[HN Gopher] YouTube deletes rapper's 'Let's Go Brandon' song cla...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       YouTube deletes rapper's 'Let's Go Brandon' song claiming medical
       misinformation
        
       Author : mrfusion
       Score  : 240 points
       Date   : 2021-10-23 12:58 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.foxnews.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.foxnews.com)
        
       | pmurt7 wrote:
       | Something is wrong when the king needs to censor the jester.
        
         | fabianhjr wrote:
         | I don't understand the allegories to feudalism when jesters who
         | crossed a line weren't censored but executed. (I would guess
         | specially if they expressed or supported any sort of anti-
         | monarchy or anti-their-monarchs viewpoints)
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | nullc wrote:
           | I believe banishment was a much more common punishment in
           | feudal kingdom than execution.
        
             | fabianhjr wrote:
             | Apparently some jesters were used as messengers during
             | campaigns / sieges and if the recipient didn't like the
             | message they would be trebucheted back to whomever sent
             | them.
        
           | nyolfen wrote:
           | maybe peasant is a better allegory; he works the lord's lands
           | solely at the lord's discretion, keeps a tiny share of what
           | is produced and is ejected at will
        
       | muststopmyths wrote:
       | Has anyone actually seen the video and not just read the lyrics
       | on genius ? Maybe the video itself is what actually caused the
       | ban ?
       | 
       | I haven't been able to find it myself but maybe worth
       | considering.
       | 
       | Ew. I just defended YouTube.
        
         | fortytwo79 wrote:
         | Watched it here:
         | https://mobile.twitter.com/Saint_BTC/status/1451559663753859...
         | 
         | Mostly just the rappers waving their hands around and showing
         | their guns.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | jimmar wrote:
       | Try to spot medical disinformation:
       | https://crownlyric.com/2021/10/19/loza-alexander-lets-go-bra...
        
         | miked85 wrote:
         | This is actually a different rapper, the article is referring
         | to Bryson Gray. Either way, I don't see the medical
         | misinformation.
         | 
         | https://genius.com/Bryson-gray-lets-go-brandon-lyrics
        
           | wodenokoto wrote:
           | > Biden said the jab stop the spread, it was lies (I
           | remember) How you woke, but you haven't opened your eyes?
           | (You ain't see)
           | 
           | I mean, I know there are pockets of people who believe that
           | saying vaccines don't work is telling the truth, but broadly
           | speaking, saying that vaccines are fake and don't work is
           | considered misinformation related to medicine.
        
             | no_butterscotch wrote:
             | He didn't say they didn't work? He said it was lies that
             | they stop the spread.
             | 
             | We now know of vaccinated people dying of covid, some right
             | after being vaxxed, some months after, some after getting a
             | second dose.
             | 
             | The lyrics can be interpreted a few ways. Was the vaccine
             | then supposed to _absolutely_ stop the spread and give
             | _absolute_ protection to a vaccinated person?
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | jfrunyon wrote:
               | How is saying that "it was lies that they stop the
               | spread" different from saying "they didn't work"?
               | 
               | He said vaccines don't work. You also said vaccines don't
               | work. And that's just simply not true.
        
               | mechanical_bear wrote:
               | In some cases, they do not.
               | 
               | But they work often enough and to a high enough degree of
               | efficacy that we still should bother.
        
             | dazilcher wrote:
             | > saying that vaccines are fake and don't work
             | 
             | But that's not what he's saying, is it?
        
               | JasonFruit wrote:
               | "I do not think about things that I do not think about!"
               | 
               | -- Matthew Harrison Brady in _Inherit the Wind_
        
             | furgooswft13 wrote:
             | The jab does not stop the spread though. I cite the news
             | for the past 3 months. I'm sure you've seen it. More cases
             | now than same time last year, when there was no vaccine?
             | Clearly the jab did not stop the spread. Oh it's the "delta
             | variant"? Still didn't stop the spread. It was lies (I
             | remember).
        
             | miked85 wrote:
             | I think it has been established that the vaccine acts more
             | as a therapeutic and does not prevent one from catching or
             | spreading the virus.
        
           | jimmar wrote:
           | Oops. You're right about me linking to the wrong song. I
           | didn't realize how popular that song title has become.
        
         | JohnHaugeland wrote:
         | You really need this help, champ?
         | 
         | > Biden said the jab stop the spread, it was lies (I remember)
         | 
         | That's medical disinformation.
        
           | henrikschroder wrote:
           | No, you're wrong. Vaccinations slow the spread, they don't
           | stop them.
        
             | JohnHaugeland wrote:
             | I'm sorry you struggle this way with casual english
        
           | merpnderp wrote:
           | Show me how any of the vaccines stop the spread. Go ahead and
           | show the study that shows any of them stop it. And make sure
           | you pay close attention to the word "stop" because I believe
           | that's where you're getting confused.
        
       | ofou wrote:
       | So, now you cannot make even art with dissident ideas.
       | 
       | Welcome 1984!
        
         | undersuit wrote:
         | The art was made without issue. Distribution is not a right.
        
           | DenverCoder99 wrote:
           | What classifies as distribution?
        
             | TameAntelope wrote:
             | YouTube hosting the art. YouTube gets to decide what
             | YouTube shows to its users.
        
               | intricatedetail wrote:
               | So they are they a publisher?
        
               | TameAntelope wrote:
               | No? They're a platform, the artist is the publisher.
        
               | kyle_martin1 wrote:
               | YouTube makes opinionated decisions about what gets in
               | their search results. They edit their search results and
               | have a team that decides that goes on the front page.
               | That's editing. YouTube is a publisher.
        
               | irl_chad wrote:
               | A publishing house publishes a book that an author
               | writes.
               | 
               | Digital platforms want to have it both ways - they want
               | to (in some cases manually!!!) curate and censor
               | recommendations, search results, and plain uploads, while
               | also retaining their platform protections.
               | 
               | The libertarian stance on this issue is completely
               | untenable. I know an Olympic gymnast who can't perform
               | gymnastics that well.
        
               | matthewmarkus wrote:
               | The libertarian stance would be to repeal CDA 230. I
               | don't know any libertarians that prefer statutory law to
               | common law.
               | 
               | "Libertarians share a skepticism of authority and _state
               | power_ , but some libertarians diverge on the scope of
               | their opposition to existing economic and political
               | systems."
        
           | ofou wrote:
           | Just to provide context "NIH admits Fauci lied about funding
           | Wuhan gain-of-function experiments" [1] If there's no one
           | even making art with borderline lyrics, nobody may realize
           | there's something besides the status quo. I'm not saying that
           | I agree with all dissidents opinions, but I strongly disagree
           | with messing with art. It's music for god's sake.
           | 
           | [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28972283
        
             | unclebucknasty wrote:
             | This "art" is not being produced in a vacuum.
             | 
             | YouTube is fighting a problem with disinformation that has
             | significant implications on a public health crisis.
             | 
             | I don't see why they should respond any differently, simply
             | because someone is singing the disinformation.
        
               | DenverCoder99 wrote:
               | How do you know that Youtube is always going to be
               | correct when they take down anything for disinformation?
        
               | actually_a_dog wrote:
               | Who cares? Whatever they take down, they can always put
               | back up.
        
               | DenverCoder99 wrote:
               | What would you say if Youtube did that to you?
        
               | actually_a_dog wrote:
               | That depends. Am I spreading misinformation?
        
               | teddyh wrote:
               | "I didn't think leopards would eat _my_ face!"
        
               | DaniloDias wrote:
               | I would welcome a national separation if it means that
               | people who think like you are on the other side of the
               | border. This is pitiable logic.
        
             | op00to wrote:
             | It's always something.
        
           | no_butterscotch wrote:
           | Tech companies, controlling the distribution, now determine
           | what is or isn't dissidence.
           | 
           | It may not be 1984, maybe something from Neuromancer or Snow
           | Crash (I forget which) where big corps control the
           | information that is considered acceptable for the plebs.
        
             | JohnHaugeland wrote:
             | you sound silly stubbing for fox lies this way and trying
             | to pretend it's ethically pased
             | 
             | neither of those cover this. nobody takes neal stephenson
             | seriously that way. take a class
        
           | psyc wrote:
           | I disagree that we're talking about rights at all. I think
           | the issue is really norms and expectations. Do we really need
           | to invoke the heavy hand of law and government as the
           | ubiquitous standard for what is acceptable?
        
             | iab wrote:
             | Where is law/government involved here?
        
               | bloaf wrote:
               | The specific claim is that because the law does not
               | prohibit something, it is therefore ok.
               | 
               | As Chesterton argues to the contrary "To have a right to
               | do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing
               | it."
        
           | ipaddr wrote:
           | Distribution in platforms or platforms themselves. If
           | platforms abuse their power the government can enforce
           | standards on platforms or disallow them from their
           | country/region. Distribution is not a right for either party.
        
           | ResearchCode wrote:
           | If you have a monopoly and your spy platform is essentially
           | infrastructure then yes, of course it is.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | MiguelX413 wrote:
             | Thank god there's 20 alternatives to YouTube then. Daily
             | reminder to use Peertube and that being able to reach
             | people, centralization, and ad monetization are
             | incompatible with freedom. Use Peertube, you can't have
             | freedom and reach+monetization.
        
