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YouTube Bans Coronavirus Vaccine Misinformation (reuters.com) 152

YouTube said this week it would remove videos from YouTube containing misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, expanding its current rules against falsehoods and conspiracy theories about the pandemic. From a report: The video platform said it would now ban any content with claims about COVID-19 vaccines that contradict consensus from local health authorities or the World Health Organization. YouTube said in an email that this would include removing claims that the vaccine will kill people or cause infertility, or that microchips will be implanted in people who receive the vaccine.
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YouTube Bans Coronavirus Vaccine Misinformation

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  • by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Thursday October 15, 2020 @10:30AM (#60610070)

    going to remove most of the trump videos?

    • Well the president of the United States could actually be a leader, provide the citizens with honest and useful information. Vs. Trying to minimize it, because he thinks it makes him look bad.

      Trump is no leader, he has no experience actually leading, he was only a Boss because his dad gave him a bunch of money.

      Perhaps because I have worked with people like Trump, that this man is mentally ill seems obvious to me, that his narcissism is getting in the way of implementing any helpful and long term changes in

  • Good (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mrspoonsi ( 2955715 ) on Thursday October 15, 2020 @10:36AM (#60610100)
    Previously before social media, idiots could only influence those in their close social circles, now these same people have a platform to spread miss-information, it is a power they should not have.
    • Previously before social media, people were solidly against censorship in any form, by government or moral busybodies who claimed to be "for your own good". Now these same people have the power to silence others with whom they disagree, it is a power they should not have. Power to the people!

      "I think all censorship should be deplored. My position is that bits are not a bug."
      -- Aaron Swartz (1986 - 2013) founder of Reddit.com

      • Yes, yes, because every American citizen is legally required to use Twitter, Facebook, and all other 'social media' platforms, and can be prosecuted for avoiding using them! Twitter and Facebook are government organizations, paid for by YOUR tax dollars, and bound by the Constitution! That's why Trump uses Twitter so much! Did you cast your ballot for Trump on Twitter yet? You have until 11:59pm on Tuesday, November 3rd to cast your Presidential ballot on Twitter otherwise you're out of luck! Also I hear st
        • In a corporatist system of government, corporate censorship is state censorship. When there's no meaningful space between corporate power and government power, it doesn't make much difference whether the guy silencing your dissent is Mark Zuckerberg or William Barr. America most definitely has such a system.

          Freedom of speech is a far larger concept than something just limited to the government. It includes issues like privatization of the channels of speech that limit the messages that can be said and non-

          • In a corporatist system of government, corporate censorship is state censorship.

            Stopped reading right there, because any subsequent text from you building on that sentence alone is likewise unbelievable bullshit
            {CITATION(S) NEEDED}
            Show me FEDERAL LAW supporting your bullshit claim or STFU.

      • by cusco ( 717999 )

        Of course they do, it's their web site. If you create your own web site you don't need to allow posts promoting child prostitution or genocide, do you? But if you remove them it's censorship, isn't it?

    • Previously before social media, idiots could only influence those in their close social circles, now these same people have a platform to spread miss-information, it is a power they should not have.

      It takes an idiot, to believe one.

      Root-cause analysis speaks volumes here if we ever want to start evolving again instead of devolving. Instead of trying to herd Stupidity with our cats, lets stop attacking intelligence and try teaching humans to not be idiots instead.

      • It takes an idiot, to believe one.

        Indeed. But the sad reality is that the masses are generally full of idiots. It's up to the smart people to protect idiots from themselves.

  • by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 ) on Thursday October 15, 2020 @10:39AM (#60610130)

    So... do they actually let a virologist check their rules?

    Or is it just about whose subjective reality happens to have the biggest stick in the village?

    Looking forward to seeing them ban the first virologist and researcher because they fell for some pseudo-science that is currently popular with the politicial group they are partisan with. Juuust like the nutters. :)

    • by cjmnews ( 672731 )

      Exactly. A bunch of reviewers paid minimum wage knows what is real vaccine information and what is not.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Yes, yes, because telling a bunch of two-digit IQ people on Twitter that the fucking coronavirus vaccine will kill them dead, or put a tracking chip in their bodies (this last one being X-Files level conspiracy shit) needs to be fact-checked before deleting it. Please, GET REAL, mmkay? "You can't fix stupid"; some people are just so plain stupid that they'd believe shit like that. Twitter is protecting the idiots from themselves.
      • Yes, yes, because telling a bunch of two-digit IQ people on Twitter that the fucking coronavirus vaccine will kill them dead, or put a tracking chip in their bodies (this last one being X-Files level conspiracy shit) needs to be fact-checked before deleting it. Please, GET REAL, mmkay? "You can't fix stupid"; some people are just so plain stupid that they'd believe shit like that. Twitter is protecting the idiots from themselves.

