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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”

#391

Post by caddemon »

BeetleB wrote: post #185
telxos wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actual research shows the opposite effect on mental health from what you are saying. When you don't have Facebook your friends and family just txt or email. I mean Facebook book hasn't even been around that long. To pretend it is something like water or electricity is just preposterous.

While I agree that FB disappearing wouldn't be that big a deal, the idea that email is an "obvious" alternative is quite problematic for the younger folk. Data point: In 2009, the admin assistant in my department at university told me she's been getting quite a few upset incoming freshmen because of the requirement to have an email address for university classes - many of them had never used email before, and had com…

I agree email isn't the best for social communication, but I find it silly young people would get upset about needing an email address. It seems pretty obvious to me that an email is required for a number of basic adult functions, especially if one doesn't want to make a lot of phone calls. I was in high school in 2009 and my entire peer group was already using email for things like summer job applications and booking appointments.

Also, I'm surprised the university wasn't assigning them .edu emails anyway. My younger brother is in college now and he loves the school email for getting student discounts.

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

#392

Post by emodendroket »

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…

> 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?

I mean, having watched family members descend into raving about the Pope and George Soros harvesting children for adrenochrome despite no previous interest in current events, yeah, I think people can be manipulated by obviously bogus information. You can decide for yourself what you think should or shouldn't be done about it but I don't think that point should be in doubt anymore.

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

#393

Post by landemva »

bitL wrote: post #241
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…

The issue is an increasing infantilization world-wide where some group thinks it needs to "protect the others", assuming they are the single source of truth and that it's obvious they are. It's a well known bias which for some reason aligns with the current zeitgeist. As everything before, it shall too pass at some point.

Yes. 'some group thinks it needs to "protect the others"'.

Virtual signaling and safetyism. Hilarious how the virtue signaling elite regularly close their conference calls with "everyone stay safe". Oh, I know you (don't) care about me.

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

#394

Post by emodendroket »

snowwrestler wrote: post #257
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…

Facebook is removing content because that is ground they want to stand on. Removing content feels like censorship, so it lends itself to political grandstanding in their favor. Millions of people get upset and demand that Facebook handle all content neutrally, which is exactly what Facebook wanted everyone to think in the first place. The real issue with Facebook is the editorial decisions they make about promoting s…

Nobody actually wants an "uncensored" Facebook. If you went there and your feed were full of spam, porn, and shock videos, you'd stop going.

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

#395

Post by modriano »

decremental wrote: post #359
p1necone wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a global pandemic killing thousands of people and there's a sizeable portion of the American population spreading misinformation that's causing a significant number of people to not get the vaccine, in turn endangering both themselves and others. It seems obvious to me that there would be people researching how to either stop this misinformation being spread, or educate people enough to stop believing it. Thi…

316 people have died of Covid in the last 7 days in the US, according to the CDC.

Actually that's average number of DAILY deaths from the past 7 days, not the number of deaths in the past 7 days. As a lot of people take the weekends off, reporting of new cases and deaths decreases sharply on weekends and increases on Mondays, but in reality people are not dying at a lower rate on weekends. That's why the stats are averaged over 7 days.

For reference, there are about 15k homicides per year in the US, or about 41 per day, which is about 13% of the 316 daily COVID death rate reported by the CDC (and on the front page of the NYTimes site).

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

#396

Post by landemva »

SquishyPanda23 wrote: post #378
gunapologist99 wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the fact checkers believe that there is an external source of truth (i.e. facts) which they are checking? Ah, yes. I believe you are referring to the CDC.

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic, but the CDC doesn't see themselves as a single source of truth. They defer to the scientific consensus of people who specialize in understanding how viruses work, how pandemics work, and who have a process for learning facts by interrogating reality.

They defer to the scientific consensus of people who specialize in understanding how PLANET ORBITS work.

Consensus brought us an earth centric solar system and low fat heart healthy grains with an obesity epidemic and rampant heart disease.

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

#397

Post by kumarvvr »

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.

Sure. But what would be your position, if, as a neutral carrier and a profit making business, FB sets up a system of taking money & promoting content (whatever the content) ?

Would you be ok with FB promoting glorification of white supremacy? Because, as a neutral carrier, it is not supposed to look at the content.

Would you support it promoting a content piece that is a fluff of falsehoods resting on a thin layer or truth (They are making all the frogs gay !) ?

FB could always argue that it is not responsible for content on its servers and can always argue that the counter point is also allowed.

What if corporations, with their infinite marketing budgets start using FB to start promoting that climate change is actually good for the world?

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

#398

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

acdha wrote: post #368
SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's an exaggeration, and I wouldn't flag it, but I worry about the attitude. Officials are telling the truth about the danger of the coronavirus, but sometimes they do lie! We can't afford to cultivate an attitude that only raving lunatics accuse government agencies of lying.

No, but I think it’s important to do that by relying on reason and evidence. Anyone known to repeat lies is unlikely to be right about deep secrets, just as the Snowden leak didn’t validate the people convinced that the government was reading your emails on behalf of the Trilateral Commission and aliens in Area 51.

I mean... didn't it? One of the things Snowden revealed was an international conspiracy called Five Eyes, where intelligence agencies across the Anglosphere coordinate to covertly guide world events in their preferred direction, leaning on each other to handle things such as domestic espionage which would be illegal in their home countries. I'm not sure we can mark this as a loss for the conspiracy theorists, even if they were wrong to think the Trilateral Commission was involved.

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

#399

Post by lmm »

TheParkShark wrote: post #249
wffurr wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No promoting content, no need to flag misinformation.

I fully agree with this. It flys in the face of what I have even seen recommend on HN for TikTok. I’ve seen posts saying the algorithm on TikTok is the best and it gives great suggestions. I guess my question to you is, do you think TikTok has a superior algorithm to Facebook/YouTube or is promoting content on any level going to lead to misinformation?

Just as a foreign newspaper can be the best way to find out the actually important things going on in your country/culture, maybe a foreign algorithm (or rather algorithm-moderation complex - I suspect facebook recommendations have a lot more manual tuning than anyone would admit) will be better at recommending in a neutral way. (TikTok of course has blatant biases on particular issues - but they're issues that are less relevant to most westerners than the things which Facebook/YouTube recommendation is biased about).

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

#400

Post by emodendroket »

epicureanideal wrote: post #361
slg wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The antivax movement existed long before COVID and Facebook was a huge contributor to its spread. There is nothing scary about someone researching that.

Although we should be careful not to lump everyone opposed to the current vaccines in with the anti-vaxers.

Divisions within a group are always more interesting to members than outsiders.
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