YouTube bans coronavirus-related content that directly contradicts WHO advice • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube bans coronavirus-related content that directly contradicts WHO advice

#81

Post by xupybd » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 7:43 PM UTC

Barrin92 wrote: post #65

mrwesleycrusher wrote: post #38

Remember when the WHO didn't recognize Taiwan as a sevreign nation? Obviously the WHO isn't solely objective.

Neither does the US. Taiwan is only recognised by IIRC 12 natinos, mostly small island states. This has become another weird internet talking point as international recognition pretty much unanmiously switched to the PRC in the 1970s.

It's the awkward way they one representative handled a question on Taiwan. Pretending he didn't hear the question. I think it speaks more to the unwillingness of a world health organisation to even discuss politically dangerous topics.

Re: YouTube bans coronavirus-related content that directly contradicts WHO advice

#82

Post by nemo » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 7:44 PM UTC

graeme wrote: post #62

tree3 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No, censoring that content including videos is NOT the role of a hosting platform. Huh? If I ran a hosting platform and people were putting absolute BS on there, I'd remove it too. People who run hosting platforms want to have integrity.

The WHO denied human-to-human transmission even after Taiwan told them about it, and they dug their heels on calling the outbreak a pandemic for weeks. I think it depends how youtube draws the line. If they’re removing stuff like “use colloidial silver” or “no need to wash your hands” then sure. But the WHO is not gospel.

The errors the WHO has made have generally been corrected and so far as reliable authorities go on the pandemic there isn't a more reliable one, even if all are fallible. It's a better standard than nothing for stopping misinformation from killing people.

Re: YouTube bans coronavirus-related content that directly contradicts WHO advice

#83

Post by root_axis » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 7:45 PM UTC

jjice wrote: post #13

Things like this are tricky to me. YouTube is a private platform, so they can make their own decisions, but any sort of censorship is scary to me. I honestly don't know where to stand when it comes to issues related to censoring content like this. On one hand, you can limit information we know is false, but restricting spread of information is censoring people, something that is pretty widely regarded as oppressive.…

They should relying on for-profit corporations to host their videos for free. Pay for hosting.

Re: YouTube bans coronavirus-related content that directly contradicts WHO advice

#84

Post by hartator » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 7:47 PM UTC

Not even mentioning they are playing a dangerous censorhip game, it's very weird that they pick the WHO over the CDC after all the WHO controversies. (Taiwan, slow COVID-19 response, alignment with China lines, head of WHO was part of the corrupt Ethiopian government, $200M in business class travel, and probably more scandals.)

CDC has also a way bigger budget than the WHO. $11.1B vs $4.2B.

Ref:

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organization

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centers_for_Disease_Control_an...

Re: YouTube bans coronavirus-related content that directly contradicts WHO advice

#85

Post by umvi » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 7:48 PM UTC

Free speech (well, most freedoms, really) will die the day we decide "saving lives" is worth _any_ cost.

Heck, we already decided trashing the economy is worth "saving lives" (how many?), I imagine some people would be overjoyed to remove the 1st amendment in order to lower disease spread, lower the suicide rate of those vulnerable to hate speech, etc. And why stop there? Remove 2nd amendment and you can save even more lives! Too much freedom just seems to lead to people dying, because people make bad choices that affect others.

Re: YouTube bans coronavirus-related content that directly contradicts WHO advice

#86

Post by gowld » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 7:50 PM UTC

kongolongo wrote: post #16

topoftheforts wrote: post #2

Is this the beginning of the end for YouTube? As someone who deeply hates how much fake news have been spreading in the past few years, I still find this very worrying, especially since the WHO has been very inconsistent with their messaging during this pandemic [1] and sometimes plain wrong [2]. [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-who/who-chie... [2] https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1217043229427761152

To be fair no major health organization has been completely consistent or completely "correct" regarding the pandemic, in fact its virtually impossible to do so as the situation develops and our understanding of the situation changes. The recent change to CDC guidelines for the general public to wear face masks is an example of reaction to new research. That's not to say there isn't outright incorrect fake news, but…

Right now, today, while half the world is lockdown in their own homes, WHO is still advocating for unrestricted international travel.

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2...

Telling people to not fly across the world is bannable misinormation acording to Wojcicki's definition. Of course, it wouldn't be banned, because the actual rule is a much more subjective "whatever makes YT look bad to advertisers and PR"

Re: YouTube bans coronavirus-related content that directly contradicts WHO advice

#87

Post by root_axis » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 7:50 PM UTC

Nothing of value was lost. It doesn't matter if you hold WHO in poor regard; pay for your own hosting if you want to publish content that YouTube doesn't want to host. I'll never understand the twisted mental gymnastics that lead people to believe they should be entitled to free HD video hosting from a private corporation.

Re: YouTube bans coronavirus-related content that directly contradicts WHO advice

#88

Post by dijit » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 7:51 PM UTC

hartator wrote: post #84

Not even mentioning they are playing a dangerous censorhip game, it's very weird that they pick the WHO over the CDC after all the WHO controversies. (Taiwan, slow COVID-19 response, alignment with China lines, head of WHO was part of the corrupt Ethiopian government, $200M in business class travel, and probably more scandals.) CDC has also a way bigger budget than the WHO. $11.1B vs $4.2B. Ref: - https://en.wikipedi…

The majority of WHO controversies are made up, the WHO are not a political entity so they do not want to comment at all on political issues; and whatever you want to say about Taiwan it is a very heated political situation.

That's also the evidence of "alignment with china": because we in the west see a failure to recognise taiwan as siding with china. Which is odd because the USA doesn't officially recognise Taiwan itself. In fact the WHO did almost exactly what a US diplomat would have done- albeit a bit delayed.

Corruption not withstanding (yeah, it's unfortunate but that thing is going to happen, what matters is the response not that it happened) it's better to have a bipartisan global concerted effort to manage these things than the centralised health organisation of a single country. Even though that country is the homestead of the service in question.

Re: YouTube bans coronavirus-related content that directly contradicts WHO advice

#89

Post by malcolmgreaves » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 7:52 PM UTC

This is great -- amplifying lies that kill people is ridiculous. And out of crisis, amplifying lies is unethical, period. It's not censorship if you can prove it's bullshit. People have a right to express themselves, but we also have a right to not accept lies as truth.

Re: YouTube bans coronavirus-related content that directly contradicts WHO advice

#90

Post by seph-reed » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 7:56 PM UTC

carapace wrote: post #52

The first time I got a color printer/scanner the first thing I did was slap a $5 bill on there to see if it would print a color copy. What do you think happened? I'll give you a hint: "EURion constellation". Anyway, my point is, "It's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye." When it comes to pandemics or currency control our systems have no problem toeing the hard line. Has nothing to do with whether you like…

I'd never heard of "EURion constellation". The little video on this page has a nice explanation:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/counterfeit-money-eurion-cons...