

> Alex Jones is “real” or just a character

It's a bit of both, I think. He's clearly learned that behaving in certain ways garners him more attention (which he craves), especially back in his "bullhorn on the streets" days, and he's clearly willing to ham it up for that sake. But people who knew him as a young man back in Rockwall, and later Austin, all vouched for his lunacy. In fact, I can't recall anyone close to him ever being convinced of his sanity.

krapp

3 months ago

1 reply

    “We terminated these channels as it’s still against our rules for previously terminated users to start new channels,” according to the company. “The pilot program for terminations that many people have been referencing this week isn’t available yet and will be a limited pilot program to start. We’ll have more on how the program will work, who is eligible, and how creators can access it soon.“

burnt-resistor

3 months ago

Doing the same thing and expecting a different result is insanity or stupidity. Plus, the enormous culpability and history of megacorps platforming genocidal memetic contagions by failing to moderate hate responsibly. Myanmar for one. Megacorps will continue to obey in advance and roll out the red carpet for totalitarian regimes unless the people organize and boycott until they yield because these corporations have zero integrity and simply drift whichever way the wind blows towards the path of least resistance and most short-term profits.

detaro

3 months ago

Sorry Nick, your channel, their choice. That's how you want it, right?

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