               | DenverCoder99 wrote:
               | I've grown pessimistic about distributed networks and the
               | Fediverse. The Pareto distribution is this neverending
               | bastard of a phenomena that creeps up into everything we
               | touch.
               | 
               | If a distributed network ends up displacing Youtube,
               | what's going to inevitably happen is one section of the
               | network is going consume the vast majority of the
               | viewership and content, and they're going to start
               | repeating the same shit that Youtube is doing right now.
               | 
               | I'm not saying we shouldn't promote alternatives, but I
               | am saying we haven't really figured out how to properly
               | integrate social media into our society without it
               | disintegrating into what we're seeing now (or worse).
        
           | brighton36 wrote:
           | I was sympathetic to this ethos, until parler was taken off
           | the internet. Youtube is probably monetizing what would
           | otherwise be public utilities. If its not a right, then maybe
           | the citizens should be regulating youtube, instead of the
           | other way around.
        
       | pvaldes wrote:
       | Well done. The song is just stupid political publicity Qmamon
       | style without one single smart line. Nothing valuable is lost
        
         | downandout wrote:
         | It's called censorship. It rarely ends well for society.
        
         | yesbut wrote:
         | We have a legal system to deal with free speech issues. We
         | already decided not to hold public platforms accountable for
         | what its members publish on their platforms, outside of a few
         | narrow areas. These platforms shouldn't also then censor
         | content, whether you agree or not with the content, once they
         | are already benefitting from the legal protections.
         | 
         | The solution to bad speech is good speech. Never censorship.
        
       | theHIDninja wrote:
       | Let's be real. Youtube deleted this because it had a political
       | message that goes against their's. It had nothing to do with one
       | lyric even tangentially being misinformation about the Chinese
       | Virus.
        
       | lazyjones wrote:
       | I'm expecting this to disappear from HN as well, unfortunately.
        
         | batch12 wrote:
         | And your expectation came true. Front page then no page.
        
           | lazyjones wrote:
           | Very sad... I guess this kind of censorship / denialism is
           | becoming an accepted practice in certain circles. I would
           | have thought the moderators here are bigger than that.
        
             | tom_ wrote:
             | It's typically due to people like me flagging it, as we've
             | found from experience that the discussions are usually
             | pretty tedious.
             | 
             | This place is no democracy, though, so dang sometimes
             | brings them back. And that's ok.
        
             | kyle_martin1 wrote:
             | HN is mostly young San Francisco folks. Children act like
             | children after all. :-)
        
           | sampo wrote:
           | Now 7 hours later, this is #11 on the front page.
        
       | Proven wrote:
       | Thanks for telling us about the video. Let's go, Brandon!
       | 
       | https://rumble.com/vnxsm5-lets-go-brandon-rapper-loza-alexan...
        
       | undersuit wrote:
       | I'm out of the loop, but I've been seeing "Let's Go Brandon"
       | posts on a certain subset of the internet that I keep my eye on,
       | so this headline and source doesn't surprise me.
       | 
       | I think I'm better off judging this book by it's cover and not
       | telling Youtube how to run their house.
        
         | poorjohnmacafee wrote:
         | "I'm okay with youtube censoring memes that make fun of the
         | president"
        
           | brewdad wrote:
           | Youtube could pivot to nothing but cat videos tomorrow and
           | they would be perfectly in the right to do so.
        
             | NullPrefix wrote:
             | And that would be perfectly fine, but only if Youtube's CEO
             | stops giving speeches about free speech being a core value
             | 
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28683575
        
             | roenxi wrote:
             | There are many extraordinarily biased US media companies
             | out there. In theory, YouTube can become one more. And that
             | is fine.
             | 
             | But these companies aren't are a lot less respectable than
             | YouTube has been to date, and people know what they are
             | getting.
             | 
             | The issue here is YouTube's standards are changing and that
             | deserves to be discussed. And condemned, it is change for
             | the worse (even if in some sense it is probably
             | inevitable).
        
       | robocat wrote:
       | Lyrics:
       | 
       | [Intro: Joe Biden & Bryson Gray] The various shots the people are
       | getting now cover that They're-, they're-, they're okay You're
       | not gonna-, you're not gonna get COVID if you have these
       | vaccinations Somebody gotta do it Ayy
       | 
       | [Chorus: Bryson Gray] Let's go, Brandon I keep a drum like I'm
       | Nick Cannon, ayy, ayy, ayy, ayy (Brrt, brrt) Let's go, Brandon
       | Pandemic ain't real, they just planned it, ayy, ayy (They just
       | planned it) Let's go, Brandon When you ask questions, they start
       | bannin', ayy, ayy (Facts) Let's go, Brandon, ayy, ayy (Ayy, let's
       | go, Brandon) Let's go, Brandon, ayy, ayy (Ayy, let's go, Brandon)
       | Let's go, Brandon I keep a drum like I'm Nick Cannon, ayy, ayy
       | (Pow, pow) Let's go, Brandon Pandemic ain't real, they just
       | planned it, ayy, ayy (They just planned it) Let's go, Brandon
       | When you ask questions, they start bannin', ayy, ayy (Facts)
       | Let's go, Brandon, ayy, ayy (Let's go) Let's go, Brandon, ayy,
       | ayy (Ayy, let's go)
       | 
       | [Verse 1: Bryson Gray] Biden said the jab stop the spread, it was
       | lies (I remember) How you woke, but you haven't opened your eyes?
       | (You ain't see) These politicians are demons, just in disguise
       | (Facts) Look at Kyrie Irving and Nicki Minaj (Let's go) Look at
       | Australia, that's what's comin' next if we don't stand up Stop
       | complyin' with them takin' our rights, it's time to man up
       | 'Publicans votin' for red flag laws, that's just what I can't
       | trust If you ask questions 'bout the vax, then they gonna ban us
       | (It's true) Ayy, this is 'bout control, everybody knows Everyone
       | complies weigh the cons and pros I don't need a plane, I just hit
       | the road I do what I want, I can't sell my soul Market 'bout to
       | crash, this is what you chose Ruinin' the country, I think that's
       | the goal You gon' take the mark, I take narrow roads I'm a man of
       | God, I can never fold
       | 
       | Disclaimer: I am not supporting either side here - and the lyrics
       | are not really the issue in this situation imho - it is more meta
       | than that.
        
         | anm89 wrote:
         | That is... hard to read.
        
           | gfosco wrote:
           | easier to just watch it:
           | https://tv.gab.com/channel/realbrysongray/view/lets-go-
           | brand...
        
         | glhfgg wrote:
         | Lol yup. Banning is right.
         | 
         | Fuck dang.
        
       | collegeburner wrote:
       | You want to see worse? Youtube has shadowbanned this song from
       | search: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr_F_XQrukM
       | 
       | Search "Let's go brandon" and it should be the number 1 result,
       | it's #23 on trending for music still, it was #1, and it peaked at
       | #1 on itunes hiphop charts for US. But you don't get it unless
       | you search for "let's go brandon song", which makes me think
       | somebody messed with it.
        
         | fabianhjr wrote:
         | Youtube instantly demonetized, put behind triple community
         | warnings, and removed from search the video "The CIA is a
         | Terrorist Organization" (
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2khAmMTAjI ) which was sourced
         | only from things the CIA / US Government have formally admitted
         | on the record as having done in the past.
        
           | formerly_proven wrote:
           | Videos like this are only accessible in some countries if you
           | provide YouTube with a government ID. In my country YouTube
           | blocks a number of videos from public broadcasters this way.
        
             | NullPrefix wrote:
             | Let me introduce a temporary workaround to you
             | https://www.youtubeNSFW.com/watch?v=_2khAmMTAjI
        
         | EastOfTruth wrote:
         | When I search for "Let's go brandon" (no quotes), it is number
         | four in the search results... but with quotes, with or without
         | apostrophe, I'm not sure because I don't see it... went down
         | about 100 results...
        
           | OrvalWintermute wrote:
           | yesterday I too had it as a front page result. Now it is a
           | large number of pages down.
           | 
           | Censorbeast hit again.
        
       | glhfgg wrote:
       | We have a treasure trove of the last few years of the internet
       | (thanks to archive.org) showcasing that the majority opinion of
       | HN and others is "someone I don't like is being censored,
       | therefore it's OK."
        
         | convery wrote:
         | Combined with the usual "it's not censorship if it's a private
         | company doing the censoring" but getting really upset when
         | someone doesn't want to bake a custom cake..
         | 
         | Sadly even reasonable opinions are quickly squashed on this
         | site. e.g. from this thread: https://i.imgur.com/e5i9BzE.png
        
       | Jotra7 wrote:
       | Wow, so many chuds in this thread. I for one love vax
       | misinformation, it is a good way to get rid of a mentally
       | defective portion of the population.
        
