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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”

#231

Post by sam0x17 »

travoc wrote: post #223
sam0x17 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That said, SMS carriers filter and block TONS of messages and have been doing it for years. Our startup works in that space so we have to deal with this problem all the time and I can tell you last November if you tried to send a text message with the word "election" in it in an automated fashion, it was most likely getting blocked.

Rate limiting is not the same as content filtering.

I promise you there is tons of actual keyword based content filtering going on. We had to build an AI just to detect which keywords different carriers block. Anything socially contentious, like "BLM", "election", "covid" increases the chances your message will get a 30008 error aka carrier-level content blocking. More disturbing is that plenty of carriers will also block messages but report them back to Twilio as delivered.

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

#232

Post by gunapologist99 »

Terretta wrote: post #230
gunapologist99 wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The discussion about the algorithmic feed seems to be out of context for this thread (i.e., Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”) I don't believe the problem is facebook recommending anything -- the problem is facebook trying to ban certain content entirely (at least in the context of this thread -- algorithmic feeds are a separate problem.)

> I'm not making the connection between an algorithmic feed and anything I wrote. > The title of this thread is 'Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”'. > I don't believe the problem is facebook recommending anything -- the problem is facebook trying to ban certain content entirely You say you don't believe (a), and you state that the problem is (b). I'm seeing "belief" without subst…

> I'm also actively not taking username "gunapologist" as related in any way.

rotfl touché

> I'm seeing "belief" without substantiation in both of those sentences.

that's why I said "believe". my opinions about what facebook should and shouldn't be doing are simply that.. opinions.

if I were to say any of this on facebook, it's possible that I could immediately be banned, and where's the fun in that. (that's a serious question.. isn't facebook supposed to be a fun place to communicate? if we have to worry about the ban hammer, how is it either?)

Moderation should be like HN: light, but still there. If it gets too heavy, civil discourse dies. If it disappears, then the place might turn into lord of the flies. (although, I hope a place like that always exists, too.)

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

#233

Post by torstenvl »

manofmanysmiles wrote: post #33
jtbayly wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume it has been claimed on FB that this is proof that the flu didn't disappear but just got misdiagnosed as Covid, and/or that the Covid tests results couldn't be trusted at all, hence they have been withdrawn.

How should this be interpreted? Isn’t implying that the test can’t tell the difference between flu and covid? If that’s true, then, how can we be sure that flu hasn’t been misdiagnosed? What percentage of Covid cases were classified using PCR tests?

It does not imply that. It would be effectively impossible for that to happen. PCR testing is a crude form of genetic test. Influenza viruses and coronaviruses are not closely related. It's more likely that a genetic test would confuse influenza for ebola (another negative sense single strand RNA virus) than for a coronavirus infection.

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

#234

Post by jtbayly »

_-david-_ wrote: post #175
13years wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it does state that. However, there is the word 'and' between detection and differentiation. The original could not detect, so therefore differentiation is a moot point. Also, the test for flu was a separate test. So it would have had no effect on the lower flu incidence assuming we didn't test for flu at a lesser rate.

>assuming we didn't test for flu at a lesser rate. Do we have any numbers on this? I would imagine a lot of people who went to the doctor or whoever complaining of flu like symptoms would have been tested for covid.

Yes. We have figures for it. In 2017-18, there were 1.21M flu tests over the course of 33 weeks.

In 2020-21 there were 1.11M flu tests over 33 weeks.

Results: Essentially a 0% positive test rate vs a peak of over 25%. A peak of about 125 cases vs 20,000 cases.

1: https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/54973 2: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/weeklyarchives2020-2021/data/...

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

#235

Post by crocodiletears »

jdavis703 wrote: post #218
908B64B197 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get why they can't add a regex to ok *.gov$ websites. > Nevertheless, the level of carelessness upon which this mechanism seems to have been built upon is an embarrassment. Same mechanism would flag and ban folks who argued that the lab leak hypothesis was a possibility and was worth investigating... Interesting how the media changed their narrative on this one.

Are we sure government websites won’t contain misinformation? For example, senior government leadership was advising the consumption of bleach as a COVID-19 cure.

Iirc, he was asking a CDC official whether the application of a disinfectant to infected lungs had been investigated. A stupid idea on its face, but at no point did he recommend the consumption of bleach as a cure or a treatment for covid.

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

#236

Post by Terretta »

gunapologist99 wrote: post #232
Terretta wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not making the connection between an algorithmic feed and anything I wrote. > The title of this thread is 'Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”'. > I don't believe the problem is facebook recommending anything -- the problem is facebook trying to ban certain content entirely You say you don't believe (a), and you state that the problem is (b). I'm seeing "belief" without subst…

> I'm also actively not taking username "gunapologist" as related in any way. rotfl touché > I'm seeing "belief" without substantiation in both of those sentences. that's why I said "believe". my opinions about what facebook should and shouldn't be doing are simply that.. opinions. if I were to say any of this on facebook, it's possible that I could immediately be banned, and where's the fun in that. (that's a seriou…

I agree with everything here, FWIW. :-)

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

#237

Post by Terretta »

pier25 wrote: post #15
crummybowley wrote: post #6

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.

> Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are the carrier, and should be treated as such. It's more nuanced than that because ATT doesn't repeat a phone call it has deemed interesting to millions of other people.

> ATT doesn't repeat a phone call it has deemed interesting to millions of other people

True, it doesn't. Instead, AT&T repeats millions of phone calls it carries to a party deemed interested.

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

#238

Post by jussij »

crocodiletears wrote: post #235
jdavis703 wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are we sure government websites won’t contain misinformation? For example, senior government leadership was advising the consumption of bleach as a COVID-19 cure.

Iirc, he was asking a CDC official whether the application of a disinfectant to infected lungs had been investigated. A stupid idea on its face, but at no point did he recommend the consumption of bleach as a cure or a treatment for covid.

While he did recommend taking hydroxychloroquine as a cure, recommended the end of lock downs and actively rejected the use of masks.

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

#239

Post by Terretta »

kahirsch wrote: post #228
mikem170 wrote: post #3

The submitted postimg.cc screenshot had the following cdc.gov link [0], which appears to be flagged as false information. The following text was on that cdc page: > After December 31, 2021, CDC will withdraw the request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel, the assay first introduced in Febr…

People were spreading misinformation about the link. Just to be clear, there is no recall. The test is not defective. The test can be used through the end of the year. The CDC recommends using tests that can detect flu as well as COVID. The current PCR test from the CDC does not detect flu at all, or other coronaviruses. The test is very specific. See pages 40 on in the Instructions for Use[1] if you are interested.…

This was beautiful, reading the actual text first, and only then the hot takes.

Thanks for that collection.

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

#240

Post by TrispusAttucks »

gunapologist99 wrote: post #210

Facebook seems to be censoring so much because Facebook believes that most people will actually believe whatever bits of misinformation are floating around out there. But is everyone that easily manipulated? More importantly, does everyone actually believe that they can be easily manipulated, or do they just think that everyone else is so easily manipulated, but somehow they're above the fray? And at what point does…

You are absolute right.

Censorship is...

A STRANGE GAME.

THE ONLY WINNING MOVE IS

NOT TO PLAY.

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