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How Twitter moderated the Covid debate

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Re: How Twitter moderated the Covid debate

#81

Post by kodyo »

myko wrote: post #41
xqcgrek2 wrote: post #21

What is the realistic legal recourse for those who were censored from pressure by the US government? Sue the relevant agencies or executive branch? Will anyone even go to prison or lose their job?

> Will anyone even go to prison or lose their job? Why would they? This is another nothingburger, Musk is just seeking attention for the sake of attention. If that means echoing antivax bullshit, or trying to make sure Hunter Biden's penis is available for all to see on the internet, that's what he will do.

People who use the phrase “nothingburger” aren’t persuadable.

Re: How Twitter moderated the Covid debate

#82

Post by dboreham »

dannyw wrote: post #33
stevebmark wrote: post #22

I don't really care about a private company making reasonable decisions and learning about their internal debate process. Up until Musk, I was impressed to see Twitter grow a backbone and not fall to the cowardly cries of "free speech." What I don't follow is the jump some people make from reasonable moderation like this, to fascism. They see internet platform moderation as a gateway drug to a physically oppressive g…

There are very real people who have been harmed by side effects from the vaccine. Whether the virus itself would've been more deadly is a question for another time, but if your loved ones were unlucky enough to get myocarditis from the vaccine, and you were silenced on social media, sometimes invisibly like you're being gaslit, and so were the doctors and researchers, it's easier to understand the strong emotional re…

> a question for another time

Why? Surely this is the primary question to ask ahead of time?

Re: How Twitter moderated the Covid debate

#83

Post by DisjointedHunt »

Imagine if this was Trump. That for me puts the reaction in tech circles in perspective.

We would see two impeachments, wall to wall news coverage, protests by employees at Facebook, Apple and Google, all asking for deplatforming everyone associated and so much more.

Its ridiculous that we're unable as a society to separate actions from political affiliation.

Re: How Twitter moderated the Covid debate

#85

Post by PartiallyTyped »

RyanShook wrote: post #20

I'm not a conspiracy theorist but I think the longest lasting legacy of covid will be the distrust it created for big government, big pharma, and big tech.

I am fairly certain this is an American thing, or more broadly an issue in countries with lower levels of education and overall mistrust in their governments which clearly don’t work for them.

The basis of my argument is counter example countries such as Denmark. In Denmark, we all got vaccinated, and as soon as a second booster (3rd jab) was available, the government coordinated the distribution with pharmacies to allow administration. The response of the people was so immediate that within a week or so > 80% had at least 2 jabs plus booster. This meant that we could open up immediately, and covid became a thing of the past.

Denmark had a peak at the time, with far far far lower deaths per infection than other countries and previous peaks.

The difference is in communication. The Danish government and the responsible department communicated everything and monitored the situation in a way that allowed quick and nimble responses.

We had free jabs, nobody forced us to get vaccinated, we all did so willingly, we had free testing, and if we didn’t want a jab, we could wear masks and what have you.

Re: How Twitter moderated the Covid debate

#87

Post by HDThoreaun »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #42
CharlesW wrote: post #17

> "Yet it was deemed “false information” by Twitter moderators merely because it differed from CDC guidelines." Obviously, Twitter should not have followed CDC guidelines. They should have created their own healthcare group in charge of evaluating which CDC guidelines coming out of the Trump and Biden administrations were correct and which were not, based on blue-check user surveys.

No need. All they have to do is remain neutral and avoid "moderating" at all. Just because the CDC said something does not automatically make it true. It's a valuable authority but it's not the Ministry of Truth. People are allowed to question and contradict it.

No one uses unmoderated platforms. Twitter has a fiduciary duty to make sure their platform has a good reputation with users and advertisers. That means moderation.

Re: How Twitter moderated the Covid debate

#88

Post by insanitybit »

imwillofficial wrote: post #65
insanitybit wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hell at this rate I’d hear somebody out if they said the moon is made of cheese. Right. That's the problem.

because it’s dangerous to listen to other peoples opinions?

Why would it not be dangerous?

Re: How Twitter moderated the Covid debate

#89

Post by dgfitz »

jacquesm wrote: post #80
kodyo wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN readers lean toward the establishment narratives.

I wonder for how long that will still be the case. The fringe is getting more and more grip on HN and we may well be fighting a losing battle.

Funny thing about pendulums…

Re: How Twitter moderated the Covid debate

#90

Post by peter422 »

dannyw wrote: post #33
stevebmark wrote: post #22

I don't really care about a private company making reasonable decisions and learning about their internal debate process. Up until Musk, I was impressed to see Twitter grow a backbone and not fall to the cowardly cries of "free speech." What I don't follow is the jump some people make from reasonable moderation like this, to fascism. They see internet platform moderation as a gateway drug to a physically oppressive g…

There are very real people who have been harmed by side effects from the vaccine. Whether the virus itself would've been more deadly is a question for another time, but if your loved ones were unlucky enough to get myocarditis from the vaccine, and you were silenced on social media, sometimes invisibly like you're being gaslit, and so were the doctors and researchers, it's easier to understand the strong emotional re…

I’m sure you mean well, but one of the few things we know for sure is that the virus is way, way, way more deadly than vaccine.

If you are going to overlook all those RCTs run all throughout the world with different types of vaccines and huge populations of people, then you really should reflect on your own analysis of the data.

I'm not saying the vaccine is perfectly safe, as few things are, but it's obviously, provably, much better to get the vaccine before you get COVID if you care about reducing the overall risks to your health.

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