YouTube Under No Obligation To Host Anti-Vaccine Advocate's Videos, Court Says (arstechnica.com) 48
"12 people account for the lion's share of anti-vaccination propaganda posted to three of the leading social media outlets," NPR reported in 2021, citing a study from a London-based group opposed to online hate and disinformation."
But this week Ars Technica reports that one of those 12 "lost a lawsuit attempting to force YouTube to provide access to videos that were removed from the platform after YouTube banned his channels." Joseph Mercola had tried to argue that YouTube owed him more than $75,000 in damages for breaching its own user contract and denying him access to his videos. However, in an order dismissing Mercola's complaint, U.S. magistrate judge Laurel Beeler wrote that according to the contract Mercola signed, YouTube was "under no obligation to host" Mercola's content after terminating his channel in 2021 "for violating YouTube's Community Guidelines by posting medical misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines."
"The court found no breach because 'there is no provision in the Terms of Service that requires YouTube to maintain particular content' or be a 'storage site for users' content,'" Beeler wrote. Because Mercola's contract with YouTube was found to be enforceable and "YouTube had the discretion to take down content that harmed its users," Beeler said that Mercola did not plausibly plead claims for breach of contract or unjust enrichment.
Mercola's complaint was dismissed without leave to amend.
Thanks to ArchieBunker (Slashdot reader #96,909) for sharing the article.
But this week Ars Technica reports that one of those 12 "lost a lawsuit attempting to force YouTube to provide access to videos that were removed from the platform after YouTube banned his channels." Joseph Mercola had tried to argue that YouTube owed him more than $75,000 in damages for breaching its own user contract and denying him access to his videos. However, in an order dismissing Mercola's complaint, U.S. magistrate judge Laurel Beeler wrote that according to the contract Mercola signed, YouTube was "under no obligation to host" Mercola's content after terminating his channel in 2021 "for violating YouTube's Community Guidelines by posting medical misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines."
"The court found no breach because 'there is no provision in the Terms of Service that requires YouTube to maintain particular content' or be a 'storage site for users' content,'" Beeler wrote. Because Mercola's contract with YouTube was found to be enforceable and "YouTube had the discretion to take down content that harmed its users," Beeler said that Mercola did not plausibly plead claims for breach of contract or unjust enrichment.
Mercola's complaint was dismissed without leave to amend.
Thanks to ArchieBunker (Slashdot reader #96,909) for sharing the article.
Net neutrality (Score:1, Troll)
I thought republicans say “let the market decide!”?
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
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Sorry but doesn't the US constitution prevent a candidate from winning 3 elections?
Trump would have to concede 2020 first.
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Perhaps breaking the law has consequences?
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As per the constitution. Though IMO he's not a traitor until he's had his day in court. Though OTOH I think they banned rebels w/o going through court after the ACW.
Also, FYI, in some states it's Republicans trying to keep him off the ballot.
Re:Net neutrality (Score:4, Informative)
The point of the amendment was to mass disqualify anyone who participated in the Civil War. Far too many people to require a trial for each. Everyone understood the point, and it mostly worked.
There were only 6 disputed cases from 1869-1872. One of them ended in a lawsuit. The key takeaway is that the rule is not a punishment, but rather an eligibility qualification. No convictions are necessary. (ruling [case.law])
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Market elements deciding not to host their propaganda? That is clearly a case for regulation!
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It's like abortion. they said "let the States decide", then as soon as Roe V Wade fell, they push to pass a national-level ban. Extreme right Reichwingers can't be reasoned with. They believe they are doing "gods work", and since they believe "god" is infallible, they're actions are infallible.
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Yes, you giant fucking idiot, they did. The effect can be seen in the excess death tolls when broken down by political leaning.
Re:Because... (Score:5, Informative)
re: "...masks and vaccines made a big impact, right? /s"
From the last COVID deaths stats:
US: 329.48 million population, 1,021,276 COVID deaths
Canada: 38.01 million population, 42,219 COVID deaths
(Source: statista.com)
So the US has 8.668x Canada's population, but had 24.19x its COVID deaths. 24.19 / 8.668 is very close to 2.8. The US has had 2.8x as many COVID deaths per capita as Canada.
Canada had/has higher rates of vaccination, mask use (with or without mandates), lockdowns/isolation and other COVID measures. How else could we have only 0.35x the COVID death rate?
It certainly isn't some ethnic resistance as Canada is one of the most ethnically diverse countries on Earth.
It isn't that we're socially isolated through living far from each other either. Because Canada is so northerly/cold, most of our population lives close to the US border; Canada is even more urbanized than the US.
What, then?
Re: Because... (Score:1)
Then... what? (Score:2)
I heard that federal funds were allocated based on the number of covid cases/deaths seen, which led to people gaming the system by assigning any deaths to covid if the person in question had covid at the time of death.
