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YouTube bans coronavirus-related content that directly contradicts WHO advice

bbc.com

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

#91

Post by adrr »

tree3 wrote: post #55
subhobroto wrote: post #21

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. WHO is a political organization with medical leanings just like Fox News is an entertainment channel that covers newslike topics. Yes, there's a lot of information out there about SARS-COV2 and COVID-19 infections out there that are downright misleading at best and life threatening at worst. No, censoring that content including videos is NOT the role of a hosting platfo…

> 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.

Advertisers don’t want their ads on fringe content.

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

#92

Post by brobinson »

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.

Edit: since people are misunderstanding this post, I am 100% pro-ROC and anti-PRC. I wish the ROC could rename itself to something else without triggering a PRC invasion. Check my comment history. I'm 100% pro-ROC and I support the ROC's continued (since 1912) independence as a sovereign entity. 中華民國萬歲

"Taiwan" isn't a country. It's an island controlled by the Republic of China alongside its other holdings. The ROC is a state that has existed since 1912 with continual international diplomatic recognition since then. Other countries switching diplomatic recognition from the ROC to the PRC didn't magically make the ROC vanish.

I really dislike the fact that the media and government in the US refers to the ROC as "Taiwan". It muddies the conversation and I constantly have to explain to people that there are two governments/countries over there, one from 1912 and one from 1949.

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

#93

Post by Someone1234 »

colmvp wrote: post #76
JordanFarmer wrote: post #72

Just look back through the years where the WHO has posted information and data that has been false. There were scientists and doctors who disagreed, those doctors were correct. So YouTube wouldn't allow correct information in this scenario for Covid 19?

In Canada for months we followed WHO's directions to a tee and ended up rapid growth of infections until we did a 180 and implemented nearly every measure that the WHO disagreed with. Taiwan is one of the few countries to have very few cases, and they essentially did a lot of measures the WHO did not recommend initially.

This is incredibly vague.

WHAT measures did the WHO "disagree" with that saved Canada? I'd love to see this post cited up to include what measuring you're referring to in both parts (agree w/WHO and disagree) and where the WHO disagreed with Canada's measures.

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

#94

Post by Red-Ted »

nemo wrote: post #82
graeme wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Hello CCP so glad you could join us.

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

#95

Post by Kaiyou »

rapind wrote: post #11

Fake news can't be solved with bans, only through education. Education is a long term investment though and everyone wants immediate fixes. Expect more of this nonsensical short term thinking.

Education is limited to things we know. It's a knowledge transfer. In areas where there is no prior knowledge, education isn't a fix. Also, prior knowledge can be contested with new knowledge and then change to a hopefully more correct version. It is this process that gets exploited by fake news. Take the example of Napoleons height. In school I learned that he was of a small stature. In recent years I've heard (read on Wikipedias list of common misconceptions) that this was in fact false, he was average height and only appeared small because he was often seen next to someone who was unusually large. So now what am I going to make of Napoleons height? I can't easily confirm the truth and it doesn't really matter anyway, so suddenly I realize that I never had true knowledge about his height. It's the same with other things that I were thought. I realize most of it is just what someone told me and not real knowledge. This reflects pretty much the majority of my education and I think I now understand Socrates a little better: "I know that I know nothing".

So no, education isn't a silver bullet. It's just a nice sounding word for "things I've been told by other people". It doesn't really help me differentiate between what's the truth and what isn't. So once there are two ideas, like "Napoleon was a short person" and "Napoleon was of average height" I'm lost. Either could be true and I don't have the free time to get to the bottom of every single thing I once thought I knew.

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

#96

Post by purerandomness »

xupybd wrote: post #81
Barrin92 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Here's a short clip of the interview for those who haven't seen it yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCFPFWsIPmM

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

#97

Post by gnusty_gnurc »

dijit wrote: post #88
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…

> 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.

They make overt political statements all the time. For one: calling Taiwan racist when it took issue with the WHO’s inaction after their attempts to disseminate health information.

Then Tedros calling travel bans “stigmatic.” Precisely when travel bans were needed at the onset of the spreading.

If WHO is supposed to be apolitical, it shouldn’t be parroting Chinese talking points.

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

#98

Post by joshuamorton »

viklove wrote: post #71
airstrike wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So if they make the wrong decisions and spread misinformation or fail to censor misinformation, can I sue them? IANAL but unless someone is knowingly spreading false information as true (i.e. fraud), the answer is no. They probably don't even carry the burden of having to reasonably vet information first. > Why do they get the power but none of the responsibility? Because it is your privilege to use YouTube, not yo…

Ok, so what you're saying is that if YouTube starts banning videos that suggest Taiwan is a country, you would support their decision.

No, but I also wouldn't call for legal intervention.

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

#99

Post by paypalcust83 »

Nuance is required. There's two sub-category ends of contradictory content spectrum: baseless/wrong/speculative (worthless) and scientific inquiry (worthwhile). Hopefully algorithms won't automatically ban people like Dr. Kyle-Sidell for questioning COVID treatment protocols.

OTOH, allowing snake oil salesman junk content like from Alex Jones harms the public good.

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

#100

Post by tomohawk »

subhobroto wrote: post #21

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. WHO is a political organization with medical leanings just like Fox News is an entertainment channel that covers newslike topics. Yes, there's a lot of information out there about SARS-COV2 and COVID-19 infections out there that are downright misleading at best and life threatening at worst. No, censoring that content including videos is NOT the role of a hosting platfo…

Agree. They are a monopoly, and cannot be allowed to function like any old hosting platform.

The WHO was wrong on many occasions during this pandemic. They said it couldn't or was hard to transmit between people - meanwhile, it was spreading everywhere and Taiwan tried to warn them.

They said we should not shut down international travel from China. Wrong again. Taiwan and a few others did and it helped out immensely.

Appealing to human authority as the source of truth is dangerous. For humans, truth only has a chance to come out when vigorous debate is allowed.

EDIT: adding references as requested.

WHO ignored Taiwan:

https://www.cna.com.tw/news/ahel/202003240229.aspx

On Jan 12:

    According to the preliminary epidemiological investigation, most cases worked at or were handlers and frequent visitors to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. The government reports that there is no clear evidence that the virus passes easily from person to person.
    Currently, no case with infection of this novel coronavirus has been reported elsewhere other than Wuhan.
https://www.who.int/csr/don/12-january-2020-novel-coronaviru...
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