        To slightly misquote George Carlin, those "two digit IQ people" are half the population.

        There does seem to be a general comprehension problem, that people do not believe this shit is happening, and try to carry on as if nothing were going wrong. This is not so much to do with intelligence, and more to do with moral fortitude. I do not know where that went. It disappeared a short time after the end of World War 2, I think. People are believing in loony shit because they can't face reality. It's not that bad,

    • So... do they actually let a virologist check their rules?

      Or is it just about whose subjective reality happens to have the biggest stick in the village?

      Looking forward to seeing them ban the first virologist and researcher because they fell for some pseudo-science that is currently popular with the politicial group they are partisan with. Juuust like the nutters. :)

      I know this is slashdot, but it still amazes me how you'd chose to type that post rather than...

      The video platform said it would now ban any content with claims about COVID-19 vaccines that contradict consensus from local health authorities or the World Health Organization.

    • So... do they actually let a virologist check their rules? Or is it just about whose subjective reality happens to have the biggest stick in the village?

      You don't need to be a scientists to separate actual science from worthless bullshit.

      because they fell for some pseudo-science that is currently popular with the politicial group they are partisan with.

      Political partisan bullshit doesn't generally make it into peer reviewed journals. I know you don't have a clue what that means but that doesn't mean others have a problem separating bullshit from science.

  • by GregMmm ( 5115215 ) on Thursday October 15, 2020 @10:42AM (#60610148)

    Tell me, since we never see what "vaccine misinformation" is how do we know it is? Why are we censoring ourselves and act like it's a good thing.

    I'm totally good with vaccines, but tell me, since there is no tested and completed vaccine, how can you determine misinformation? You know if you want to silence someone, just label it as vaccine misinformation.

    Where does it stop?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Oh NO NO NO! The coronavirus vaccine will put government tracking chips in your body! Also it'll KILL you!!!11!!!

      Do you really need shit like that fact-checked!?

    • Where does it stop?

      The red line is when the government gets involved.

      YouTube is a private entity. They can do what they want. If you want to get your message out, there are other venues.

      The danger is that people will accept the silencing of opponents, rather than debate, as a valid response to criticism, and then demand the silence be enforced with coercion (i.e.: government).

      We are getting close to that line. We have already had congressional hearings where private citizens have been compelled to explain their tolerance f

    • by malkavian ( 9512 )

      Interesting, since vaccines are among the most highly tested medical interventions out there.. Where do you get that they're not tested?

      • Uh, Not vaccines in general. the "coronavirus" vaccine.

        totally not ready to go and not tested.

  • . . . under the right (or actually, wrong. . . ) circumstances. The chance of it, with normal dosing, however, is vanishingly small. The same applies to vaccines. Yes, it could happen, but the odds are tens, or even HUNDREDS of orders of magnitude smaller than the anti-Vaxers claim.

    • by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Thursday October 15, 2020 @11:19AM (#60610346)

      . . . under the right (or actually, wrong. . . ) circumstances. The chance of it, with normal dosing, however, is vanishingly small. The same applies to vaccines. Yes, it could happen, but the odds are tens, or even HUNDREDS of orders of magnitude smaller than the anti-Vaxers claim.

      Uh, those odds you speak of get a lot more deadly on an accellerated timeline.

      Let me remind you now that it took several decades to get a polio vaccine right. In the meantime, here's a little highlight from the "vanishingly small" historical timeline of the first year of polio vaccines:

      "Unfortunately, initial trials were poorly executed and caused great harm to those involved. Teams of researchers in New York and Philadelphia both administered vaccines containing active poliovirus to tens of thousands of living subjects, including children and chimpanzees. Many subjects became severely ill or paralyzed, experienced allergic reactions, and even died of polio."

      No matter how you want to paint it, vaccines are hard, and that difficulty likely increases almost exponentially when you have a President trying to rush one, because "muh elekshuns"...

