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This InfoWars reporter just got a scorching lesson on what it means to be ‘publicly owned.'

This InfoWars reporter just got a scorching lesson on what it means to be ‘publicly owned.'

She tried dropping the mic on Facebook for banning her boss Alex Jones. Looks like it landed on her foot.

InfoWars reporter Millie Weaver is understandably upset that Facebook, Spotify and other platforms have chosen to remove her company and its controversial leader Alex Jones from their platforms.

However, in a back-and-forth on Twitter, she personally attacked her critics saying Facebook had no right to right to ban InfoWars because it is a “publicly owned” company.

“There's a thing called fact-checking,” Weaver wrote on Twitter. “Facebook is a public business that's publicly traded. Using that argument to justify banning Alex Jones doesn't work.”

Needless to say, people had some thoughts on her attempt to explain the difference between public and private entities. In just 24 hours, more than 11,000 people had commented on her initial tweet. What followed was a lesson in the basics of civic discourse.

People on social media responded with humor and facts about what it means to be “private” vs. “public.”

Weaver later tried to clarify her original tweet but people weren't buying it. In a bit of delicious irony, Simon Maloy put the discussion effectively to bed by declaring: "Ironically this has become a lesson in being publicly owned."

We need a healthy political debate. But it should be based on facts and ideas, not insults and conspiracy theories.

Social media is rarely the best place for authentic, meaningful debate. More often than not it tends to be about scoring points and aligning oneself with their chosen tribe.

It doesn't have to be that way.

At the same time, we're only going to renew our civil discourse if we return to a more universal respect for and understanding of the facts.

And it appears that getting there might just require a history lesson and a few laughs along the way.

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Tory Burch
Tory Burch Empowered Women
Empowered Women

This woman used creative writing as a refuge while growing up in the midst of a violent drug war. And now she's fostering a love for LatinX poetry.

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Davina Agudelo was born in Miami, Florida, but she grew up in Medellín, Colombia.

"I am so grateful for my upbringing in Colombia, surrounded by mountains and mango trees, and for my Colombian family," Agudelo says. "Colombia is the place where I learned what's truly essential in life." It's also where she found her passion for the arts.

While she was growing up, Colombia was going through a violent drug war, and Agudelo turned to literature, theater, singing, and creative writing as a refuge. "Journaling became a sacred practice, where I could leave on the page my dreams & longings as well as my joy and sadness," she says. "During those years, poetry came to me naturally. My grandfather was a poet and though I never met him, maybe there is a little bit of his love for poetry within me."

In 1998, when she left her home and everyone she loved and moved to California, the arts continued to be her solace and comfort. She got her bachelor's degree in theater arts before getting certified in journalism at UCLA. It was there she realized the need to create a media platform that highlighted the positive contributions of LatinX in the US.

"I know the power that storytelling and writing our own stories have and how creative writing can aid us in our own transformation."

In 2012, she started Alegría Magazine and it was a great success. Later, she refurbished a van into a mobile bookstore to celebrate Latin American and LatinX indie authors and poets, while also encouraging children's reading and writing in low-income communities across Southern California.

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