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YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content

washingtonpost.com

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Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content

#31

Post by AndrewBissell »

lmilcin wrote: post #15

"Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recognized as a human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law by the United Nations." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech https…

> But it is also hard to watch principles being ignored for immediate benefit.

This won't even provide any "benefit" in terms of increased vaccination rates, but that's not the real purpose anyway. What they're really doing is carving up large chunks of people into information silos and trying to reduce the amount of communication happening between them.

Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content

#32

Post by IgorPartola »

kristofferR wrote: post #19

This is so dumb, vaccine proponents doesn't have anything to hide (like censoring information from vaccine opponents gives the impression of).

Correct. You are free to read all the studies. YouTube isn’t a place to learn about vaccines.

Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content

#33

Post by xqcgrek2 »

They're a private company and can do whatever they want. However, one only needs to see the trending page in any country to see the kind of crap YouTube promotes and profits from. So, please spare me of the corporate propaganda for YouTube's rationale of this decision.

Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content

#35

Post by jf22 »

literallyaduck wrote: post #11

First they came for the Republicans, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Republican. Then they came for the antivaxers, and I did not speak out— Because I was not an antivaxer. Then they came for the antimaskers, and I did not speak out— Because I was not an antimasker. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. — adapted from Martin Niemöller

Relax. This isn't Germany in the 1930s.

Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content

#38

Post by josh_today »

“ YouTube will ban any videos that claim that commonly used vaccines approved by health authorities are ineffective”

So speaking truth can get me banned from YouTube?

• Infections happen in only a small proportion of people who are fully vaccinated, even with the Delta variant. When these infections occur among vaccinated people, they tend to be mild.

• If you are fully vaccinated and become infected with the Delta variant, you can spread the virus to others.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vac....

Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content

#40

Post by afavour »

Time for repeat showing of the free speech debate we’ve already had a dozen times, whoopee!

As ever, IMO, the problem isn’t the hosting or the banning, it’s the algorithms. I don’t care whether YouTube hosts anti-vaccine activists, I care that they actively promote anti-vaccine content to users simply because it’s proven to get clicks and earn them money. Bans like this look incredibly stupid when you realise YouTube itself is responsible for this disinformation getting so much traction.

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