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

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

#541

Post by nyolfen » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 1:31 AM UTC

xster wrote: post #518

mrwesleycrusher wrote: post #38

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

> recognize Taiwan as a sevreign nation This statement shows the power of western media. Yes the WHO doesn't. Neither does any other political entity in the world. Neither the US, nor the 14 of 193 UN members that has diplomatic relations with the ROC, nor does "Taiwan" itself recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Even the most pro-US pro-independence party in Taiwan, the DPP, does not recognize Taiwan as a soverei…

i think i would settle for them saying the word 'taiwan'

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

#542

Post by xster » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 1:32 AM UTC

busymom0 wrote: post #533

xster wrote: post #518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> recognize Taiwan as a sevreign nation This statement shows the power of western media. Yes the WHO doesn't. Neither does any other political entity in the world. Neither the US, nor the 14 of 193 UN members that has diplomatic relations with the ROC, nor does "Taiwan" itself recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Even the most pro-US pro-independence party in Taiwan, the DPP, does not recognize Taiwan as a soverei…

Taiwan emailed WHO in December warning about China lying about the human-to-human transmission not happening and WHO refused to acknowledge Taiwan's reports. Then on January 14th, WHO tweeted saying human to human transmission was not possible. Then when it came out that they were wrong, they claimed Taiwan never emailed them. Taiwan brought receipts with the emails. Also the WHO spokesman went on an interview with H…

Seems like a goalpost shift since I was just responding to your claim about "Taiwan sovereignty".

And since you brought up the December 31st email, that only amplifies my point about corporate media if you formed your opinion on editorials obfuscating the primary source rather than the primary source itself. Here's the actual email from Taiwan https://twitter.com/mohw_taiwan/status/1248915057188024320

"News resources today indicate that at least seven atypical pneumonia cases were reported in Wuhan, CHINA. Their health authorities replied to the media that the cases were believed not SARS; however the samples are still under examination, and cases have been isolated for treatment. I would greatly appreciate it if you have relevant information to share with us. Thank you very much in advance for your attention to this matter."

It's so embarrassingly not "a warning" from Taiwan that Taiwan has been busy deleting the original email from their press release archives and rerouting permalinks to their emails (still available on their tweet at.cdc.tw/23iq82) to a further obfuscating rebuttal.

Meanwhile, people who just read corporate media headlines and don't bother with primary sources or critical thinking goes around telling people "Taiwan emailed WHO in December warning about China lying about the human-to-human transmission".

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

#543

Post by busymom0 » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 1:33 AM UTC

phs318u wrote: post #176

ColanR wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4chan was taking the virus seriously back in January, when the WHO was denying the need for travel lockdowns. The misinformation coming out of the WHO is what killed people, not the early warning that 4chan gave us. Edit: note that in both replies to my comment, none of the specific facts I mentioned were responded to. The response of the countries is being blamed, the date I mentioned is being ignored; but I am comp…

Do you really believe that? Check archive.org. The WHO published info on CV including technical guidance for the health ministries of nation states, at least as early as January 24. It’s safe to assume that national delegates would have been in discussions with WHO ahead of this. Remember, there’s only one WHO and yet we have many different responses and outcomes in different countries. The only logical conclusion is…

> found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1217043229427761152

This was after Taiwan's warnings in December which they ignored.

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

#544

Post by mbgerring » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 1:36 AM UTC

sneak wrote: post #510

mbgerring wrote: post #456

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 respons…

Censorship is the naive and ineffective non-solution to the problem of coordinated misinformation campaigns. It’s sort of like torture: even if it worked for the problem it is trying to solve, it would debase us as human beings to try to use it. To top that off, it doesn’t work .

What do you suggest as an alternative? What would you have done in the situation where Facebook was used as a platform to incite pogroms against Muslims in Myanmar[1]? If we have a better solution in an emergency than censorship, I haven't heard it suggested.

1. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/06/technology/myanmar-facebo...

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

#545

Post by grawprog » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 1:37 AM UTC

bad_user wrote: post #434

grawprog wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since when am I beholden to the WHO? I don't remember voting for any of them or agreeing for them to represent me in any way. They are not my elected government, why should I give the slightest fuck what they tell me to do?

WHO currently represents the scientific consensus. No, they don't tell you what to do, it is your government that does that, or in this case a private entity. But anybody with a brain would go for the scientific consensus. (Even though, just to be clear, I don't agree with what YouTube is doing here)

Since when is science about consensus? I seem to recall learning more about falsification being the primary driver behind the scientific method, which tends to revolve around a rigorous process of trying to prove everything wrong until you just can't any more. Sure haven't seen a whole lot of that. Sure have seen a whole lot of, listen to us because this is what we say, without a whole lot of correctly collected data (emphasis on the correctly collected because data are worthless unless correctly collected, i've personally had to throw out hours of work because of sampling errors)to back anything up. Yet, I'm being told to accept lockdowns, police searches of homes and a whole host of human rights violations on the whims of some vague international appointed entity in the name of public safety. Any voice speaking against this is to be silenced on the public platforms of the day.

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

#546

Post by dmix » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 1:38 AM UTC

xster wrote: post #518

mrwesleycrusher wrote: post #38

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

> recognize Taiwan as a sevreign nation This statement shows the power of western media. Yes the WHO doesn't. Neither does any other political entity in the world. Neither the US, nor the 14 of 193 UN members that has diplomatic relations with the ROC, nor does "Taiwan" itself recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Even the most pro-US pro-independence party in Taiwan, the DPP, does not recognize Taiwan as a soverei…

This is why using WHO as the body for 'truth' is idiocy. They have a hundred different incentives pulling them in different directions. Automatically making it a poor 'source of truth' or, even worse, what is not okay to talk about.

It might be a good source of information for governments around the world looking to take the most neutral diplomatic and balanced stance on every issue.

Not sure why those same incentives should then be influencing what people are allowed to talk about on the internet.

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

#547

Post by twomoretime » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 1:38 AM UTC

immutate wrote: post #530

twomoretime wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the same force that has been influencing academia for some time now.

Sources/references?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_views_of_American_...

Vastly understates the influence, but it's a great start.

Edit: the partisan downvoting has been particularly bad as of late. I was asked for sources and I provided them. Academia is not immune to ideology.

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

#548

Post by sjwright » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 1:39 AM UTC

eloff wrote: post #524

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…

I think what YouTube is doing is with the best intentions - but I hate it. Silencing speech you don't agree with is a dangerous road littered with totalitarian regimes. Doing so at YouTube's scale underlines how much unchecked power corporations have in our society. I think they should not have the power to decide what voice deserves a platform and what does not. They should be regulated as a utility given their mark…

The greatest risk vector for your free speech rights is to misunderstand them, falsely claim that they’re absolute and have your society collapse.

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

#549

Post by busymom0 » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 1:42 AM UTC

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…

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-41702662

The director of WHO tried to make Robert Mugabe the goodwill ambassador. How exactly is this "made up" and not "political"?

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

#550

Post by sjwright » Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 1:43 AM UTC

doctoboggan wrote: post #346

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…

So if you made a video a few weeks ago recommending people wear masks then your video would be banned.

No, because while the CDC did incorrectly dismiss the value of masks and recommended that people focus on hand washing and distancing, they never said you must not wear a mask.