The sweeping ban Monday by Apple, Facebook, and YouTube on content produced by conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones poses intriguing moral questions about hate speech and free speech rights.

Conservatives aren’t defending Mr. Jones’s wild theories. But some are concerned about censorship. “I don’t support Alex Jones and what InfoWars produces. He’s not a conservative. However, banning him and his outlet is wrong,” writes Brent Bozell of the conservative Media Research Center. “Social media sites are supposedly neutral platforms, but they are increasingly becoming opportunities for the left and major media to censor any content that they don’t like,” he says.

Conservative columnist David French writes that Jones “has no regard for truth or decency [and] is finally getting what he deserves,” adding that “there is no First Amendment violation when a private company chooses to boot anyone off a private platform.” In a New York Times opinion piece, Mr. French writes that “hate speech” is too vague a standard for censorship. He suggests social media companies challenge untruths with libel and slander law.

America is navigating an era of pervasive falsehoods and of testing the limits of the First Amendment (religious speech, printing of 3-D guns, kneeling at NFL games). There are no simple answers. But these cases challenge all Americans to check their own moral compass, as voting members of a democratic society.

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