Gavin McInnes Sues the Southern Poverty Law Center
Internet media personality Gavin McInnes as a result of fake news about him, and the fraternal organisation he founded the Proud Boys, has been completely deplatformed from all major social media platforms. Last year he was banned from Twitter and Facebook.
Earlier this year had his YouTube channel deleted and was fired from his internet television show when his network CRTV merged with Glenn Beck’s The Blaze. He has also had his visa application denied by the Australia Government as a result of this.
Despite McInness rejecting the alt-right, white nationalism and racism he and the Proud Boys were still labelled extremists by the left wing hate group monitor the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC).
McInnes has decided to sue the SPLC for defamation, holding their classification of him as a extremist responsible for his deplaforming and firing, and hence depriving him of income and various employment opportunities.
The news of McInnes taking this legal action was broken by reporter Jake Lloyd on NewsWars.com, a new project by Alex Jones’ of InfoWars to fight fake news.
McInnes and InfoWars share the experience of being deplaformed by the major social media companies. This occurred to InfoWars in a coordinated campaign by all platforms in August and September last year. Jones’ following is strong enough that he has been able retain his reach through the InfoWars website directly and free speech social media platforms.
McInnes has set up a legal fund to launch is defamation case at DefendGavin.com which has a fundraising target of $250,000USD. McInnes through a note published on the fund website has said he is not just doing this to repair his own reputation and career, but because “attacks like these can happen to anyone” and he has a desire to “restore free speech in America”.
McInnes went on to explain how “being called an extremist by the SPLC does NOT mean you’re an extremist” and how it is not just a defamatory smear “isn’t just inaccurate. It’s dangerous” going onto list the left-wing terror attacks on the Family Research Centre, Congressman Steve Sacile and Charles Murray.
McInnes claims that the SPLC has “morphed into a very wealthy and powerful smear machine that inflates hate in order to scare donors into giving them more money” and so loose is their definition of an extremist it now includes major media and political figures such as Ben Carson, Laura Ingraham, the Tea Party, and Judge Jeanine Piro.
The SPLC is used by much of the mainstream media as a credible authority about who in the United States is an extremist and a hate group. Certainly putting civil nationalist and family values organisations on par with neo-Nazis and the Klu Klux Klan is a slanderous accusation.
McInnes also accuses the SPLC of being behind the recent social media deplatforming of conservatives “This power and influence has embedded the SPLC into big tech and their new “Change the Terms” campaign positions them to start deciding who can say what on social media and beyond”.
McInnes lawsuit had the support of another alt-media outlet, the Canadian YouTube channel Press for Truth. Although they concede defamation suits can be used to silence free speech, in this case the SPLC smearing people as being the most despicable human beings in the world, and unfairly turning them into social pariahs, even jeopardizing their safety is a greater threat to free speech.
The regressive left has a whole in the West have to date got away with labeling those they don’t like racists, fascists and Nazis, these labels are also unquestioned by mainstream media outlets.
McInnes’ defamation case will be interesting to watch to see if it has any lasting impact on the baseless smears that are put upon right-wing personalities and organisations on a daily basis.