Alex Jones ordered to pay $45.2m in punitive damages to Sandy Hook family

Conspiracy theorist is sued for $150 million. I believe this is huge news, a massive case, and one that could be used as a big precedent. So Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones called the Sandy Hook shooting a conspiracy. He said it was a government conspiracy to get gun laws changed and that the parents of the dead children were actors. One parent of one of the children who was shot at Sandy Hook sued Alex Jones for defamation for $150 million, and he has just been ordered to pay $50 million in compensatory and punitive damages. And I wanted to do a quick video because this raises so many moral quandaries of a very disparate and emotionally charged and divisive society that we live in right now. So it raises big moral issues around freedom of speech, and I would love your thoughts on it, and I would encourage you to share this news and engage in the discussion. So should someone be able to say whatever they want if someone thinks something is a hoax or a conspiracy? Should they be able to, to say whatever they want, or is there a line, and where is that line? I've interviewed canceled people on my Disruptors podcast. I interviewed, um, Matt Laticia, who got basic— well, he got fired from Sky and somewhat silenced in the mainstream media, somewhat. Because he's now on social media expressing his views. Though with Matt Latticier, there's definitely a lot of logic and common sense in what he says. I was just talking to my wife, and my wife says he deserves it because there's no way that, um, a mass shooting is a conspiracy hoax because they happen every week. In America. So what are your thoughts on this? Are your thoughts on that this is a bit of a brutal, um, result? I mean, $50 million is huge. Apparently though, according to some media outlets— do your own research on this because I just read this top line— he's made like $160-odd million plus from Infowars. And if he's made tens or hundreds of millions about getting more and more extreme in his views and more and more towards the conspiracy theories? Is that right? Is it right that someone can speak and go so to the extreme of conspiracies to the point where it becomes nonsense and earn hundreds of millions from that content? Is that right? What do you think? And this is why I wanted to do a quick video on it, because I believe it brings up some real moral dilemmas and quandaries. And please do put your comments in social media, in this chat here, and let me know what you think. Because I think there's a difference between speaking truth and being canceled and silenced. Like, if I say the C-word or the V-word on this video, there will be the, um, warning that comes up at the bottom of this live. And so the AI are so clever now. I mean, get this, I did a video and I coughed the C-word, and the warning came up on the video, which means the AI can even spot when I'm coughing over trigger words, words that it triggers as warnings. Now let's just be clear, I wasn't deleted, banned, or canceled. I'm not saying that. But that is quite scary. Your phones are listening to you, your devices are tracking you, and, um, you can be controlled. But anyway, that's probably for another live. But Alex Jones, who has Infowars, who's a well-known conspiracy theorist— now, by the way, no conspiracy theorist thinks they're a conspiracy theorist or will say they're a conspiracy theorist. But they should surely prove their claims. And apparently it was a very uncredible witness, didn't provide a lot of evidence, um, and therefore, um, looked like it was a fairly easy win for the parents of one of the dead children, um, because Alex Jones said that the Sandy Hook mass shooting was a hoax by the government, and the parents of the dead children were actors. And if that isn't true, and if you can't absolutely back that up with fact, I don't believe you should be able to say that. And I would love your thoughts. Surely freedom of speech has a line. And as you know, I've been supporting people who got, or tried to get, canceled. They tried to cancel Joe Rogan. Good luck with that. Um, and I have been a supporter of free speech, but the line surely is where you It's defamation where it ruins families' lives, um, where it's completely inaccurate and false. I'm not talking, you know, fact-checking from mainstream media. Hmm, there surely should be some independent fact-checking. Here's something I was also talking about with, uh, with my wife too, which I'm just going to open up to you and be really honest about my quandary on social media. I know if I put happy content out there— 3 ways to be positive, how to enjoy the beautiful weather— no one watches it. I've tried it. I know it for a fact. No one watches it. And actually, I'm mostly a pretty positive, optimistic guy, and I'd rather do a lot more content on that. But I know if I talk about what's going on in the world that's scary or a bit doomy and gloomy, I know I get a lot more views. In fact, I get millions of views. I also know, therefore, that I could push this to the extreme and go to complete sensationalism