       | mimikatz wrote:
       | https://variety.com/2021/music/news/youtube-will-not-ban-yg-...
       | 
       | When songs promote robbing Asian people YouTube says " In a memo
       | to staff explaining the rationale for not barring the YG video,
       | management wrote: "We'll start by saying we find this video to be
       | highly offensive and understand it is painful for many to watch,
       | including many in Trust & Safety and especially given the ongoing
       | violence against the Asian community. One of the biggest
       | challenges of working in Trust & Safety is that sometimes we have
       | to leave up content we disagree with or find offensive...
       | Sometimes videos that otherwise violate our policies are allowed
       | to stay up if they have Educational, Documentary, Scientific or
       | Artistic context...
       | 
       | "In this case, this video receives an EDSA exception as a musical
       | performance," YouTube's memo to staffers continued. "While EDSA
       | is not a free pass for any content, there are likely thousands of
       | music videos that would otherwise violate policies including Sex
       | & Nudity, Violent or Graphic Content and Hate Speech were it not
       | for these sorts of EDSA exceptions. As a result, removing this
       | video would have far-reaching implications for other musical
       | content containing similarly violent or offensive lyrics, in
       | genres ranging from rap to rock. While we debated this decision
       | at length amongst our policy experts, we made the difficult
       | decision to leave the video up to enforce our policy consistently
       | and avoid setting a precedent that may lead to us having to
       | remove a lot of other music on YouTube."
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | nathanaldensr wrote:
         | Ah, so what's good for the goose is actually _not_ good for the
         | gander. Interesting...
        
         | nullc wrote:
         | Assaulting Asian people isn't incompatible with an explicit
         | whitehouse policy initiative and in that example the artist
         | wasn't wearing an "impeach biden" shirt.
         | 
         | Edit: People keep responding to this comment claiming that the
         | video didn't feature an impeach biden shirt, then deleting
         | their comments when they realized what they saw was a video
         | using the same name exploiting the fact that the real video is
         | hidden. :) If you feel the urge to make that reply, instead
         | just update this counter instead:
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | bitwize wrote:
         | YouTube has a very clear policy that only one opinion on
         | COVID-19 is allowed on their platform. They are enforcing that
         | policy.
        
           | ResearchCode wrote:
           | And govt. totally didn't push for that exceptional "policy",
           | it arose from the first principles of free market
           | competition. Any apparent similarity to moderation on Weibo,
           | TikTok or Bilibili is purely coincidental.
        
       | Zigurd wrote:
       | Lyrics about the pandemic being planned. And this is a "free
       | speech" cause celebre now? It's trash, and it is toxic trash
       | during a crisis that has at every turn exceeded the dangerousness
       | that sober, informed people has said about it. Throttling the
       | stupidity is itself a form of speech that needs to be defended.
        
         | miked85 wrote:
         | So preventing free speech which you don't agree with is itself
         | free speech. Got it.
        
         | cudgy wrote:
         | Perhaps your opinion should be throttled, since you are
         | espousing other's opinions to be throttled?
        
           | Zigurd wrote:
           | Some things are not a matter of opinion. The "plandemic"
           | reality you have constructed in your head is not actual
           | reality. What the horse paste eaters are doing is like having
           | an opinion against gravity and jumping from a height to show
           | their faithfulness to an unreality.
        
             | blast wrote:
             | Sure, but that's not an argument for censoring it,
             | especially when you consider all the lyrics out there that
             | don't get censored.
        
               | undersuit wrote:
               | If you'd like those lyrics to be censored you may also
               | make a stink about it. Youtube has a report
               | functionality.
        
               | loonster wrote:
               | It's much simpler to just not watch it. Deprive them of
               | the ad revenue.
        
       | mc32 wrote:
       | No, it's not because that. It barely has a "verse". They just
       | don't like the traction it's getting and the anti narrative it
       | promotes.
       | 
       | If it were F@ck Donald (whatever) and everything else the same it
       | would still be up.
       | 
       | The rest is nothing but naked excuse.
       | 
       | There are so many medically misleading things on YouTube --just
       | look at dieting. They cause harm. Let me see them pull those.
       | 
       | Nah, they won't.
       | 
       | Honestly, I think "Pravda" would be proud of the gall.
        
         | DaveExeter wrote:
         | Meh. It's a private platform. They don't have to give any
         | excuses for blocking a video.
         | 
         | Is it de facto censorship? Maybe. But I think we as a society
         | agree that social media platforms have a responsibly to censor
         | harmful content in order to protect the public.
         | 
         | Would we have wanted social platforms to give a voice to the
         | "American First" movement of the 1930s? [1]
         | 
         | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4GyYPLHlwA
        
           | nvelty wrote:
           | They may have a right to do so, but given the importance of
           | social media this gives those companies immense power. For
           | right-wing Americans, simply shrugging off blatant targeting
           | like this is politically suicidal. At this point, their only
           | recourse is to use government power to push back, so we
           | shouldn't be surprised if moves like this push red Americans
           | further from libertarianism into more authoritarian views of
           | government. To not do so is untenable.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | someperson wrote:
           | > Would we have wanted social platforms to give a voice to
           | the "American First" movement of the 1930s?
           | 
           | Of course, it's part of democratic debate. Remember America
           | stayed out of World War 2 until Pearl Harbor. Lindbergh's
           | argument from the video you link is completely reasonable.
        
           | JasonFruit wrote:
           | I don't know a gentle, polite way to point out that you've
           | hit every platitude in its most thoughtless, vacuous form:
           | - You can still disagree with a private company         - We
           | as a society are thoroughly divided on that, and many
           | disagree that issues of rights and morality are decided
           | democratically         - Political speech you disagree with
           | has value
        
             | DaveExeter wrote:
             | I have certainly not hit "every platitude"!
             | 
             | I left out the "protecting our children" platitude. Thought
             | it might be a little bit over the top. ;-)
             | 
             | In any case, I think Glenn Greenwald has the best take on
             | internet censorship:
             | 
             | https://greenwald.substack.com/p/democrats-and-media-do-
             | not-...
        
           | miked85 wrote:
           | > _Would we have wanted social platforms to give a voice to
           | the "American First" movement of the 1930s?_
           | 
           | Definitely. Just because you disagree with something doesn't
           | mean it should be censored.
        
         | catawbasam wrote:
         | I used to work hard to assume the best about right-wing
         | narratives. That started to change when they refused to
         | accepted the election results even after bringing it to SCOTUS.
         | 
         | Since January 6th I assume the opposite: Many of these people
         | are working to destabilize our democracy. I have zero interest
         | in accommodating them.
        
           | findalex wrote:
           | Why assume anything?
        
             | Buttons840 wrote:
             | Because it's the basis of doing literally anything. Why did
             | I walk out and get in my car? Because I assumed it would
             | start and be capable of driving me somewhere.
        
           | finite_jest wrote:
           | I mean, it is "their" democracy too. Also, advocating for
           | corporate censorship is not helping to stabilize democracy,
           | it is eroding one of its foundations: the ability of citizens
           | to freely express themselves.
        
             | catawbasam wrote:
             | My point is that those working to undermine or overturn
             | democracy are using freedom to expression to undermine that
             | very freedom. That is outside the bounds of toleration.
             | 
             | A case in point is Christina Bobb, who works as a
             | propagandist for OANN under 1st amendment journalistic
             | protections, but showed her true colors on Jan 6 by working
             | with Rudy G and John Eastman at the Willard to overturn the
             | election result. At that point I think she is no longer
             | entitled to legal protections afforded journalists.
        
               | furgooswft13 wrote:
               | Democrats have formally disputed every presidential
               | election they have lost since 2000 (before, during, and
               | after the official electoral tallying). Leftist mobs were
               | rioting through every major city last year _and_ storming
               | plenty of government and federal buildings (even in DC).
               | 
               | If that is not working to overturn democracy, then
               | neither are a handful of people running past the
               | barricades at the Capitol building, who harmed nobody.
        
               | catawbasam wrote:
               | Hundreds of cases of Assault on Police Officer occurred
               | there, bud, many captured on video. Many already charged,
               | many more to come. Those assaults won't be forgotten.
               | 
               | Wrt to the rioting around the Floyd protests: what
               | Federal building in DC was stormed? Crowds/mobs were
               | close to the White House, but not into the actual
               | grounds.
        
           | mc32 wrote:
           | You're honest. YouTube isn't.
        
           | mStreamTeam wrote:
           | OK, that has nothing to do with YouTube censoring content and
           | proving a false excuse why...
        
             | catawbasam wrote:
             | It does though. The election fraud narrative and covid
             | anti-vaxx efforts are being driven by many of the same
             | forces. One public point of nexus is "Faith and Freedom"
             | and "Health and Freedom" Conferences which overlap each
             | other and "Stop the Steal"/Jan6.
        
               | mStreamTeam wrote:
               | You're other comment already got flagged for being off
               | topic. And now your posting conspiracy theories...
        
               | catawbasam wrote:
               | See for yourself: https://www.americasfuture.net/all-
               | events/ Click the Health and Freedom links.
        
               | catawbasam wrote:
               | Google up marketing posters. You will see many of the
               | same names and faces, a prominent example being Michael
               | Flynn.
        
