How stupid is Youtube to think this will do anything but make people believe all the lies they're hearing? "Would Youtube do this unprecedented thing unless it was true?"
Why not just let the marketplace of ideas shake things out? They can't magic away people's beliefs, they aren't the CCP. So they might as well let people hash it out.
More like youtube is doing what they can to support a certain political position with disregard for human lives. If anything the WHO recommendations themselves are misinformation.
It's interesting to see them fully removed, rather than adding a disclaimer. I predict that the disclaimers that sites like YouTube have implemented in an effort to fight misinformation are not that effective, especially among users who already have a tendency to distrust platforms/government.
And YouTube is saying that it is not obligated to carry content that convinces stupid people to do dangerous things. Doing so causes chaos, which ultimately reduces advertising spend and hurts profits.
We'd just have to guess/speculate why they labeled it 'misinformation'. Nobody actually believes YouTube has any qualifications whatsoever to decide that. It's not a valid justification unless you accept corporate authoritarian censorship.
I think there is more nuance to this. The problem is that YouTube literally claim "Our mission is to give everyone a voice and show them the world." not the selectively suppress the views of certain groups. So I think it's closer to false advertising.
Wait, they're claiming that Youtube recommends a lot of conspiracy bullshit, which is pretty well documented. You're pointing out that Youtube bans one specific narrow type of conspiracy bullshit, which is true but irrelevant. I don't see how that makes their statements questionable.
I don't follow the YouTube world at all, but I still keep hearing things like this. I'm surprised YouTube doesn't punish or at least stop people who make false claims.
I have an idea I'm exploring that would involve making YouTube videos and that (and other things I've heard) would make me hesitant to follow through on the idea.
This action is YouTube pushing back against government misinformation! Why would you think it's a sign that they're more likely to push government misinformation in the future?
YouTube's response is now to simply remove videos containing misinformation while previous policies have seen most related content demonetized. Examples provided by the executive include videos claiming that people can be cured by taking vitamin C or turmeric. Neither has been proven to act as a cure according to the wider health community.
Another example of prominent videos that are being removed, she continues, are those related to 5G as an underlying cause. The policy changes, like the rise of those conspiracy theories, have had to be rapid. As a result, for the time being, Videos that contain claims in direct opposition to information provided by WHO will be removed as well.
YouTube hopes that by removing conspiracy theories and misinformation, it can help keep users better informed.
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While it may squash some of the stupider and more dangerous ideas floating around right now, it tosses the baby out with the bathwater and harms important discussion about whether those in charge right now do actually have their information right.
Yet if you look at the comment sections for this video, there isn't anyone tearing it to shreds.
This isn't something I have been able to confidently form an opinion on; it's a hard topic. I think we will be strugging with how to balance bias, deliberate misinformation and freedom of speech for a long time.
But I think at the very least, YouTube needed to put up prominent disclaimers and links to limit the harm that this content can cause.
The material in question will get your channel flagged and demonetized on YouTube.
This rhetoric is akin to redefining "worker rights" to mean being payed $500/hour with benefits, and then proclaiming some corporation doesn't believe in workers rights if they don't go along with whatever preposterous fantasy you have.
Disgusting. YouTube has profiteered via ad revenue on these videos for over a month and now that it's dying down they want to be the last ones through the door and say "hey we're against this stuff we're the good guys."
They stand for free speech as long as it suits them and they stand against misinformation when it doesn't, the fucking sociopaths.
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