      • Of course, it is important to note that a large reason for the danger with the polio vaccines was because polio is a VERY dangerous disease. If polio still had the same level of danger for most people that it had in the 1940s, we would not even be talking about Covid-19.
      • No matter how you want to paint it, vaccines are hard

        Baking a cake from scratch is hard too and much easier if you skip the whole growing grain bit and just get some flour from the shop. It's even easier if you have recipes to work with or get your grandma to show you how to bake.

        There's literally a world of difference in knowledge and capabilities between when and from what starting point we developed the polio vaccine and what we are currently doing with development of this vaccine. There are 4 drugs already heading to Phase 3 trials already. To be clear th

        • No matter how you want to paint it, vaccines are hard

          Baking a cake from scratch is hard too and much easier if you skip the whole growing grain bit and just get some flour from the shop. It's even easier if you have recipes to work with or get your grandma to show you how to bake.

          There's literally a world of difference in knowledge and capabilities between when and from what starting point we developed the polio vaccine and what we are currently doing with development of this vaccine. There are 4 drugs already heading to Phase 3 trials already. To be clear these are drugs that have already passed critical safety hurdles which didn't even exist for the polio vaccine.

          That's before you consider the design differences of the polio vaccine vs all the main contenders for a COVID-19 vaccine (no one will catch polio from these).

          Yes, I'm well aware of the fact that this virus is technically SARS-COV, Mark Two.

          And yet, even with that knowledge, every infectious disease expert predicted the same timeline: 18 months.

          Four drugs in phase 3 you say? So NOW all we have to endure, is the fucking political nightmare that will infect the decision of which one. Great. That human cockfighting for Greeds sake should only take another 18 months...

          • Yes, I'm well aware of the fact that this virus is technically SARS-COV, Mark Two.

            That's not what I'm talking about (and did we even make a vaccination for the first such virus?) I'm talking about the process through which you design vaccines, the understanding of them and their reaction with the body, has developed in amazing ways since polio. Comparing the polio to any modern vaccine makes as much sense as comparing a horse to a car. Like coming back to the deadly part: and your direct quote, that is completely irrelevant in the modern context because we simply don't create vaccines wi

  • by Arzaboa ( 2804779 ) on Thursday October 15, 2020 @10:50AM (#60610186)

    YouTube rarely removes anything from what I've seen. Crypto currency scams with Elon Musk "speaking" are up there all of the time with 10's of thousands of views. You can report them all day, but they don't get removed.

    I've reported everything from sexual content about minors to misinformation in every form. Rarely does anything get removed from YouTube. I have seen it removed from my feeds but the minute I log in with a different ID, they are all still available and getting more views.

    The Alphabet corp. may say they're doing something but its only lip service. They make billions but won't spend it on actual human moderators. Without doing something different, nothing will change.

    --
    The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent. - Gore Vidal

  • Apparently there is only one correct view on this disease that is plaguing the most fascist countries in the world: that of the central authority.
  • by magzteel ( 5013587 ) on Thursday October 15, 2020 @10:56AM (#60610224)

    From a great lecture "https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/michael-crichton-explains-why-there-is-no-such-thing-as-consensus-science/"

    Here’s what Michael Crichton had to say about “scientific consensus” back in 2003 when he gave a lecture at the California Institute of Technology titled “Aliens Cause Global Warming” (emphasis mine):

    I want to pause here and talk about this notion of consensus, and the rise of what has been called consensus science. I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you’re being had.

    Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus. There is no such thing as consensus science. If it’s consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t consensus. Period.

    • by KenAndCorey ( 581410 ) on Thursday October 15, 2020 @11:17AM (#60610334)
      I would say "scientific consensus" could be interpreted in different ways. If it is just a bunch of scientists saying the same thing, then what Crichton says makes sense. But I see "scientific consensus" as a bunch of scientists reproducing and verifying an experiment backing up a scientific theory. I see that kind of consensus as very scientific. I see it as "reproducible results" which is what Crichton says is relevant.
    • by drew_kime ( 303965 ) on Thursday October 15, 2020 @01:59PM (#60611316) Journal

      First, the obvious ad hominem: Who appointed Michael Chriton the arbiter of what science is?

      But as for the actual argument he makes, "scientific consensus" doesn't mean or imply that something is true or correct because of the consensus. It means that scientists have converged on a reliable theory. If someone wants to refute that theory, they're going to need extraordinary evidence to do it.

      Here's the thing that is always ignored by people arguing against the idea of consensus: Scientists generally love extraordinary evidence. Come out with a repeatable experiment that disproves a well-established theory and people will jump at the chance to put their name to the new theories that will follow.