         | loonster wrote:
         | Its a bad song and I don't want to listen to it to get all the
         | lyrics. [0]
         | 
         | >Pandemic ain't real, they just planned it, ayy, ayy (They just
         | planned it)
         | 
         | >Biden said the jab stop the spread, it was lies (I remember)
         | 
         | That is all I can see as far as "medical information" goes.
         | What a joke. This song is bad, it would have fallen off the
         | charts if they just let things go.
         | 
         | [0] https://mychords.net/en/bryson-gray/157414-bryson-gray-
         | lets-...
        
           | makomk wrote:
           | >Biden said the jab stop the spread, it was lies (I remember)
           | 
           | Thing is, if I remember rightly Biden did spread outright
           | misinformation that falsely claimed the vaccine was a lot
           | more effective than it actually is using his platform as
           | president, and got checked on it by the BBC (though maybe not
           | the mainstream US media)...
        
             | loonster wrote:
             | I also remember during the debates Trump was talking up the
             | vaccine and Bidens says something like "And who is going to
             | take it?"
             | 
             | It was rather cool to be anti vaccine 1 year ago. Now its
             | verboten.
        
               | gkop wrote:
               | Boy am I tired of partisan politics.
        
             | bobmaxup wrote:
             | https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jul/22/joe-
             | biden/...
        
               | nostrebored wrote:
               | This aged poorly given information we have about
               | breakthrough rates.
        
           | matheusmoreira wrote:
           | All they had to do was sit tight, leave it alone and let it
           | be forgotten. Countless others and I would never have seen
           | it. Thanks to Google's censorship, people will now know about
           | this song.
        
           | iab wrote:
           | anyone who thinks this is planned can never have been
           | involved in any form of government
        
             | mechanical_bear wrote:
             | Right? We (the US) have enough trouble planning meaningful
             | infrastructure in our communities, let alone a global
             | conspiracy in order to bring about some new world order,
             | apparently coordinated with every other world government.
             | 
             | But, I've heard the "planned" argument levied against the
             | CCP, and that it was a bio weapon, and this was a planned
             | release. That argument, while still far fetched, is at
             | least in the realm of possibility for me.
        
             | l33tbro wrote:
             | I see this argument a lot. The counter-argument is surely
             | that not everybody involved in malfaescence / corruption /
             | conpsiracy has to be in on it [1]
             | 
             | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot
        
           | skulk wrote:
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NVxdD_qwJ8
           | 
           | Check this song out, it gives practical advice for carrying
           | out burglaries. People have screamed and kicked but YouTube
           | won't remove the song.
        
           | barbarbar wrote:
           | Given that their ai have spotted this that is actually quite
           | good. But yes it is a joke.
        
           | ameminator wrote:
           | You don't have to listen to the song. You don't get to tell
           | others what they can or cannot listen too.
        
           | causi wrote:
           | Yeah they're about to feel the full Streisand Effect.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | JohnHaugeland wrote:
       | Uh. The video that says vaccines don't work on covid, and talks
       | about Joe Biden's death conspiracy?
       | 
       | Why are ... why are we quoting Fox News credlously again?
       | 
       | Has HN not learned, yet?
        
         | nonameiguess wrote:
         | Honestly, I support the right of YouTube to not host content
         | they don't want to host, given they own the data centers. This
         | dude is free to get a record deal, play live on the street, or
         | distribute music in any of the other thousands of ways that
         | don't require uploading to YouTube.
         | 
         | But this is still silly. It's a _song_. Rage Against The
         | Machine has a song claiming the FBI staged the murders of
         | Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X and it 's the most popular
         | song from The Matrix soundtrack. And an iconic, great song that
         | I love, for what it's worth, even though I doubt the truth of
         | that claim.
        
         | jlawer wrote:
         | No, it says it was a lie that vaccines would stop the spread.
         | 
         | I see that for shorthand that the whole response wasn't managed
         | properly as the "spread" still happened.
         | 
         | I don't think it's a fair criticism of Biden, but it's a rap
         | song, which tends to encourage a bit of hyperbole.
        
           | herbstein wrote:
           | You're ignoring this line. Not exactly subtle what is being
           | said.
           | 
           | > Pandemic ain't real, they just planned it
        
             | throwbigdata wrote:
             | Do we really know this is false? I think it is but don't
             | know so. It's quite unlikely but not impossible.
             | 
             | Banning alternative points of view is a slippery slope.
        
       | analogdreams wrote:
       | thank you, google/youtube, for helping me to keep my mind closed
       | and comply.
        
       | 0des wrote:
       | Were there other lyrics besides "Let's Go Brandon"? If those
       | contained disinfo, perhaps that is why.
        
         | kuroguro wrote:
         | > Pandemic ain't real, they just planned it
         | 
         | probably that part?
        
           | trident5000 wrote:
           | In what oppressed world should you not be able to say that.
        
           | ajvs wrote:
           | YouTube's bar for "medical misinfo" ladies and gentlemen...
        
             | SideburnsOfDoom wrote:
             | What is the substance of your argument: that the "pandemic"
             | is not a medical matter, or that "ain't real" is not
             | misinfo?
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | fortytwo79 wrote:
               | I think the full lyric here is actually "pandemic ain't
               | real, they just planned it."
               | 
               | The meaning and intent of the lyrics are open to
               | interpretation, but I think the latter part of the lyric
               | implies political commentary rather than medical
               | commentary.
               | 
               | Also, I think we need a tighter definition of "medical
               | misinformation." Is it to promote anything that is
               | medically harmful? Well, then why can musicians sing
               | endlessly about drugs and unsafe sex? What about videos
               | on non-fda regulated vitamins and minerals, or weight
               | loss solutions? Surely most doctors wouldn't advise
               | taking recreational drugs, or jumping on to the latest
               | weight loss magic pill.
               | 
               | And yes, YouTube is a private enterprise. But we can
               | still, as a society, openly dialog on what we think is
               | wrong with their practices.
        
               | pfortuny wrote:
               | That it does not even qualify as "info"...
        
               | matheusmoreira wrote:
               | It's a song, not a scientific journal article.
        
               | bloopernova wrote:
               | People spread misinformation through memes or image
               | macros. Why should songs be considered differently?
               | 
               | There's a segment of the US population that believes and
               | spreads the harmful misinformation in memes and YouTube
               | videos. That's all well and good when talking about
               | aliens building pyramids or whatever. But currently we
               | have this same segment of the population refusing to get
               | vaccinated, mask up, wash their hands, etc etc. Those
               | actions are harmful to society as a whole and should be
               | treated like the attacks they are.
               | 
               | As someone with lung issues, it angers me deeply that
               | there's millions of Americans who couldn't give the
               | tiniest shit to take actions that might save my life.
        
               | h2odragon wrote:
               | I could argue that this "pandemic" is not of actual
               | severity sufficient to require the responses; and "it
               | ain't real" is an opinion being voiced, which is more
               | important than a duty to "protect the public from
               | misinformation".
               | 
               | But I'm not. The proper counter argument to this
               | Stalinist "you can't say that," bullshit is to keep
               | saying it, louder.
               | 
               | I would also like to quote NWA: "Fuck the Police"
        
               | SideburnsOfDoom wrote:
               | > this Stalinist "you can't say that," bullshit is to
               | keep saying it, louder.
               | 
               | So you don't dispute that it is disinformation. Is idea
               | that is that someone refusing to host disinformation is a
               | good reason to disinform, louder?
        
               | h2odragon wrote:
               | I dispute that disinformation or not is a reason for
               | censoring it.
               | 
               |  _And_ I dispute the repute of those labeling things
               | "disinformation", specifically.
        
               | squarefoot wrote:
               | It's all about the effects of what is said. Fight the
               | Power and Fuck the Police were published when there were
               | no social networks around; The post-2K Web changed
               | everything, and the chances of having more people rioting
               | because some rapper want to become their idol (gigs,
               | books, TV appearances, etc) isn't that dim.
               | 
               | If I wrote a rap song with "stick an artichoke in your
               | butt" and magically a hundred people follow the advice
               | and hurt themselves, someone for sure will at least
               | attempt to censor my song. The imitation problem has been
               | with us for thousands years, but social media made it a
               | lot worse by dramatically augmenting the audience, then
               | moving a lot faster than laws, and allowing some grey
               | zones where a law prohibiting this and that would be too
               | draconian and no law makes similar scenarios very
               | possible. That's where we should be the ones who censor
               | ourselves when we suspect that someone could be damaged
               | by our words. That rapper didn't, because he pursuits
               | fame and money, and Fox News by jumping in his defense
               | acted exactly as one would expect from a source that has
               | nothing to do with journalism.
        
               | SideburnsOfDoom wrote:
               | I think it's childish to act like you're being wronged,
               | and threatening a defiant tantrum "this is Stalinist
               | bullshit, keep saying it, louder" in response to someone
               | else deciding not to host some disinformation. Are you
               | truly the victim today, in this pandemic?
        
