The problem is that questions about the vaccine are being labeled as anti-vaccine. Real data about the side effects of the vaccine constitutes science not anti-vax propaganda. It is distressing that supporters of informed consent are being lumped in with QAnon.
YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
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Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
#52I'm normally against this kind of thing, but then I read the comments, even here on HN, and kind of see it as the lesser evil.
Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
#53Time 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…
Let me reframe: let’s say that YouTube hosts anti-vax content and as a result some percentage of people are swayed by this content to not vaccinate themselves or their children. Some percentage of them dies. Let’s say in absolute numbers it is 10,000 people. Do you think that YouTube did a good thing by allowing that content?
Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
#54“ 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 v…
Pretty sure these two statements alone won't get you banned.
Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
#55I'm surprised other major platforms haven't done this yet.
Following the report, some have.
But why be surprised? They grow a lot of greens out of such content. Why kill the golden cow unless you need to (because forced to)?
Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
#56As much I condemn anti-vaxxers: “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”
This is not about "disagreeing with what you say". This is about people literally dying. Not just the people spreading the information either, innocent bystanders that get killed by the disease.
Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
#57People don't see what the actual problem here is - perhaps because they don't want to see. What is happening is very much the transformation from an open society to one where freedom of speech is limited and certain other individual rights are stripped away. Perhaps not de jure, but de facto.
And sure, one might argue that it's for a good cause (even though it's a complex topic). However, the fact is that as this is done once, it becomes something that can be leveraged as the norm. There is a very real danger here, and nobody knows whether it will realize or not.
The question is not whether you can post anti-vax content today. It's whether you can post anti-anything tomorrow.
Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
#58"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…
Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom to lie and hurt public health efforts.
Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
#59As much I condemn anti-vaxxers: “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”
They still have every right to say what they want. YouTube also has the right not to aid them.
This is the information version of "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here."
Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
#60As much I condemn anti-vaxxers: “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”
Looks to me like they still have the right to say it, YouTube is just opting out of being their distribution system.