Live data from Hacker News

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

washingtonpost.com

831–840 of 1001 posts

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

#831

Not sure if everyone has read the actual policy ( https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/11161123 ) but for those who hasn't: Don’t post content on YouTube if it includes harmful misinformation about currently approved and administered vaccines on any of the following: * Vaccine safety: content alleging that vaccines cause chronic side effects, outside of rare side effects that are recognized by health authorities…

Also useful the (consistent) Axios summary:

https://www.axios.com/youtube-anti-vax-misinformation-vaccin...

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

#832

Not sure if everyone has read the actual policy ( https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/11161123 ) but for those who hasn't: Don’t post content on YouTube if it includes harmful misinformation about currently approved and administered vaccines on any of the following: * Vaccine safety: content alleging that vaccines cause chronic side effects, outside of rare side effects that are recognized by health authorities…

this is legitimately dystopian. only can mention side effects that have been "recognized by health authorities" ? how would whistleblowing even be possible in this environment?

Misinformation should be put out in sunlight or else the public may lose the ability to think critically in some respects. Then they’ll be dependent on these companies to steer dialogue and be truth-tellers.

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

#833
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 than just armchair criticizing their decision?" Yes. Combat disinformation by refuting it. This requires credibility, and censorship is one of the fastest ways to burn that down.

The problem is that bullshit takes significantly less effort to produce than a well-researched counter-argument.

With the sheer volume of disinformation out there, you can't even start to imagine having the required manpower to squash it all with refutation alone.

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

#834

Not sure if everyone has read the actual policy ( https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/11161123 ) but for those who hasn't: Don’t post content on YouTube if it includes harmful misinformation about currently approved and administered vaccines on any of the following: * Vaccine safety: content alleging that vaccines cause chronic side effects, outside of rare side effects that are recognized by health authorities…

Normally I'd be opposed to censorship in general, but in this case I'm kind of glad, but only because shit like this is actually happening even now: https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2021/0927/1249210-covid-pati...

AFAIC, anything they can do to suppress the raving lunacy of people like the ones who convinced that poor man to leave hospital, may he rest in peace, is a good thing in my book.

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

#835

Not sure if everyone has read the actual policy ( https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/11161123 ) but for those who hasn't: Don’t post content on YouTube if it includes harmful misinformation about currently approved and administered vaccines on any of the following: * Vaccine safety: content alleging that vaccines cause chronic side effects, outside of rare side effects that are recognized by health authorities…

this is legitimately dystopian. only can mention side effects that have been "recognized by health authorities" ? how would whistleblowing even be possible in this environment?

> Also, the policy states some exceptional cases such as countervailing views with a support from medical experts, firsthand experiences, etc.

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

#836

Not sure if everyone has read the actual policy ( https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/11161123 ) but for those who hasn't: Don’t post content on YouTube if it includes harmful misinformation about currently approved and administered vaccines on any of the following: * Vaccine safety: content alleging that vaccines cause chronic side effects, outside of rare side effects that are recognized by health authorities…

this is legitimately dystopian. only can mention side effects that have been "recognized by health authorities" ? how would whistleblowing even be possible in this environment?

The thing is, youtube is crappy place for "whistle blowing" because video is a terrible medium for people evaluating information critically - any references a video might have will slip by a person, the general demeanor of a presenter can matter more than their content or credentials, etc.

It's not unreasonable for youtube to refuse non-mainstream health theories even if those theories deserve an airing somewhere.

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

#837
post #271

My 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.

That line of reasoning doesn't make a lot of sense to me. One of my family members is also very hesitant to get the vaccine and gets all kind of anti-vaccine propaganda through various groups and channels. She takes that content as "reasonable" and "potentially true" even tho basically all of what I've seen is simply untrue. E.g. an article claiming there were more deaths due to covid vaccines than to covid, which is…

So we have a situation where keeping the content is reinforcing the beliefs and where blocking the content is also reinforcing the beliefs, because "legitimate" content telling "the truth" is blocked "without reason".

This is pretty close to the truth. For a further nudge in the right direction you should apply that thinking to the state of mind your family member was in prior to encountering any "anti-vaccine propoganda".

They were not in a kind of limbo where they could go either way on covid vaccination. They consumed specific media because they already distrusted the authorities in power in the USG.

The reason you are ending up in this apparent to censor or not to censor paradox is because leadership had already previously failed to convince your family member that they could be trusted. Everything that came after was just mobilization.

Now in your situation you should of course censor the hell out of any anti-vaccine sentiment for the same reason that ISIS should not get to train on Army gym equipment and weapons: it *strengthens* your enemies.

Downranking will of course be equally hopeless. This is the equivalent of the Army allowing ISIS to train with them but only on Sundays at midday or something. Its incoherent.

The right answer has been and will always be to have a leadership class (and that includes the people at Youtube and Google as well as legacy politicians) who can be relied upon to display even a modicum of trustworthiness towards *all* Americans. Ironically censorship also fails to move the needle in the right direction at this point.

Guess we are still in that paradox after all.

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

#838

I was hesitant for a while and the massive censorship was part of it. I got vaccinated in May and have convinced others to get the shot since the side effects, while existent, appear to be minor compared to the reduction in harmful symptoms. Talking to my doctor is what did it for me. He cleared up most of my concerns and pressed me that my remaining concerns were too nebulous to be useful. If he just said "shut up a…

> She believed that if the vaccine was actually as great as they're saying they'd be able to make more objective goalposts and win arguments instead of stopping them because the other side is too stupid to make their own decisions. The problem I see here is that the (I hesitate to call it this) anti-vax "side" has been shifting goalposts since day n-1. If you've ever talked to someone who's shifted goalposts you'll s…

I'm from Israel. I got the vaccine. The goalposts here shifted to a third booster shot. They already admit the first two doses become ineffective very fast, contradicting the early research that actually got me to trust and take the vaccine in the first place. The stated effectiveness of the vaccine also went downhill. I also had some unusual vaccine side effects that I will not discuss here because I prefer my privacy and nobody believes random internet anecdotes anyway, I'm only going to get criticized for sharing.

I'm not going to get any booster, even tho they are heavy handedly mandating it here, with absolutely zero data. They don't even allow you to confirm a healthy antibody count, strengthening the suspicion that this isn't about "waning antibodies count" at all.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I had my suspicions that this medical tyranny would keep on going on even when the medical data is non-existent, and that most people will not even notice the difference. That suspicion was fully confirmed. I personally apologized to my anti vaccine friend that he was right.

It's going to take a detailed research on why the original Pfizer trial was wrong on the effectiveness, what is the amount of antibodies required to be safe, and then I would see if I meet the criteria, if being recently vaccinated meets the criteria, if they understand the causes of the effects, if the booster actually gives reasonable advantage. And maybe then I'll consider it. If they don't put the side effects and the errors of the phase 3 trials under investigation I might not even vaccinate me or my future kids against other diseases as my trust of this industry was broken by the Pfizer experience.

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

#839

Not sure if everyone has read the actual policy ( https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/11161123 ) but for those who hasn't: Don’t post content on YouTube if it includes harmful misinformation about currently approved and administered vaccines on any of the following: * Vaccine safety: content alleging that vaccines cause chronic side effects, outside of rare side effects that are recognized by health authorities…

I feel like the efficacy is debatable. It reduces severe symptoms but more and more vaccinated are contracting it daily even in places of 95+% vaccinated so there's a good dialogue to be had here

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

#840
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…

Freedom of speech doesn't mean other people have to listen or host what you say.

https://xkcd.com/1357/

Post reply on HN