Last week, I authored a post on Section 230, Where I made the point:
The argument is that free speech is necessary for a functioning society, and when you have large corporations controlling the public dialogue by banning the dissemination of certain information, free speech becomes much harder, and because of that, something ought to be done to rein in Big Tech’s control of the narrative.
YouTube apparently wanted to make my point relevant by removing all trace of a roundtable run by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaking, among other things, on the efficacy of masking, specifically on the topic of school aged children. Either that, or I’m psycho. Psychic? One of the two.
When asked about it, YouTube spokesperson Elena Hernandez said;
YouTube has clear policies around Covid-19 medical misinformation to support the health and safety of our users, […] We removed AIER’s video because it included content that contradicts the consensus of local and global health authorities regarding the efficacy of masks to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
This is… mewling doublespeak. What “consensus of local and global health authorities”? And really…. Authorities have been more jittery on Covid than an ADD suffering Squirrel on PCP, why should their positions be dispositive?
Anthony Fauci, as an example, has taken literally every possible stance on pandemic prevention, admitted to lying about herd immunity because he thought people couldn’t take the truth, and was one of the slew of hypocrites caught not wearing a mask while gathering with friends outside the office.
What’s worse? The CDC has been inconsistent on masking. Previous to April last year, the progressive talking point was that masking was ineffective, possibly racist, and a tin foil hat conspiracy theory that was depriving medical professionals of PPE. That despite the fact that medical PPE does not share a supply chain with the face masks available to the public.
In a now deleted Tweet, the US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said on February 29th;
STOP BUYING MASKS!
and
Masks are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!
Well that clears that up, right?
Then the April 9 guideline came out recommending that we all mask up as an additional prevention measure, and masks became your solemn public duty. Although, we weren’t sure exactly masks were supposed to be effective against, because the CDC refused to acknowledge the obvious and say that Covid was airborne until early October.
Meanwhile… All through February and March I was pointing out things like how the infection curves are obviously different in nations that have social masking, and while I obviously didn’t have a study to back up what I was saying, it was beyond obvious, at least to me, that masking was effective on some level.
And that’s the reason I’m not happy with this move from YouTube. Based on that policy, back in February, had I said that in a YouTube video, it would have “contradict[ed] the consensus of local and global health authorities regarding the efficacy of masks to prevent the spread of Covid-19.” It would also have been completely correct, as the data came in.
As for DeSantis; his press secretary, Cody McCloud, called YouTube's move
another blatant example of Big Tech attempting to silence those who disagree with their woke corporate agenda.
YouTube claimed they removed the video because 'it contradicts the consensus of local and global health authorities,' yet this roundtable was led by world-renowned doctors and epidemiologists from Oxford, Stanford, and Harvard, all of whom are eminently qualified to speak on the global health crisis,
Good public health policy should include a variety of scientific and technical expertise, and YouTube’s decision to remove this video suppresses productive dialogue of these complex issues.
They have a point, the participants on that panel included Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University, Dr. Scott Atlas, epidemiologist Sunetra Gupta, and Dr. Martin Kulldorff of Harvard University.
So on one hand… We have Ivy League trained doctors, epidemiologists, and a Governor, and on the other, we have a fresh out of school intern in charge of enforcing YouTube video policies. And the intern wins, because he belongs to a company not much more knowledgeable on the topic of Covid than he is, and they have a narrative to sell.
Wonderbar.
The 1 Hour 45 Minute video is still available elsewhere on the internet, but it amazes me how long I had to dig to find it. I don’t think YouTube should be doing things like this, and situations like this give credit to the “We need to regulate Big Tech” arguments.
Thanks for the research on the ons and offs of masks over the past year, HT.
I doubt regulation is doable. I'm not a techie. Is creating new platforms a possibility. They seem to come and go. What ever happened to My Space? I just think more platforms rather than regulation is the preferable way to go. In a perfect world.
Ooops. Sorry HT. I just read your post on Section 230 where you addressed the question of what to do. Thanks.