               | Levitz wrote:
               | He _is_ being wronged, as are you. Each and every time a
               | company takes freedom away from their users they are
               | being wronged, and when the company is as big as Youtube
               | then we _all_ get wronged. The  "defiant tantrum" is
               | simply taking the stance that that is not admisible, how
               | you consider that to be childish behavior I don't even
               | know.
               | 
               | >Are you truly the victim today, in this pandemic?
               | 
               | So give up freedoms, for the common good. Now that's
               | rich.
        
               | bloopernova wrote:
               | You don't have the freedom to murder, enslave, or kidnap.
               | I don't think you should have the freedom to spread a
               | deadly disease.
               | 
               | Especially since COVID-19 spreads without symptoms, we
               | have to prioritize prevention.
               | 
               | Besides, we've had our freedoms eroded time and again
               | since the World Trade Centre attacks. Why are some
               | Americans choosing now to draw a line in the sand?
               | Because previously the laws were targeting brown skinned
               | people. And now there's a Democrat in charge, so
               | Republicans want to cause strife and division to get
               | elected in 2022 and 2024.
        
               | 0des wrote:
               | I'd also like to add Public Enemy's "Fight The Power!" as
               | a timeless classic
               | 
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmo3HFa2vjg
        
               | trident5000 wrote:
               | Categorizing something this broad and nonchalant from a
               | joke rap video as medical misinformation is an obvious
               | wrong-think power grab.
        
               | louloulou wrote:
               | I only get my medical advice from rap music, so I for one
               | am glad youtube has provided me with this safety net. I
               | hope they target the misinfo on how to safely fuck hoes
               | next - that could also use some correction.
        
           | 0des wrote:
           | I'm not much of a modern rap music person, however, by the
           | 90s rap standards this doesn't seem that inflammatory.
        
             | whymauri wrote:
             | Exactly what I thought. I disagree with the video and
             | lyrics, but there's bigger rappers that have been peddling
             | conspiratorial, third eye awakening wish-wash for at least
             | 20 years.
             | 
             | This is a weird video to target, and I feel like there's
             | bigger fish to fry w.r.t. harmful misinformation. Mostly
             | that the most dangerous misinformation is that which can
             | actually convince people to believe untruths, something I
             | doubt this video can do (it seems to preach to the choir).
             | But who am I to know how their algorithm works?
             | 
             | The irony is that the incoming Streissand Effect will
             | generally be meaningless. The increased exposure to this
             | song is unlikely to convert people (there's really only one
             | verse about COVID) and the outrage from the Right is
             | unlikely to budge YT policy because there's a strong
             | argument for it being misinformation. So it's pointless,
             | circuitous outrage.
        
               | slowmotiony wrote:
               | "This is a weird video to target, and I feel like there's
               | bigger fish to fry w.r.t. harmful misinformation."
               | 
               | How about I listen to what I like and you fry your fish
               | elsewhere?
        
               | gkop wrote:
               | > but there's bigger rappers that have been peddling
               | conspiratorial, third eye awakening wish-wash for at
               | least 20 years.
               | 
               | > This is a weird video to target
               | 
               | So we can all agree that YT isn't arbitrarily censoring
               | anti-authoritarian conspiracy theories, but is
               | specifically censoring conspiracy theories related to
               | COVID? This seems like a good thing, that they are
               | casting a narrow net, no? Would you prefer they censor
               | ALL anti-authoritarian conspiracy theories?
               | 
               | Of all the scenarios where censorship could be called
               | for, fighting misinformation harmful to public health in
               | a global pandemic seems like a reasonable fish to fry.
        
               | whymauri wrote:
               | No, I think targeting COVID conspiracies makes sense. I
               | think this video _specifically_ is small fry compared to
               | some with 100k-1M views peddling the same nonsense in
               | prettier packaging. I'm thinking about podcasts, radio
               | show recordings, stuff like PragerU -- that are arguably
               | not art or open for interpretation, but directly trying
               | to convince viewers to believe bullshit surrounding the
               | vaccine, safety, and COVID.
        
               | _fat_santa wrote:
               | > This is a weird video to target, and I feel like
               | there's bigger fish to fry w.r.t. harmful misinformation.
               | Mostly that the most dangerous misinformation is that
               | which can actually convince people to believe untruths,
               | something I doubt this video can do (it seems to preach
               | to the choir). But who am I to know how their algorithm
               | works?
               | 
               | It's really simple. They took down the video because it's
               | critical of Biden and the guy is wearing a MAGA hat.
               | Someone at YT probably saw the video, said to themselves
               | "fuck this guy", and then looked through the lyrics to
               | find one offending word or phrase, and used that as an
               | excuse to ban the guy.
        
             | will4274 wrote:
             | Didn't Eminem rap about wanting to kill the president?
        
             | jollybean wrote:
             | It's a pandemic. We're in a Public Health Crisis in which
             | 700 000 people have died. We have medicine to give people
             | which is safe, and almost guarantees they won't die, and
             | material chunk of the population won't believe it, due to
             | information like this.
             | 
             | I have 0 problem whatsoever with large, public information
             | clearing houses suppressing anything that is counter
             | factual during the emergency.
             | 
             | If they were taking down information about a doctor
             | challenging Health Authorities in a very Scientific manner,
             | that would be something else.
             | 
             | And of course, we have to make sure that we do come out of
             | this 'crisis' and that institutions don't use it as a means
             | for perennial control, but I'm not really worried about
             | that. We're all sick of this and as COVID passes out of
             | reality, people just won't care what people have to say
             | about it, just like any other mundane subject.
             | 
             | So once COVID has passed, we can sing dumb songs about dumb
             | things, if they take them down then, I suggest that would
             | amount to undue censorship.
        
               | _fat_santa wrote:
               | > I have 0 problem whatsoever with large, public
               | information clearing houses suppressing anything that is
               | counter factual during the emergency.
               | 
               | That's precisely the problem though. The rule at Youtube
               | is any content that goes against CDC/WHO guidelines is
               | considered "misinformation". So to your point:
               | 
               | > If they were taking down information about a doctor
               | challenging Health Authorities in a very Scientific
               | manner, that would be something else.
               | 
               | Yeah unless that doctor comes to the exact same
               | conclusion as the CDC, and parrots the exact same info,
               | that doctor is spreading misinformation according to
               | Youtube. I've even seen instances where the CDC would say
               | something, Youtuber would cover it, the next week the CDC
               | reverses that policy and Youtube will hit the Youtuber
               | for "misinformation".
        
               | jollybean wrote:
               | The WHO/CDC positions are consistent with the prevailing
               | science.
               | 
               | If someone went on YouTube to articulate the current
               | scientific consensus of Ivermectin, which is that "There
               | is no evidence to support it as a therapy for COVID, but
               | that there are currently studies in progress which could
               | yield important information, and in the meantime, people
               | should definitely not be taking it as it can be dangerous
               | unless administered by Health professionals" - I'm
               | doubtful such a video would be taken down.
               | 
               | Anyone talking about COVID 'cures' in public forums for
               | which there is no scientific consensus, during a
               | pandemic, should definitely come under heavy scrutiny.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | hihihihi1234 wrote:
               | > If they were taking down information about a doctor
               | challenging Health Authorities in a very Scientific
               | manner, that would be something else.
               | 
               | YouTube has already done exactly this:
               | 
               | https://www.wsj.com/articles/youtube-cancels-the-u-s-
               | senate-...
        
               | jollybean wrote:
               | If YouTube did take down such information, then I would
               | be inclined to agree they made a mistake.
               | 
               | But the example you gave doesn't help make your case,
               | just the opposite, Dr. Kory's information indicating that
               | Ivermectin is helpful in treating COVID is not scientific
               | and the net result of his communication is de facto
               | misinformation, and can definitely cause harm.
        
               | robbrown451 wrote:
               | In that video, Pierre Kory uses his credibility as a
               | medical doctor, to claim "mountains of data have emerged
               | from all, from many centers and countries around the
               | world, showing the miraculous effectiveness of
               | ivermectin. It basically obliterates transmission of this
               | virus. If you take it, you will not get sick."
               | 
               | Later, Pierre Kory himself contracted Covid, from his
               | daughter. Both of them had been on Ivermectin, obviously.
               | He doesn't mention this publicly. Only thanks to someone
               | who was watching closely do we now have proof this even
               | happened.
               | 
               | So no, this isn't "in a very scientific manner." He
               | creates a good illusion of being scientific, but he's
               | not.
               | 
               | These are dangerous falsehoods, that are used by millions
               | as part of their justification for not getting
               | vaccinated, which allows the virus to continue spreading.
               | YouTube isn't perfect, but they are making an attempt to
               | compensate for all the lies that are spread on their
               | platform and others. This is important during a crisis
               | that has already killed 700,000 Americans. I get the
               | "freedom of speech" thing, I really do. But Americans are
               | still dying at a rate of 2 fully loaded 747s a day
               | crashing, and YouTube would prefer not be contributing to
               | that.
               | 
               | So I support YouTube's decision on that one.
        
