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YouTube has deleted the account of David Icke

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Re: YouTube has deleted the account of David Icke

#22

IMO censorship is wrong. To quote someone smarter than me: > I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/06/01/defend-say/

that person didn't realize the damage propaganda could do with modern tools. Unfortunate reality is our cognitive biases can be exploited, and complete freedom of speech is not in the best interest of the majority of humanity.

This is a "loophole" that is exploited over and over again by climate change denialists, cigarette companies, nazis...

Re: YouTube has deleted the account of David Icke

#24

[flagged]

Bad. Stipulating that you're correct in your assessment: * the opportunity to drive trucks through and over the holes in the reasoning and teach people something through a "Stuff David Icke Says" parody channel is snuffed. * Icke gets to assume a martyr pose. * YouTube looks a trifle authoritarian. The truth doesn't have to resort to heavy-handedness to prevail. Newton's Third Law applies (in a social way) in these f…

Deplatforming works, that's proven. The truth is more fragile than you think.

Re: YouTube has deleted the account of David Icke

#25
post #9

[flagged]

Whether or not you agree with him is one thing. Youtube, Facebook, and other companies are treading a very thin line around Provider vs Publisher. Sure, most people might think that Icke doesn't make much sense, but how long until something _you_ like is censored off the platform? If you truly do believe in a table for rational discussion all ideas should be considered regardless of how far-out they may seen. By bann…

If something _you_ like is censored for the same reason David Icke was censored, then you can get the fuck off YouTube and Facebook yourself, and throw your little right wing victimhood hissy fit as the door hits you on the way out, just like Milo Yiannopoulos did, then subscribe to his mailing list or read his blog or buy his book. YouTube and Facebook aren't obligated to tolerate him spreading his filth on their service, and if you think they are, you have no idea what the First Amendment really means.

Re: YouTube has deleted the account of David Icke

#27
post #18

Yay another extremist swept under the digital carpet, problem solved - well NO. This will just shift this extremist content to other unregulated and unmonitored platforms that will not engage in debate, but blindly accept such things. After all, if people believe this kinda stuff, cutting of the head won't stop them believing, just shifts the problem out of the public glare, at least on the surface.

Actually it's been pretty conclusively shown that removing extremist content from mainstream channels pretty much prevents the ideas from propagating in the mainstream. If the cockroaches want to crawl under the fridge there's not much you can do to stop them but you can stop them from breeding on the table.

Re: YouTube has deleted the account of David Icke

#28
post #18

Yay another extremist swept under the digital carpet, problem solved - well NO. This will just shift this extremist content to other unregulated and unmonitored platforms that will not engage in debate, but blindly accept such things. After all, if people believe this kinda stuff, cutting of the head won't stop them believing, just shifts the problem out of the public glare, at least on the surface.

>Yay another extremist swept under the digital carpet, problem solved - well NO.

Well yes, at least partially. Studies of bans on hate communities on reddit have shown effectiveness not only in reducing the total hate, but also, and this is important, changing the behaviour of individual users who were active in the hate communities as they moved towards more moderate, diverse communities.

[...] "What they found was encouraging for this strategy of reducing unwanted activity on a site like Reddit:

Post-ban, hate speech by the same users was reduced by as much as 80-90 percent. Members of banned communities left Reddit at significantly higher rates than control groups. Migration was common, both to similar subreddits (i.e. overtly racist ones) and tangentially related ones (r/The_Donald). However, within those communities, hate speech did not reliably increase, although there were slight bumps as the invaders encountered and tested new rules and moderators. All in all, the researchers conclude, the ban was quite effective at what it set out to do:

For the definition of “work” framed by our research questions, the ban worked for Reddit. It succeeded at both a user level and a community level. Through the banning of subreddits which engaged in racism and fat-shaming, Reddit was able to reduce the prevalence of such behavior on the site." [...]

https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/11/study-finds-reddits-contro...

Re: YouTube has deleted the account of David Icke

#29
post #8

I despise David Icke but I think platforms like YouTube or Facebook should remain neutral. It's not their job to tell us what people should be looking at or not. Then what? We end up like China where we can only browse government propaganda?

I'm sure there's plenty of online communities out there that you can watch/read right wing conspiracy nutjobs opinions on. This is not comparable to China - YouTube is not the government. They're a private company choosing not to host this content. Where are all the free speech advocates complaining about YouTube not hosting porn, or demonetizing videos with swear words in them? Why do you only come out of the woodwo…

> Why do you only come out of the woodwork en masse when it's the right wingers being censored?

Because only the right wingers are actually being censored...

Re: YouTube has deleted the account of David Icke

#30
I see a lot of people not wanting to offer alternative solutions to the treatment of this particular individual's content: if you're not in favor of removal, then what? This content can't be allowed to stand as-is.

I'm sure you'd complain about any measure other than leaving this individual alone. If so, you deserve to be angry, because you're part of the overall problem.

Edit: To remind all of you, downvotes should be reserved for things that are strictly disruptive or not contributing to discussion. Unless we're free to disregard the rules, now.

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