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YouTube bans coronavirus-related content that directly contradicts WHO advice

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

#451

Post by krrrh »

jonny_eh wrote: post #103
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…

Does the CDC recognize Taiwan?

Perhaps not as a state, but it seems as likely that they would recognize data and observations given to them from Taiwan as they would data given to them from Hong Kong... or from Hubei.

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

#452

Post by marcinzm »

cm2187 wrote: post #407
logifail wrote: post #121

Current WHO advice: "If you are healthy, you only need to wear a mask if you are taking care of a person with COVID-19." [0] Where we live, due to local laws , we are now obliged to wear a mask to go shopping. Can one discuss that on YouTube, or would one be contradicting the WHO? I fear there isn't "one truth" out there, despite the content providers' and fact-checkers' attempts :( We keep trying to encourage our ki…

Not the only position that changed radically over time. Head of WHO in early March: > First, COVID-19 does not transmit as efficiently as influenza, from the data we have so far. > With influenza, people who are infected but not yet sick are major drivers of transmission, which does not appear to be the case for COVID-19. > Evidence from China is that only 1% of reported cases do not have symptoms, and most of those…

>Evidence from China is that only 1% of reported cases do not have symptoms, and most of those cases develop symptoms within 2 days.

That assumes China is finding almost all cases and is able to track almost all cases. If they only report cases that are serious enough to require medical attention that statement is worthless. Of course, that line of thinking would require questioning China's data which the WHO would never politically do.

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

#453

Post by asdff »

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…

Ultimately, youtube is a website and not a utility. If someone posted something bad on your website, you'd probably delete it, too.

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

#455

Post by mirimir »

OrderlyTiamat wrote: post #417
glenstein wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Where we live, due to local laws, we are now obliged to wear a mask to go shopping. Can one discuss that on YouTube, or would one be contradicting the WHO? Examples like these are frivolous. There's a heartland of obvious, flagrant misinformation that is indisputably worth banning and for which a moral case exists to ban immediately: '5g caused corona, this home remedy will cure it!' etc. The go-to move of internet…

I agree with the conclusion that you should be clear about what percentage of content is on the side of reasonable, and which is not. Let me however disagree strongly with your claims that this concerns 99.99999% of cases, and that the other commenter was talking about "what ifs" and "hypotheticals". That last claim seems to me to just be untrue: we know in fact that local laws, for example several american states, c…

> Given YouTube's history with copyright trigger happiness, I wouldn't be so sure of these proportions, myself.

Exactly. There's absolutely no reason to trust Google about anything. This is a totally CYA move. That is, Google's only concern is avoiding controversy, whether it's about copyrights and trademarks, non-mainstream politics, non-traditional medicine, or whatever.

Even so, it's their platform, and they have the right to do whatever they like with it. I avoid it, and I recommend that others avoid it, but we're all free to choose.

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

#456

Post by mbgerring »

There are armed groups at state capitols spreading dangerous misinformation about COVID-19 that will almost certainly cause people to get sick and die. That misinformation effort is coordinated and well-funded.

Whatever hypothetical you want to argue about censorship, you need to grapple with the fact that we face a persistent and aggressive misinformation threat, and combating it is part of the public health response to COVID-19.

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

#457

Post by Nursie »

ratacat wrote: post #20

I don't like this. All of the question of 'Why on earth choose WHO' aside...it is dangerous and depressing precident. I live with a number of ladies who are very familiar with plant medicine. When this whole thing started we all started taking lots of dandelion root / hawthorne tincture. Dandelion is well known to both help your lymphatic system and support respiratory issues. Hawthorne is an amazing heart / circulat…

Your "plant medicine" is very likely worthless, as most are.

Lots of people have few to no symptoms. Your anecdote means nothing, and is a prime example of why we don't use anecdote instead of actual data - if people are put off engaging with actual medical services and instead are bamboozled by this sort of woo, bad things can and will happen.

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

#458

Post by [deleted] »

elsonrodriguez wrote: post #297
ardy42 wrote: post #214

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. That's misleading. The US de facto recognizes Taiwan, and the only reason it doesn't recognize it de jure is that the PRC would formally cut off relations if it did. https://en.wikipe…

More importantly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_US_arms_sales_to_Taiwa... Like, it's ok that we sell Taiwan fighter jets and tanks to defend themselves against China, as long as we say that Taiwan belongs to china. I'll never understand politics.

[deleted]

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

#459

Post by aianus »

Someone1234 wrote: post #166
benjohnson wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The WHO advised against the public wearing masks and advised against travel restrictions. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/01/all-uk-hospita... https://www.who.int/news-room/articles-detail/updated-who-re... As I understand it - many Canadians of Asian decent in Vancouver BC wore masks early on. https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article... EDIT: As of 3/30 WHO still doesn't recommend wear…

> The WHO advised against the public wearing masks Nope. Your article is actually about the UK's government's advice and lumps in the WHO. Here's a WHO publication from 30th of January 2020 [0] that advises all sick with "flu-like symptoms" be provided a mask (as well as healthcare workers). The WHO, like every national government, have recommended prioritizing masks to the sick and healthcare workers since the start…

> They then go on to essentially say that it won't work (and spoilers: It didn't work, they were 100% correct).

How didn't it work?

All of the really successful countries at handling this pandemic continue to have significant travel measures that interfere with international traffic.

For example: Taiwan, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, Vietnam, even (infuriatingly, given their opposition to anyone else doing it [0]) Mainland China itself!

[0] https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/china-praises-canada-slams-u-s-...

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

#460

Post by roenxi »

onion2k wrote: post #359
roenxi wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people would like freedom to discuss the coronavirus without being oppressed. They can't on YouTube if this policy takes hold. The sort of people who contradict the WHO happened to be right on this one; they predicted a problem early and tended to pre-empt the WHO on upcoming problems. This was also expected , because the WHO only advises stuff that is already obvious to everyone. Interested parties can offer be…

The sort of people who contradict the WHO happened to be right on this one; they predicted a problem early... Suggesting YouTubers were correct a form of survivorship bias. You're only paying attention to the ones that were right. Plenty of other YouTubers said things along the lines of it being a hoax, or it'd die off, or that it'd be thousands of times worse long before, and long after, the WHO reacted. YouTube is…

> a very smart bloke with an honest-to-goodness PhD in a virus-related field

How do I embolden text on HN? When a person with a PhD is talking about something related to their PhD it is imprudent policy to ban their content because it disagrees with a body who are (a) political, (b) purposefully slow to recommend things and (c) have covered themselves with something a lot less pleasant than glory with their response to the worst pandemic we've seen in a century. Turns out he has a biological Nature publication too [0]. I want to hear his opinion even and especially if it contradicts the WHO on coronavirus. I like to live dangerously; I'll take the risk that he isn't a specialist in respiratory infections and viruses.

YouTube has picked a policy that bans good advice if they don't like the tone or word choice on behalf of an organisation I believe the US government is trying to defund for incompetence. This is not a move that should inspire confidence in their fact-checking abilities. I'd bet they don't have doctors or nurses enforcing this policy either but it'd be nice to be wrong.

[0] https://www.nature.com/articles/366066a0

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