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YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
291–300 of 1001 posts
Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
#292I 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…
This is my concern as well. How many people refrain from saying anything about Covid at all for fear of triggering some mindless algorithms? Human review of such blunders is unreliable at best.
Funnily enough, I have exactly this problem with ads on a youtube channel right now. On the Channel, one video mentions Covid in the context of healthcare politics. This results in instant rejection of ads for other videos about other topics. Requesting review of the denial results in confirmation of the denial in about 95% of the cases so far.
The video in question is citing official recommondations, i.e. is pro-vaccination, of course.
Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
#293Time 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…
I personally really preferred old Youtube, where your subscriptions were the main thing you saw along with the absolute "most popular viewed today" kinds of things. The algorithm has only made the site worse in my experience and I always go directly to my subscriptions to be able to at least see things I'm subbed to.
It appears to me that YT is actively trying to move away from subscriptions completely, relaying on this recommendation algorithm for everything
hell I would not be surprised if with in 5 years they remove the subscribe button completely, replacing it with just the notification bell
Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
#294My wife is very vaccine hesitant, and every time they make a move like this to block content or take it down, it only strengthens her position. She thinks they’re taking it down because they don’t want people to know the truth. The only thing worse than bad ideas is the suppression of bad ideas. It’s tragic that we knew this at some point, but are going to have to figure it all back out again the hard way.
> She thinks they’re taking it down because they don’t want people to know the truth. The sad truth is, they do this just because of fucking ad revenue . There's no grand conspiracy against, or even for anti-vaccination movements. It's just people selling the world for a quick buck. And some people are still shooting me weird looks when I keep telling them that advertising is a cancer on modern society.
Huh? The opposite seems to me to be true: YouTube can make "easy money" selling ads on viral anti-vax videos, but choose not to.
Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
#295Good. They're dangerous morons.
You are a dangerous moron, you Nazi.
If you lived in middle age, you would be burning witches, in Nazi Germany killing Jews, but in present time all you can do is calling people morons.
NB: @dang, please remove both my and parent comment. I wrote this one just so that parent can “feel” how it looks to be on the opposite side of hate speech and internet insults.
Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
#296I 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…
Right to ask, but not without also balancing against the issue of people being utter idiots. A little sensible conversation has lead to tens of thousands of hours doctors talking patients down when they come in demanding anti-parasitic medicines. I don't know what the best balance is. One thing is evident: social media is not the venue for scientific debate.
> One thing is evident: social media is not the venue for scientific debate.
Hum... Any place people can gather to have an online debate is social media. That's the wrong dimension to use here.
Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
#297Good thing they told us yesterday that ‘free speech is a 'core value'’
https://www.businessinsider.com/youtube-google-russia-putin-...
Well, not that kind of speech, of course!
Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
#298I 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…
Honestly, in a world where wackos will take the smallest soundbite they agree with from a moderate legitimate discussion, blow it out of proportion and weaponize it... It's hard to imagine this move by Google as overall bad. It's definitely heartbreaking, but so is the fact that a 3rd of the world is refusing to help out with solving the pandemic.
I honestly have no idea which move has an overall higher cost for society. Yet, we can't keep incentivizing wackos by giving them a platform or there'll keep being more and more of them.
Free speech, amplified to a wide audience is clearly having a negative impact on society and on out ability to be compassionate as a society. Maybe this is a step in the right direction.
Only time will tell but it's far to early to criticize the move. Especially when without it, wackos are gaining agency.
Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
#299As the moderate and wholesome voices get drowned out by the push of “the algorithm” towards engaging (read: polarizing) content, YouTube will sadly become like Facebook for me- obsolete and deleted. Once I’m convinced that your product is unhealthy, especially in this time, I’m out, and I won’t be back.
Sex, hate, anger, violence, political extremism- so over it.
How about a tech platform that actually does good for once?
What alcoholism and obesity were to the precious generation, we are on a fast track to a mental health crisis of epic proportion if something isn’t done. I don’t know how people work at places like fb/ig/yt in good conscience.
Re: YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content
#300I 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…
This is my concern as well. How many people refrain from saying anything about Covid at all for fear of triggering some mindless algorithms? Human review of such blunders is unreliable at best.
Obviously not enough people are shutting up, given the way that antivax content is the #1 propagator on Facebook.
There is money to be made from lying to people. That's why it's being banned. It should have been done last year honestly, but social media companies were afraid to anger Trump. They took the barest actions to add warnings, and no surprise, no one reads them.