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Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”

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Re: Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”

#112
post #4

Facebook could be right ;) Just because some info appears on a the CDC page doesn't mean it can't be erroneous. It is not as though health authorities have always been correct on every thing, have they?

Unrelated question: What happens when your HN karma drops to zero?

Then when you log in, you see a (0) after your user name. Not much else. You can still post.

If you've been posting abusive comments or otherwise breaking the site rules, you may get banned, but that's not triggered by your karma (so far as I know).

Re: Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”

#113

OK, random thought experiment. As someone without a facebook it's hard for me to evaluate, but how much damage would really be caused if facebook just disappeared one day?

Facebook going down means losing contact with my friends overseas. I myself am studying as an international student, and many of my former classmates are studying in another countries as well. Messenger (and consequently Facebook) is pretty much the place that people in my home country hang out at.

Re: Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen this sentence of the link: > CDC encourages laboratories to consider adoption of a multiplexed method that can facilitate detection and differentiation of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses Used to claim that many positive test results were not covid cases, but were flu cases. This _isn’t_ the case — the CDC is now recommending tests that can check for multiple infections rather than just one. But the wordi…

I am for one didn't knew until this week that current COVID PCR tests will test also positive for the flu.

... they won't, that desinformation is exactly the point of the comment you are replying to.

Re: Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there's anything that flat Earth theories prove then it would be that there is no objective truth that can be universally agreed upon. So sure we can suppose that there is an objective truth (ironically this point is also debated), but who do you trust to be its arbiter?

There is objective truth. The earth is objectively not flat. There are people who don't agree with that (or at least who say they don't), but the earth is objectively not flat, whether or not some people don't agree. Not only that, it's provably not flat. So those who don't agree, well... they prove the contrariness of human nature, I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[deleted]

Re: Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”

#117
I actually verified this yesterday on my own FB acount.

https://imgur.com/a/5tgkbFL

Not sure if it's still happening, but you can test it if you make the post visible to only you and you wait ~5 minutes for that misinformation message to show up.

Even if the fact checker had some kind of point, I don't know how labeling an authoritative source as "false information" helps anyone understand anything just because part of the information might be outdated.

Nevertheless, the level of carelessness upon which this mechanism seems to have been built upon is an embarrassment.

Re: Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If everyone involved in the conversation wants to be involved, and no laws are broken, and the platform interferes, then it's censorship. If there's some kind of algorithm putting the content in front of people who didn't ask for it (e.g. not followers/friends/subscribers/whatever), then you have a point.

Technology changes - magnifies, accelerates, projects, distorts - many social effects. One of those is removing the previously invisible, small cost of spreading an idea. If two people want to have a conversation or exchange a letter, or one person wants to speak to everyone within earshot or post a sign for people walking by to read, that's one thing. Maybe you say something dumb, and it gets shot down, or maybe it…

You only have two choices, let all information be available regardless of whatever downside there may be, given that at least you still have some control over how to deal with that, or live in a truly Orwellian society in which you have no control over what you know.

Re: Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”

#119

And this is why Facebook has no business being part of fact checking. While it may look different, this is no different than two folks on the phone getting interrupted by ATT and being told they are incorrect on their assumptions about topic X. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are the carrier, and should be treated as such.

By adding content to user's newsfeed , they ( facebook's algorithm ) have made a explicit decision to share the piece of content and implicit decision that they deem the post safe for sharing. In that case shouldn't a speaker operator be responsible for the voices they amplify?

You only see things in your newsfeed from people you've explicitly added to your network (i.e. explicitly opted in to receiving content from). Is facebook wrong for showing you the things you said you want it to show you?

Re: Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”

#120

And this is why Facebook has no business being part of fact checking. While it may look different, this is no different than two folks on the phone getting interrupted by ATT and being told they are incorrect on their assumptions about topic X. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are the carrier, and should be treated as such.

This not completely correct because while a carrier transport anything indescrminately, social networks manipulate and control information exchange, for instance giving more priority to a content wrt to another.
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