There were several notable cases which highlighted this issue; among them: two brothers who died from knife wounds (gang fight related) and a motorcycle accident DOA were both listed as "Covid deaths" because testing after the fact showed that all three had covid.
After some time, this led to t
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I'm not convinced.
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In regards to the motorcycle accident. https://wpde.com/news/nation-w... [wpde.com]
Dr. Pino tells FOX 35 that one "could actually argue that it could have been the COVID-19 that caused him to crash."
Your gang knife fight gave me a good chuckle. Are the Sharks and Socs having a rumble? Or was it the Sharks and Greasers?
Re: Then... what? (Score:2)
After some time, this led to the question of "died *from* covid, versus "died *with* covid", at which point the data was so muddled that the issue became a point of political debate.
When the total number of deaths per week is up _____30-40%_____ year over year for a month, not once, not because of lockdown measures or stress induced by mask wearing, but in waves. Waves exactly fitting each wave of COVID infections. And you see it everywhere, every US state, fitting that state's infection rates, or more broadly, the waves. They were in the news... we lived it.
There is literally no reason for you to believe the method of counting categories matters, it's clear as sunny day in the totals.
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Pretty meaningless overall, considering motorcycle accidents were reported as Covid deaths, as were the people who were murdered by the respirators... as were all flu deaths. Did Canada have multiple states lock the elderly up and prevent them from going outdoors? No?
Nevermind each covid-designated death resulted in massive federal subsidy for the hopsitals.
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The problem is that you are listening to DeSantis, a fucking liar
Snopes: [snopes.com]
Contrary to what DeSantis stated, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance doesn't direct caregivers to list all deaths as COVID-19 deaths simply because the disease was detected in the decedent. Instead, it instructs caregivers to list various factors contributing to death in appropriate sections of death certificates. In other words, it does not state that anyone who suffers an unnatural death such as a traffic accide
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is that why medical personel, nurses and doctors, were freaked out? To make the theater more believable?
Was this worldwide theatrical act improptu, or coordinated? I ask because it was the same in other countries, too.
If this was some kind of conspiracy, where not *one* hospital came up and said "Here at Saint SuchAndSuch Hospital, we're as baffled as you are, as to why all the other hospitals are so freaked out. It's the same as always, more or less, over here." , we're talking about hive-mind levels of co
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> What, then?
Considering how awful and debilitating COVID wasn't for me when I eventually caught it; I'd really like to see what happens to the numbers when you account for poor health choices prior to COVID. I was in good health at a proper weight when the pandemic started. Aside from mental health problems from going stir-crazy stuck at home, missing all of my friends and pastimes during it, and having most of my coping strategies taken away for years, and putting on some weight from, again, being fo
Re:Because... (Score:4, Interesting)
They did. Obviously the usual morons (like you) are deep in denial. Anybody that today still does not understand what vaccines do and why they are a reason the world is much safer is a cave-man, no excuses. Incidentally, the source of the anti-vax idiot movement was not anti-vaxx at all. They completely misunderstood what was claimed and then they missed that the claim was fraud intended to push people towards a different (!) vaccine manufacturer. It really does not get more stupid than to be anti-vaxx.
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So 12 evil scum (Score:2)
That are in part responsible for 1000's of deaths? Cool!
Then (Score:1)
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You really should read this. https://www.eff.org/issues/cda... [eff.org]
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Are you for net neutrality? If you aren't, then should ISPs be considered publishers if they throttle or make you pay extra to visit certain sites?
YouTube is being spiteful about one thing (Score:2)
YouTube - you don't want to host his videos, then don't.
But give the creator one chance to download the thousands of hours od content he created over the years - some potentially useful. It's quite possible he does not have a backup of it. How many of us have backups of all the (sometimes quite good) posts we made on Slashdot over the years. Yet our old posts are available to us, both here and on the Wayback Machine (e.g., https://web.archive.org/web/*/... [archive.org])
However YouTube allows neither. It's famous for pe
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Maybe relying on "the cloud" to be your backup isn't a good idea.
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Backups? We don't need no stinkin backups, it's in the cloud!
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Typical rightwingers, always wanting free handouts.
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Please let me now the deaths related to belief in Big Foot, Aliens and Flat Earth
Here are the instances of Anti-Vaxers dying from covid, who would probably be lying about it today, if they were alive
Notable instances [wikipedia.org]
In August 2021, a number of conservative talk radio hosts who had discouraged COVID-19 vaccination, or expressed skepticism toward the COVID-19 vaccine, died from COVID-19 complications.These included 65-year-old Marc Bernier, self-nicknamed "Mr. Antivax", from Daytona, Florida; 65-year-old Dick