One less Alex to worry about.

I dunno to what degree this has made it into the regular news, but in the tech sphere everybody's talking about Alex Jones.

If you dunno who Alex Jones is … well, lucky you. *BOOM-TISH*

Erm, I mean, he's an internet shock-jock, and living embodiment of the paranoid right-wing conspiracy-nut stereotype. Imagine Alan Jones or John Laws, if they spent 70% of their time raving about the Labor party being infested by paedophilic devil-worshippers who practice cannibalism and human-sacrifice. FUN FACT: During a child-custody battle with his ex-wife, Jones once argued in court that his whole schtick was performance art, and he didn't believe any of it.

So anyway, this week, in what many people are speculating was a coordinated effort, every social media site under the sun (including one email service) terminated Jones' accounts. Naturally, there has been a wide range of opinions put forward on the matter. I would like to focus on two:

1. Online services should be allowed to say what they do and don't allow on their platforms, and nobody should be forced to do business with someone they find morally reprehensible.

… and on the flip side …

2. Imagine what it would be like if your phone, power, and gas company could get together and cut you off overnight because they don't like your political views.

One thing I have enjoyed about this whole drama is watching the reaction of a number of libertarians I follow. Cunts who oppose all government regulation on principle, and have staunchly argued that private enterprise should be able to refuse service to anyone they want—now that they realise a handful of Silicon Valley progressives can effectively demolish their livelihoods by disappearing them from the internet—are calling for the social media giants to either be regulated as public utilities, or at the very least, broken up. It's fucking glorious.

It might also be worth noting that this comes mere months after white-supremacist site "The Daily Stormer" was booted by their hosting provider.

So, what's your take on the matter? Do you have a principled or a pragmatic point of view? Have any of the libertarians you know had a sudden change of heart? And do you have to share your name with any colossal fuckwits?