Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 1001 posts

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

#111

Post by kgwxd »

mariodiana wrote: post #73
ookblah wrote: post #50

Someone want to throw out there a better way to combat disinformation than just armchair criticizing their decision? I almost feel like people are siding with the anti-vaxxers out of "principle". Just a no win situation. It's too easy for bad characters to screw up an entire system with little effort (look at trolls, spammers, etc). Either you moderate everyone and slippery slope down into censorship where the tools…

"Misinformation" should not be combatted by anything other than better, more persuasive information.

If the hare never takes a nap, the tortoise will never catch up.

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

#112

Post by mabbo »

YouTube is a private company, not a public service. Anti-vax is not a protected class of people, and so there is no law that says YouTube cannot discriminate against them.

As a company, they've decided to take this path. They don't have to justify it.

If that makes you angry, boycott them. Don't conduct business with them, which includes watching their content and ads.

And if you think that YouTube is large enough and a big enough monopoly that it should be treated as a public service and subject to the rules that apply to public services, then either nationalize it so that it is, or break it up so that there's competition in the market.

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

#113

Post by avianlyric »

mc32 wrote: post #10
pyronik19 wrote: post #5

Trust the science...or else.

Except we’re not allowing Sputnik V travelers in the country despite science…

The Sputnik V vaccine might be good. But there’s a fair bit of evidence that it’s mass manufacture has some problems. Which makes it difficult to say with certainty that what’s injected into peoples arms, is effective as what was tested during clinical trials.

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

#114

Post by Loughla »

mach1ne wrote: post #57

People 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…

I genuinely don't get it. YouTube, a private entity and not a government entity, is saying they don't want certain content on their platform. This is not the end of your free speech. This isn't really even a movement away from free speech. It's YouTube exercising their right to freedom of speech by not allowing what they believe to be harmful or disagreeable on their platform. They already do this with other categories of thing. This is no different.

You are more than able to start your own company and let whatever you want on that site. Or just go to your local city center with a megaphone and give people your thoughts - perfectly legal.

If YouTube is THAT essential to getting your views heard, you need to take a lesson from business - don't rely on anyone else for critical infrastructure.

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

#115

Post by throwaway0a5e »

ookblah wrote: post #50

Someone want to throw out there a better way to combat disinformation than just armchair criticizing their decision? I almost feel like people are siding with the anti-vaxxers out of "principle". Just a no win situation. It's too easy for bad characters to screw up an entire system with little effort (look at trolls, spammers, etc). Either you moderate everyone and slippery slope down into censorship where the tools…

>Someone want to throw out there a better way to combat disinformation

Yeah. Don't do shit. Let the stupid run its course.

Trying to combat disinformation is like bombing villages in hope of hitting an ammo dump. The collateral damage is more damaging than ignoring the problem.

Why do we always have to be Doing Something(TM)?

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

#117

Post by Dumblydorr »

mariodiana wrote: post #65

I think we have to ask if this won't have a chilling effect on open discussion by moderate voices. I'm subscribed to the channel of an M.D. on YouTube who discusses COVID-19, vaccines, etc. He is very careful to (repeatedly) point out that he is vaccinated, he has personally vaccinated hundreds of patients, he encourages everyone to speak to their doctor and follow their recommendations, believing that the vaccine is…

The wackos are the ones creating the context in which moderate voices lose their power. If you want moderation, you have to remove the extreme BS and the algorithms that thrive on it, which process buries moderates and makes their views anathema to the polarized extremes. Why allow polarized extremes to form on your private, I must emphasize privately owned, platform? This isn't the public square, freedom of speech does not guarantee freedom of reach. Content moderation is a good thing, it has the word moderate in it after all, that may signal that it promotes healthy dialogue just like public ridicule and scorn and shame should, in theory, moderate discourse actually covered by free speech in the public square, where it's not anonymous.

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

#118

Post by gentle »

ookblah wrote: post #50

Someone want to throw out there a better way to combat disinformation than just armchair criticizing their decision? I almost feel like people are siding with the anti-vaxxers out of "principle". Just a no win situation. It's too easy for bad characters to screw up an entire system with little effort (look at trolls, spammers, etc). Either you moderate everyone and slippery slope down into censorship where the tools…

Great point!

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

#119

Post by ethbr0 »

swayvil wrote: post #102
afavour wrote: post #40

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…

It isn't the guy with the gun. It's actually the bullets that are to blame.

Ha. I think part of this struggle, to borrow your analogy, is that YouTube and Facebook are organizationally blind to the fact that they built a gun.

Or maybe Google is concerned. And Facebook just doesn't care.

But the root cause is "algorithms for increasing engagement will prefer shock content." Solve that, and they wouldn't need to band-aid issues like this.

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

#120

Post by steego »

rflec028 wrote: post #6

A global conglomerate seeking to carry out an agenda and censoring dissenting opinions, credible and conspiracy alike? Color me surprised.

People have incredibly short memories, but media conglomerates have ALWAYS been in the business of curating and censoring content.

Sometimes it’s about agenda, but more often than not, it’s about ad revenue and shielding themselves from risk.

This is more about spending themselves from risk because YouTube has been getting a lot of flack for actively spreading misinformation with their recommendation engine, which goes beyond merely hosting it.

If Google REALLY had an agenda, why did they let their recommendation engine push these videos while millions of people around the world died?

The truth is Internet media companies chose to profit from the engagement that misinformation was providing.

All of this censorship you see today is a big meaningless public relations show.

Conglomerates don’t care about free speech and they definitely don’t care about misinformation.

They care about revenue.

Post reply on HN