               | GauntletWizard wrote:
               | What is your opinion on Dr Li Wenliang, who publically
               | contradicted official health guidelines that they were
               | certain that there was no new SARS variant spreading in
               | Wuhan and encouraging mask usage was spreading a public
               | panic?
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | mc32 wrote:
         | Well there is the crowd chant which sort of kind of sounds like
         | "Let's go Brandon" if you have hearing problems, but insofar as
         | I can tell they don't also say "horse paste."
        
           | 0des wrote:
           | I had to look up what the "Let's go Brandon" chant was;
           | forgive me for being crass, English isn't my first language
           | but it sounds like they're saying "Fuck Joe Biden". Judging
           | by the comments in the video I saw, I think that is what
           | they're actually saying rather than encouraging the young man
           | being spoken to by the person with the microphone.
        
             | h2odragon wrote:
             | You heard correctly. A reporter said it was "Lets go
             | Brandon" in stark contrast to obvious reality, and the
             | originally Ironic and now more widespread adoption of that
             | has confused the situation further.
        
             | miked85 wrote:
             | The "Let's go Brandon" thing was an almost comical attempt
             | by the news reporter to try to cover up what the chant was.
        
               | throwawayboise wrote:
               | Yes, people said the reporter was "misreporting" the
               | chant but she was barely containing her laughter and it
               | was clearly a joke. Everyone knew what the crowd was
               | chanting.
        
             | mc32 wrote:
             | You got it right.
        
               | 0des wrote:
               | That young man must feel so bad for this to be his
               | moment. I hope it doesn't overshadow his other
               | accomplishments.
        
               | treeman79 wrote:
               | The reporter? He's shown himself to be dishonest. In a
               | similar style to Baghdad Bob.
               | 
               | When reporters lie then there careers should be over.
        
               | katbyte wrote:
               | *she. the reporter was a women.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | chucksta wrote:
               | No, the guy who won the race and had the moment
               | completely taken over, and will probably be the most
               | notable in his career.
               | 
               | *edit- he doesn't seem to mind though
               | To all the other Brandon's out there, You're welcome!
               | Let's go us         -- Brandon Brown (@brandonbrown_68)
               | October 6, 2021
        
               | furgooswft13 wrote:
               | > When reporters lie then there careers should be over.
               | 
               | hahahahaha ... no but really, were you born yesterday?
               | 
               | I am kind of curious what the reporter who covered for
               | dear leader thinks of all this, if she's even aware of
               | anything (they rarely are).
        
               | mynameishere wrote:
               | The actual Brandon thought it was funny, as the chant
               | probably aligned with his personal feelings.
               | 
               | In case anyone else doesn't get the joke, the reporter
               | (as most reporters do) was covering for Biden when she
               | pretended his noisy opposition was something else [1]. In
               | other words, it was an unusually obvious attempt at a
               | tawdry cover-up. Thus, the mockery in calling Biden
               | "Brandon".
               | 
               | [1] It might remind some of this classic scene:
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Kpb8eu1pEY
        
         | [deleted]
        
           | SideburnsOfDoom wrote:
           | > The single line referencing COVID is this: "Green light,
           | mandate
           | 
           | Inaccurate. The line "Pandemic ain't real, they just planned
           | it" is also referencing COVID, and pushing a false and
           | dangerous conspiracy theory about it.
        
             | dane-pgp wrote:
             | Perhaps instead of censoring the song, YouTube could
             | require that the uploader include at the end of it an
             | explanation of what it means for a pandemic to not be
             | "real". Does it mean that COVID doesn't exist, and people
             | are just pretending to have symptoms? Is that what "they"
             | planned?
             | 
             | By actually getting people to talk through their beliefs,
             | and state them clearly, society might be able to consider
             | all opinions and have a conversation, rather than accepting
             | the idea that our technological gatekeepers can be trusted
             | to evaluate them correctly on our behalf.
        
       | skulk wrote:
       | Something's wrong when the jester is found to have played a huge
       | part in electing a leader of a leading world power.
        
         | theHIDninja wrote:
         | What are you going on about?
        
         | bpodgursky wrote:
         | Outrageous that social media was used by people who elected the
         | _wrong person_!
        
         | dang wrote:
         | Please don't take HN threads into flamewar hell.
         | 
         | We detached this subthread from
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28972291.
        
         | rhexs wrote:
         | How dare the lowly jester, part of the serf class, have any say
         | in electing a leader. Only divine right and having went to
         | Harvard should qualify a leader!
        
           | andrekandre wrote:
           | > Only divine right and having went to Harvard should qualify
           | a leader!
           | 
           | basically it used to be like that!
           | 
           | in the old days, you had to be:
           | 
           | 1. a land owner 2. white* 3. male
           | 
           | in order to vote at all... we've come a long way...
           | 
           | *in those days that was very specific and didn't include
           | italians, irish etc
        
           | a_t48 wrote:
           | Let's ignore the wealth said "serf elected" leader was born
           | into, eh?
        
         | mechanical_bear wrote:
         | I might be obtuse, but I'm missing your reference. Could you
         | explain?
        
       | jayski wrote:
       | i disagree with censoring. but i want to pose a question.
       | 
       | if i have q WordPress blog on a $5vps, and you post a comment
       | saying my blog post is stupid. its my vps,im paying for it, i can
       | delete the comment if i want right?
       | 
       | where do you draw the line? how big exactly does my blog have to
       | get before this is considered big tech censorship?
        
         | shlurpy wrote:
         | A lot of "rights" should scale inversely with power, to
         | counteract how their effectiveness scales positively with
         | power. The idea behind universal Democracy is that you should
         | have collective power over everyone who has meaningful
         | authority over you.
         | 
         | The power weilded by a government should be kept in check
         | democratically by their constituents. As your blog grows into
         | YouTube, you gain more and more power over people's lives and
         | livelihoods... more political and economic reach with your
         | decisions. That power should thus grow proportionally more
         | limited by mechanisms of user empowerment, rights, and direct
         | control.
         | 
         | There isn't a cutoff... there should instead be a sliding
         | scale.
        
         | ls15 wrote:
         | > where do you draw the line?
         | 
         | When you have lobbyists working for you.
        
           | iab wrote:
           | That's a pretty good line IMO
        
             | AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
             | Huh, yeah, as far as standards for increased regulation go
             | that's a pretty good one.
        
         | golemiprague wrote:
         | Youtube in my eyes is no different to utilities and it is even
         | more of a monopoly than many other utilities. Your blog is
         | curated because you are the editor and as such it is just like
         | any other publication.
        
         | chrisco255 wrote:
         | You draw the line when you have a monopoly company with a
         | trillion dollar market cap.
        
           | AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
           | Are they a monopoly? They seem to have plenty of competition.
        
           | fabianhjr wrote:
           | Just create and apply better anti-trust laws and break up the
           | monopolies. (Specially since most platforms got their almost
           | monopolies by creating anti-competitive walled gardens with
           | no inter-operation with other similar platforms a la
           | Fediverse / ActivityPub / Diaspora / Friendica)
           | 
           | Or better yet, promote counter-anti-desintermediation:
           | https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Counter-Anti-
           | Disintermediatio...
           | 
           | > The idea of disintermediation was central to the
           | emancipatory visions of the Internet, yet the landscape today
           | is more mediated than ever before. If we are to understand
           | the consequences of an increasingly centralized Internet, we
           | need to start by addressing the root cause of this
           | concentration. Centralization is required to capture profit.
           | Disintermediating platforms were ultimately reintermediated
           | by way of capitalist investors dictating that communications
           | systems be designed to capture profit.
        
             | Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
             | Trillion dollar company won't allow better antitrust laws
             | to happen, because they are allied with the currently
             | ruling party.
             | 
             | This is a true symbiosis: the Party will see that no laws
             | that harm the Company are passed, and Company will stop the
             | spread of any information harmful to the Party.
        
               | fabianhjr wrote:
               | > This is a true symbiosis: the Party will see that no
               | laws that harm the Company are passed, and Company will
               | stop the spread of any information harmful to the Party.
               | 
               | Probably no relation with the 2014 Princeton study
               | published on the Cambridge University Press that
               | determined the United States of America to be an
               | Oligarchy rather than a Democracy.
               | 
               | https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-
               | poli...
               | 
               | > But we believe that if policymaking is dominated by
               | powerful business organizations and a small number of
               | affluent Americans, then America's claims to being a
               | democratic society are seriously threatened
        
               | adventured wrote:
               | If the Presidency were an oligarchy, neither Bill Clinton
               | nor Barack Obama could have become President. And Trump
               | could have never won, since most of the power groups were
               | overwhelmingly against him winning, and he won solely due
               | to his populist voter base - democracy in action in fact.
               | Trump also raised drastically less money than Hillary
               | Clinton did; if there's an oligarchy trying to pick
               | presidents it was against him, not for him. His win
               | partially invalidates the Princeton premise.
               | 
               | Neither Bill Clinton or Obama came from or had money.
               | Neither had fathers in their lives or immediate great
               | families of consequence. Neither had long-tenured
               | national political experience. Oh yeah, and Obama is half
               | black. The oligarchy chose Obama over Hillary Clinton?
               | They had no choice is what actually happened.
               | 
               | Just because the study came from Princeton, that doesn't
               | mean it's not idiotic.
        
