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There are 4 comments on Is YouTube’s Crackdown on Vaccine Misinformation Going to Be Effective?

  1. I am not ok with censorship like this, or tech giants deciding what constitutes ‘misinformation’. I think it’s important to remember that progress and developments in all areas of life come precisely from questioning the status quo, not from settling for it. The science is never settled – that’s not the nature of science! – and precedents like this pave a dangerous road. Most people might agree with the censorship in this instance, but what happens when there are similar measures put in place regarding a topic you don’t agree with? Like I said, developments in *all* areas of life come from pushing the boundaries and questioning the status quo. What if Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech had been censored as ‘misinformation’ because it was uncomfortable for some people to accept the idea of racial equity? That’s a horrifying idea! I will personally never vote in favor of censorship and am appalled at You Tube’s decision to do this.

    1. Indeed … this is an old battle that, I had thought, had already resolved in the academic community through the immemorial words of Justice Louis D. Brandeis:
      “If there be time to expose through discussion, the falsehoods and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”

      Banning or censoring unpopular speech will only bolster conspiracy theories, as they move to alternate venues and continue discussions without the benefit of mainstream response.

      For those who respect the people, the right approach is to provide verifiable and cogent support for important positions.

  2. The previous comments are spot on… Does anyone really agree with big tech suppression of free speech? It sets a perilous and alarming precedent that has the potential to increase exponentially if not checked. We all know that history is full of condemnation of censorship… The latest disturbing actions of social media can only be seen as a dangerous path to authoritarianism (look it up) and loss of liberty (hence the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution). A few famous quotes:

    “Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.
    Benjamin Franklin”

    “We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavouring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still. ~John Stuart Mill, “Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion,” On Liberty, 1859″

    “Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime . . . .” — Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, dissenting Ginzberg v. United States, 383 U.S. 463 (1966)

    “In 1946 the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution reading in part, “freedom of information is a fundamental human right, and the touchstone of all the freedoms to which the United Nations is consecrated.” This is our touchstone as well. This is the code of the Voice of America. We welcome the view of others. We seek a free flow of information across national boundaries and oceans, across iron curtains and stone walls. We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. ~John F. Kennedy, 1962″

  3. How exactly is YouTube cracking down on COVID-related misinformation in other languages? Is there a reporting mechanism other than the one on individual videos?

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