and hype massive fear porn and get even more views. And I don't. I think there's a line to be drawn because I don't think it's right for someone to benefit by lies or extremism or massive fear porn if it's not backed up and based on fact. So I say to myself, okay, I don't mind talking about what's going on in the world that's scary, and you know, maybe that is bad news, And maybe that's controversial, but there must be a line where you keep your morals, and there must be a line where I say, do you know what, that's the line, and now I'm going to turn it into a solution, or I'm going to turn it into something positive, and I'm going to make sure I do as much research as one physically can to be diligent. I'm not always going to get it right, I'm going to make the odd mistake, and I thank you all for, um, commenting when you do correct me on, on my mistake. But I do always do research before I go live. So this is the quandary, and some people have been saying to me, oh Rob, it's all a bit doom and gloom on your lives at the moment. No, it's not. It always ends in here are the solutions, here are the strategies, and here are the tactics. But if I went with, isn't it a beautiful day, we should all be positive, no one watches the videos. I've tested it loads of times. So in a way, we're controlled by social media because I said to my wife, wouldn't it be great if social media algorithms rewarded you for positivity, rewarded you for facts, rewarded you for teaching good how-to specific content, but they don't. So social media is part of the problem, and I can't reach you if I just talk about fact and specific and education and tactics and happy, happy, happy, joy, joy, positivity. I wouldn't— if no one would watch. So I can see how someone could post some content and it'd be a bit polarizing and it'd get a lot of views, and then they, they're being rewarded for being polarizing and controversial and the odd conspiracy. So then they go more and more and more and more, and the more extreme they go, the more views they get, the more shares, the more virality, and the more money they make. And in the end, it can just become lies and propaganda, the same thing against the very thing they're talking or positioning against, talking about. Just see the quandary here. Do you see the moral dilemma? So let me know what you think in the comments about this. Um, is it right that someone can say whatever they want? Well, there is defamation laws in place, which I believe mean you don't have full freedom of speech. You shouldn't have full freedom of speech. Should you be able to talk facts freely? Yes. Should you be able to share your opinion freely? Yes. Is there a line where it becomes defamation, dangerous, insightful, and abuse? Yes. And then, should you be held to account or even punished or sued if you step beyond that line? Yes. So the main question then is, where is that line? Let me know what you think in the comments. Where is that line? Alex Jones has just found that line because he said that the mass shooting, the Sandy Hook shooting, was a conspiracy, a hoax from the government. To change the gun laws and the parents of the shot dead children were actors. One of the, or two of the parents sued him and they've just won exactly $49.3 million in punitive and compensatory award. And how many of the other parents are going to come out and sue him now? And if he has not spoken truth, all the money and all the notoriety about he built could be wiped out in an instant. And apparently there was no evidence, or not much evidence, submitted by him, and his case wasn't credible. So let me know what you think about this in the comments. I think we must keep talking about freedom of speech. The big thing is, where is that line? Where is the line where your opinion is too much and you should be held accountable? Can we really say whatever we want? Do we really have free speech? I tell you what's interesting is a lot of people don't think we have free speech, and on most of my Disruptors podcast interviews, I ask people, do we have free speech? But a lot of people are starting to say, well, yeah, we do, we do. We can say whatever we want on social media whenever we want. We do have free speech. But you should be held accountable for it. So a lot of people think we don't have free speech, but a lot of people think we do. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. I would love the discussion on this. I'll get in and engage with you. Please also hit the share button because I'm trying to use these moral dilemmas as case studies for us to continue the discussion, because free speech is at a, I believe, crossroads, crux point. Whereby many people are getting canceled or deplatformed unfairly, and then there's other people who are probably using platforms, um, with too much power and control, and their speech is too loose and too free, and they should be held accountable. Where is that line? I would love your thoughts. So thanks for tuning in. Make sure you hit the share button, and remember this: if you don't risk anything, you risk everything. Let's get this shared and let's discuss this matter.