               | fabianhjr wrote:
               | Executive power is different from legislative power and
               | the later is the one most involved in policy-making.
               | 
               | Additionally it is a very weird presidentialist take to
               | criticize a study on only the presidential election
               | outcomes of a two-party state.
        
             | orhmeh09 wrote:
             | When you say "just do x," you make it sound so simple.
             | You're missing out "just do all of this keeping in mind
             | you're trying to change the law using lawmakers who are
             | personally invested in these companies that have more
             | resources than many nation states."
        
               | fabianhjr wrote:
               | I mean in opposition of legislating on what "big tech"
               | specifically can or cannot remove or host on their
               | platforms in comparison to small blogs like the example
               | up thread.
        
               | orhmeh09 wrote:
               | I understand. I agree that yes, that would be similarly
               | fruitless. What is to be done?
        
             | geofft wrote:
             | The most coherent plans in recent times to do exactly that
             | came from Elizabeth Warren. It would have solved the
             | problem elegantly. But people are too partisan (and too
             | fractally partisan _within_ their parties) to listen to a
             | good idea from a person they don 't like.
             | 
             | https://medium.com/@teamwarren/heres-how-we-can-break-up-
             | big...
        
               | OrvalWintermute wrote:
               | Actually,
               | 
               | Many of us on different spectrums (libertarian here) did
               | listen to what Elizabeth Warren said, and we agree with
               | it.
               | 
               | I think there is a great deal of truth in what the anti-
               | monopolist economic crusaders on the left
               | (Sanders&Warren) have said. While I may not agree with
               | everything they said about economics across the board, I
               | do think they are correct in that we have permitted
               | bigtech to become a monopoly. AND, I agree that overly
               | favorable tax jurisdiction shopping is a massive problem.
               | 
               | We need to re-empower the DOJ to pursue antitrust again,
               | and we need it now.
        
             | unclebucknasty wrote:
             | The idea of treating as a monopoly problem is interesting,
             | but I'm not sure how you prevent centralization like this
             | from repeating itself in the future, given that it is built
             | on network effects.
             | 
             | At the end of the day there will be a concentration of
             | audiences _somewhere_ , so I don't think this problem goes
             | away.
             | 
             | What I wonder is whether at a certain point we actually
             | need to protect people from themselves. I get how ominous
             | that sounds, but OTOH if large swaths of the population,
             | say, fall prey to senseless conspiracy theories, do we just
             | watch it play out?
        
               | fabianhjr wrote:
               | > given that it is built on network effects.
               | 
               | Network effects can happen in a federated or
               | decentralized way:
               | 
               | - Email is useful regardless of the software, OS, server
               | or owner of the address you are sending emails to.
               | 
               | - The fediverse benefits from network effects and
               | interoperability between instances with both different
               | software and different communities.
               | 
               | I would even go further and argue that centralized
               | "network effects" are in reality "captive costs" of "not
               | being inside the walled garden" rather than a true
               | network to begin with.
        
               | actually_a_dog wrote:
               | Look at the effects of email and "the fediverse" versus
               | these giant social media platforms. Which is greater?
        
         | josephcsible wrote:
         | You're falling victim to the sand heap fallacy. Sure, some
         | sites would be gray areas, but it's obvious that a personal
         | blog that can run on $5 per month is on one side of the line
         | and YouTube is on the other.
        
       | m0zg wrote:
       | It was a shit song anyway. This one is great:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB_T54wg9KI. No "Brandon" just
       | straight facts, expertly delivered from the standpoint of working
       | poor. YT is still trying to figure out how to take it down.
       | 
       | Also iTunes Hip Hop top 100 had 5 "Let's go Brandon" songs in it
       | a couple of days ago, including #1.
        
       | mancerayder wrote:
       | Apparently the 'misinformation' trope has extended into art.
       | 
       | Many of you defending censorship in the last few years (and very
       | much so on HN) on political grounds are going to be changing your
       | minds in the coming years due to stuff like this.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | bserge wrote:
         | This better not get to hosting providers or it all goes to
         | shit.
         | 
         | Sure, big platforms censoring stuff is bad, but people still
         | have the choice of renting a server and hosting whatever they
         | want.
         | 
         | If your website, hosted on a dedicated machine that you rent
         | from OVH or whatever (and probably Amazon, but I wouldn't trust
         | them) or co-locate in a datacenter, can be taken down on claims
         | of misinformation, that's it, RIP free Internet. It was nice
         | knowing you.
        
           | Levitz wrote:
           | What about GoDaddy?
           | 
           | https://gizmodo.com/godaddy-is-giving-texas-abortion-
           | snitchi...
        
             | bserge wrote:
             | You got me with this one. Actually threatening someone
             | directly is worse than being an antivaxxer... Guess that's
             | my cutoff point? Just shoot me in the head, I'm sick of
             | this world.
        
               | intricatedetail wrote:
               | People can't have too much freedom and these big
               | corporations do the bidding for ruling political class.
               | They are deep in tax avoidance and they don't want
               | government to order IRS to start looking.
        
           | josephcsible wrote:
           | Isn't that exactly what Amazon did to Parler already?
        
             | bserge wrote:
             | Yeah, like I said, wouldn't trust them.
             | 
             | Why Parler didn't use a "normal" hosting provider, I don't
             | know.
        
         | TameAntelope wrote:
         | Censorship, to me, would be the government forcing these
         | platforms to host content that isn't in their business
         | interests, because it would be compelling speech. That's a
         | _much_ worse problem, in my mind, than private organizations
         | removing content from their platforms.
         | 
         | I would rather live in this world than the alternative.
        
         | benatkin wrote:
         | > Many of you defending censorship in the last few years
         | 
         | It's beyond parody. If this was twitter, I'd be bringing out
         | the clown emoji.
        
         | psyc wrote:
         | I don't expect many minds to change. I predict the "'private'
         | [misnomer] companies can do what they want [broadly false]"
         | crowd to dig in and rationalize why art is not a special case.
         | My own hypothesis is they personally identify with the
         | corporations, e.g. they are entrepreneurs or might want to
         | become entrepreneurs someday.
        
           | __blockcipher__ wrote:
           | Honestly I don't think it's that they identify as
           | entrepreneurs or business owners, I think it's just that they
           | identify as progressives, and there is an incredibly
           | prominent pro-censorship current in modern progressive
           | ideology. I say this because I've definitely interacted with
           | many people in real life who are not the "entrepreneur" or
           | "pro corporate" types yet happily cheer on the censorship
           | being practiced by big tech and the like
        
             | glogla wrote:
             | Progressives are not necessarily for censorship (though
             | some are). But this "private censorship" is a consequence
             | of not regulating new media industries.
             | 
             | So seeing some people complain about censorship after being
             | against regulation has very much "you wanted this, serves
             | you right" vibe.
        
               | wholinator2 wrote:
               | I agree but would like to posit that that attitude is yet
               | another issue of the current political landscape. The
               | "your previous idea has turned out poorly, both this is
               | your fault and I can now justify slightly this bad thing
               | because it's happening to you" I probably phrased that
               | poorly but I see lots of people who are against things,
               | no longer being so strongly against that thing when it
               | starts to hurt their 'enemies'. It's like a rule change
               | in sport, I'm against it until it starts to give me a
               | competitive advantage.
               | 
               | Which really just goes back to the two party, my enemy or
               | my friend trope. Tribalism etc.
        
           | glogla wrote:
           | What do you think the people who now shout "censorship" would
           | say if few years ago, someone sugested "the tech giants
           | should be regulated with regards to what content they host
           | and follow due process when removing content"?
           | 
           | The tech giants are unregulated. They can do what they want.
           | They want this for some reason, so they do it.
           | 
           | What is the alternative?
        
             | AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
             | Doing what random HNer's want, apparently. Disrupting
             | industries by straight up breaking the law: totally ok.
             | Choosing what content your website will and will not host:
             | absolutely monstrous. That's tech culture in a nutshell.
        
               | glogla wrote:
               | I mean, "the tech giants have enormous control over
               | society, monopolistic positions and levels of vertical
               | integration and trilions of cash at hand that make it
               | impossible to fight them in market, can we do something
               | about it?" is definitely a good discussion to have.
               | 
               | Not sure if "they should be hosting dangerous antivaxx
               | content during global pandemic" (that some people claim
               | doest actually exist because of previous content) is a
               | good way to kick that discussion off.
               | 
               | (I realize this particular video possibly isnt that
               | dangerous.)
        
           | intricatedetail wrote:
           | > My own hypothesis is they personally identify with the
           | corporations,
           | 
           | I used to be like that and I remember defending YT censorship
           | as I thought I would probably wanted to be able to do the
           | same had my project took off. It took me a long time to
           | realise I was wrong.
        
         | csours wrote:
         | We're in the baby years of social media. I have some hope that
         | humanity will figure some it out.
         | 
         | I also have a great deal of dread that we will not. We are not
         | guaranteed to have nice things, and a few bad actors can do
         | quite a lot of harm.
        
