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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

#621
post #620
post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an endless flood of these bad comments. I'm just going through them (a new one posted every 2 minutes) and making the same rebuttal. People are stupid -- especially people who think they're smart contrarians.

> I'm just going through them and making the same rebuttal. > People are stupid -- especially people who think they're smart contrarians. Speak for yourself.

I'm being completely earnest here. You might not believe this, but some "contrarians" are so braindead that they get their news from 4chan. It's a serious problem.

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

#622

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.

All due respect, but this is lunacy. The way the guy reacted then hung up is unconscionable. The WHO is clearly corrupted by China's money.

And the US is still connected to Taiwan and provides them military support. And we have a $250M 'de facto' embassy there.

Honestly, I'm so shocked and dismayed by your comment, that I think I want to stop participating on Hacker News. Your perspective is relativism ad infinitum. This is the thing I fight most against.

This isn't a community for hackers & painters anymore. Eternal Relativism is impossible to win against.

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

#623

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost no one in previous history had an ability to directly target poor, uneducated masses which their own content created in their own bedroom. Also let’s be honest - the likes of Hitler actually came from the likes of people who would tell you to stop listening to WHO advice and to go start fires in 5G towers. Don’t get me wrong, freedom of speech et. al., and we’re probably also going to get burnt by the freedom…

> Also let’s be honest - the likes of Hitler actually came from the likes of people who would tell you to stop listening to WHO advice and to go start fires in 5G towers. This is not true. The rise of the Third Reich is fascinating because of its populism rooted in hard-working citizens who believed in their country.

Uh what do you think the difference is now? Joe The Plumber was a stereotype for a reason.

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

#624
The same WHO that dragged its ass in declaring a pandemic, showered the CCP with non stop praise, and tells me I don't need to wear any protection?

Yeah, uh I'm not going to listen to anything that corrupt organization has to say.

I'm more dismayed that so many people are actually listening to them at all.

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

#625

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…

Few things to be said here.

First, people are, in general, really bad at navigating traumatic events and situations. Now if you've been through some real Sh!tty situations in your past, you're better able to navigate new ones, but don't make the assumption if you are able to navigate them, they can as well. Giving them 10 different sources of information including things like 5G being to blame and other disinformation can create more problems than its worth including riots.

Second, The WHO has been flogged thoroughly by the US government in the States and rightfully so given the misleading statements that were made at the onset about the ability of china to keep the virus contained. You look at the WHO ARCGIS webpage for Covid and it's got outbreaks with 30 people in a circle the same size as the US outbreak; there's some degree of obvious derision by the WHO for the west in general and the US in particular which in my estimation, factored into what they communicated. At this point it's hitting every country, so every country is going to request a reform and furthermore every country is going to be look for other trade partners aside from china.

Youtube at this point is an international utility so they are siding with an international firm; in the short term this is wise. Long-term, you can expect a US institution to take over as the authority as the vast majority of medical research worldwide is done in the US.

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

#626

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 fear there isn't "one truth" out there, despite the content providers' and fact-checkers' attempts :( The idea is: "We are the decent, good, people who know the truth. Now we control the platforms, so it's only well and good we control the information, and we tell the deplorable others what they can and can't say." Almost everyone in the history books as a horrible oppressor has told themselves that narrative. Many…

Apple has lived on this motto.

Google is joining them.

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

#627
post #524

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 central kind of thing that this ban is meant to prevent is people posting on Youtube to drink bleach as a COVID cure and laughing over the ensuing deaths. We've disapproved of that kind of speech for centuries -- this slope isn't nearly as slippery as you think it is.

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

#628
My advice is to read Neil Postman's works, specifically 1) Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, 2) How to Watch TV News, and especially 3) Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology if you think legacy/boomer media has any more credibility (especially today) than some random in their bedroom.

I'd also recommend reading Sharyl Attkisson's The Smear: How Shady Political Operatives and Fake News Control What You See, What You Think, and How You Vote and Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington

That random in their bedroom is the fourth estate now.

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

#629

Ahh, the same WHO that itself has spread misinformation on covid-19? (E.g., that there is no human-to-human transmission when they knew there was.)

This is one of those completely false things that people only believe is true by repetition. Go back and actually read the full set of WHO statements in mid-January. They have a bunch of statements saying that nations should get prepared, one saying that specific studies haven’t yet found hard evidence for person-to-person transmission (because at that point most of the cases they’d managed to find were tied to the market). The WHO never, ever said that it can’t be transmitted, and they absolutely never said that people should do nothing about COVID-19. They were urging nations to act for months before they actually did.

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

#630

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So far as I can tell, your extremely confident, categorical interpretations of your own citations are basically mistaken, across the board. As I read [0] it is not, in fact, a blanket declaration about transmissibility. As I read [1] it is not in any way an inaccurate statement (see [3]). When read [2] it's clear that it is not a blanket declaration not to wear masks. Meanwhile Youtube is going to take down videos cl…

Is it appropriate to flag HN comments that are so blatantly wrong like the one you replied to? If YouTube is taking down misinformation, is HN doing the same?

I've never seen anyone be consistent in their kneejerk cries of "but free speech!" They still want moderation, banning, and silencing, especially of their critics. They want ideas removed from the spotlight they don't agree with. They say that the moderation that every platform needs to thrive is a "slippery slope" while already sliding down it
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