      So yes, scientific consensus is a real and valuable thing. And science advancing by questioning consensus is also a real and valuable thing.

      • First, the obvious ad hominem: Who appointed Michael Chriton the arbiter of what science is?

        But as for the actual argument he makes, "scientific consensus" doesn't mean or imply that something is true or correct because of the consensus. It means that scientists have converged on a reliable theory. If someone wants to refute that theory, they're going to need extraordinary evidence to do it.

        Here's the thing that is always ignored by people arguing against the idea of consensus: Scientists generally love extraordinary evidence. Come out with a repeatable experiment that disproves a well-established theory and people will jump at the chance to put their name to the new theories that will follow.

        So yes, scientific consensus is a real and valuable thing. And science advancing by questioning consensus is also a real and valuable thing.

        You should read that lecture. It's really good.

        • You should read that lecture. It's really good.

          I read it. It's not good. At best it's an example of how hard it is for people to find flaws in arguments. Perhaps it's good sophistry, but nothing more.

    • by malkavian ( 9512 )

      Scientific consensus has a particular meaning.
      It's when a theory has been analysed, and nobody can disprove it (and the theory must be disprovable, otherwise it lies in the domain of philosophy, not science).
      When a lot of people have tried, and failed to disprove it, then the scientific consensus becomes "This, to the best of the knowledge we currently have seems to fit the evidence as well as we're able to establish, and better than alternate theories, so it becomes our current candidate to base other work

  • by Java Pimp ( 98454 ) on Thursday October 15, 2020 @11:02AM (#60610246) Homepage

    Just because I'm paranoid it doesn't mean they are NOT out to get me!!!

  • ban any content with claims about COVID-19 vaccines that contradict consensus from local health authorities or the World Health Organization

    I'm pretty sure these contradict each other.

  • WHO's on first? (Score:5, Informative)

    by tiqui ( 1024021 ) on Thursday October 15, 2020 @11:23AM (#60610364)

    So... given that WHO can't make up its collective mind and keeps changing the "truth", will YouTube et al be banning what WHO said in January as lies while promoting what they said in March? Will they Ban what WHO said in March and promote what they said in January and in June? Will they ban everything WHO said before October and stand on THAT as the "truthiest" of truths? And if the October pronouncements are the "settled science", what then when WHO makes some new contradictory statements in the next few months?

    In the Trump era, a great many people in many fields have become deranged and mix their politics into every damned thing so that we can no longer presume that a pronouncement of a scientist or doctor is non-partisan, unbiased, and tainted by a political agenda. It's also not just the Trump thing - China, as self-identifying communist regime (which I contend is NOT one, but is rather actually a mono-racial totalitarian fascist one, given the actual details) has extended the tentacles of its regime into entities like the WHO which is now run by a Marxist terrorist rather than a medical man. China has, for decades, dangled the prospects of billions of consumers in from of western corporate leaders looking for big untapped markets, and in response many of these businesses have gradually made themselves into servants of China, enforcing Chinese information control preferences as long as they are allowed to make money (Mussolini would recognize this pattern well). In other words, even in an alternate universe where Trump was never born and nobody was deranged about him, many powerful institutions, like international do-gooder outfits, media companies, and tech giants are catering to the whims of the Chinese communist party and manipulating information. Just look at the hoops Mark Cuban jumped through within the last several days during an interview to avoid saying anything about Chinese ethnic policies - he has no hesitancy in attacking Trump, or talking about ethnic issues in the USA, but he makes money from the massive basketball audiences in China, so, well, you get the point...

    • by malkavian ( 9512 )

      The reason that "The Truth" changes in WHO is that science advances, and people learn more about the problem, and how it presents.
      The initial advice was given based on what worked for Influenza. Not a bad stab, but it doesn't correctly predict how COVID spreads, or its nuance.
      So the advice changes. And the more that's learned, the better people can identify what works, and how well.. And as that progresses, advice changes again.

      This is actual progress. There's rarely any such thing as "Settled Science".

    • This, they will also have to ban any official press conferences featuring the Canadian Government. They talk about covid every day or two and nothign they say aligns with the WHO.

  • got the memo ;)
  • YouTube said in an email that this would include removing claims that the vaccine will kill people or cause infertility, or that microchips will be implanted in people who receive the vaccine.

    Laughable. All good conspiracy theorists know that microchips are implanted into newborn babies with their Hep-B and vitamin K injections.

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