         | gigatexal wrote:
         | I am 100% okay with this. YouTube has no obligation to be a
         | champion of free speech. And promoting anything other than
         | getting vaccinated, distancing and wearing masks where
         | appropriate lead to unnecessary covid deaths. So... the math
         | adds up for me -- take down content that needlessly leads to
         | death.
        
           | kyle_martin1 wrote:
           | Silencing people and pretending it's OK is not going to work.
           | It's a double edge sword. Because one day they're going to
           | silence you. The math doesn't work out long term.
        
             | zuminator wrote:
             | Deplatforming isn't the same as silencing. At no point in
             | history before the 21st century did the average person
             | think that they had a right to have their speech carried to
             | the entire human race. We have a basic right to generally
             | not be prevented from speaking, yes. (A right which does
             | not extend to defamation, fraud, violent threats and other
             | grossly harmful things) But have we ever had a basic human
             | right to oblige any information channel of our choosing to
             | carry our speech? Regardless of the import of our words?
             | No.
             | 
             | And -- if I am similarly deplatformed for harmful speech,
             | that's a good thing. Bad personal consequences are a just
             | outcome of bad personal behavior, made more just if the
             | same applies to everyone, friends and foes alike. It's an
             | intrinsic aspect of the social contract.
             | 
             | As always, I invite people to look at Usenet as an example
             | of what happens when a platform carries everything. People
             | stopped going there because after the advent of bots, it
             | was completely overrun with V1AGR4 ads. Try getting your
             | speech heard when there's 99.999% noise to signal. It's
             | silencing of a different sort.
        
               | kyle_martin1 wrote:
               | "Deplatforming" is just a roundabout way of saying
               | "you're not welcome here because we don't _agree_ with
               | your speech ".
               | 
               | YouTube's criteria of what is and is not harmful is the
               | issue.
        
             | roenxi wrote:
             | > It's a double edge sword. Because one day they're going
             | to silence you.
             | 
             | This is true, but it is an important topic so here is
             | another angle to consider:
             | 
             | YouTube doesn't have any tools to sift right from wrong
             | that we don't already have, and their censors are probably
             | only marginally more intelligent than average.
             | 
             | They are going to get stuff really wrong from time to time,
             | and eventually are going to censor important information -
             | if they haven't already, it is hard to tell.
             | 
             | Case in point, censors generally aren't bought in to hit
             | stuff that is obviously wrong. Everyone knows that sort of
             | content is garbage and only watches it for a laugh (think
             | flat earthers). They are coming in for stuff where the
             | available evidence makes it difficult to tell what is true
             | or not (eg, ivermectin). They're going to make some
             | horrible mistakes playing at that game, because by nature
             | of what they are targeting, some of it is going to be
             | factual content.
        
               | kyle_martin1 wrote:
               | Deciding what is right or wrong is the issue. YouTube
               | isn't transparent nor consistent about this. Social Media
               | are publications due to their extreme efforts in curating
               | content and speech topics. They need to be regulated as
               | such.
        
             | tw04 wrote:
             | Rewind 100 years: what was your avenue for "being heard"?
             | The radio and newspapers had no obligation to regurgitate
             | your thoughts.
             | 
             | Nobody is stopping him from touring the country to spread
             | his message. Same as it always was.
             | 
             | I personally post 0 on Twitter or Facebook or YouTube and I
             | manage to get by in life just fine.
        
               | repsilat wrote:
               | Sure, "no obligation", I think their critics agree with
               | you there. This isn't a conversation about rights, it's a
               | conversation about values. This action shows that Youtube
               | doesn't strongly value being a neutral platform, and
               | people are disappointed.
        
               | dolni wrote:
               | Radios and newspapers also did not present themselves as
               | a way for the average person to make themselves heard.
               | But you are onto something here - the problem is that
               | there is a massive disparity in the power of an
               | individual's discourse versus a radio or newspaper.
               | 
               | Now look at YouTube and Twitter. They amplify the voices
               | of many average people, but only those who tow their
               | political line. This makes it appear as though some ideas
               | are more widely supported than they actually are. It's
               | the same problem as with radio and newspapers, but it is
               | exacerbated more than 1000 fold.
        
             | repsilat wrote:
             | I don't know. I agree that refusing to do business with
             | someone is a finite source of political power, but the cost
             | is short-lived. The video gets taken down, but once the
             | news cycle completes the creator will upload to Youtube
             | next time around, and the positive economies to scale
             | (network effects) make limited, repeated application of
             | this power sustainable.
             | 
             | I think it's counter-productive because of my politics, but
             | I don't think it's ineffective or futile.
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | robbrown451 wrote:
             | Well we have some serious short term issues.
             | 
             | To me, the internet is to the First Amendment as nuclear
             | weapons are to the Second. Neither were anticipated when
             | the Bill of Rights was written.
             | 
             | In the 18th century, no one knew people might invent
             | weapons that could kill on such a scale and at such
             | distance. No one knew people could make a beheading video
             | and instantly share it with millions. No one anticipated
             | algorithms that could amplify the worst human impulses to
             | such a degree.
             | 
             | I'd love to see these problems solved in a better way. Here
             | at Hacker New we have a half decent algorithm for promoting
             | quality content based on upvotes and downvotes and flags
             | and karma and such. When that fails, we have Dang's good
             | judgement as a backup. That's censorship too, and it makes
             | this a better place.
             | 
             | YouTube is at a much larger scale, but they have a right to
             | do something. Presumably you are ok with them disallowing
             | beheading videos. What about videos encouraging suicide and
             | providing "help"? What about videos telling people how to
             | make chemical weapons? What about videos planning
             | government overthrows? Where do you draw the line?
             | 
             | I don't necessarily have a long term solution, but I
             | support them taking some short term measures.
        
             | Abroszka wrote:
             | In Europe, in many places it's illegal to deny the
             | holocaust.
             | 
             | Sometimes it's more important to remember what happened
             | than our right to free speech.
        
           | gfodor wrote:
           | And they say satire is dead.
        
           | ncxkvnxck wrote:
           | Should they remove all videos of cars driving over the speed
           | limit too?
        
             | ChrisClark wrote:
             | Ok
        
           | BTCOG wrote:
           | Sure... keeping all the rap that promotes murder, gang
           | membership, robbery, crack and heroin dealing literally
           | numbering into the hundreds of thousands of tracks on
           | Youtube, and millions of other videos promoting the same and
           | worse are totally fine to stay up there and this censoring
           | totally has nothing at all to do with politics, right? I'm
           | not for censoring any of the available music on Youtube but
           | you cannot try and sit here and tell anyone that removing a
           | track like this one, has anything to do with "reducing harm."
           | This is silencing political free speech and I'd bet a ton of
           | money the United States government has a line of
           | communication with, and has told Google to remove content
           | like this. "HackerNews" should consider changing the site
           | name to something more along the lines of
           | "LiberalGroupthinkingProgrammerNews"
           | 
           | /kill fake hackers.
        
           | bserge wrote:
           | They also take down content of people who threaten to kill
           | themselves. Out of sight, out of mind, amirite?
           | 
           | When they come for _your_ honest thoughts, no one will be
           | there to save you.
           | 
           | Platforms _should_ be neutral. But it 's kinda nice they
           | aren't. Fuck them, hopefully new ones will gain traction
           | thanks to their actions.
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | seaman1921 wrote:
           | ironic that people are silencing your comment by downvoting
           | it, haha
        
             | antihipocrat wrote:
             | It would be ironic if it were deleted by HN. The comment is
             | still there and is generating a lot of healthy debate.
             | 
             | I've listened to the song and it's primary (only?) message
             | is to call out a blatant lie from the news media and that
             | we should all be critical consumers of that media.
        
           | _fat_santa wrote:
           | I'm not sure if you're being hyperbolic or not, but the
           | post/video does not mention anything about the vaccine.
           | That's the whole point.
        
           | paulpauper wrote:
           | how about removing videos showing people smoking, because
           | that too is bad for health
        
           | pessimizer wrote:
           | > YouTube has no obligation to be a champion of free speech.
           | 
           | Unless we decide that they do, notwithstanding your
           | declaration. I understand that you like censorship that you
           | agree with, so it would probably be better to ask you about
           | this when they start censoring things that state legislatures
           | interpret as "critical race theory," or for claiming that a
           | government official is being dishonest.
        
             | krapp wrote:
             | >Unless we decide that they do, notwithstanding your
             | declaration.
             | 
             | No, they're a private company. "We" don't get to decide
             | what their obligations are.
        
               | kyle_martin1 wrote:
               | Oh yes we do. We are the People. Legislation for social
               | media is eventually going to happen.
        
               | krapp wrote:
               | Sorry... I thought property rights, freedom of speech and
               | freedom of association were inalienable, or at least
               | important. My mistake. I keep forgetting to read the
               | room.
               | 
               | Let me rephrase.. we _shouldn 't_ if we care about our
               | principles. But I agree with you, inevitably we will
               | abandon those principles, repeal the First Amendment
               | (which is what such legislation would amount to) and cut
               | off our nose to spite our face. The momentum and fury
               | behind this new Red Scare is just too great to stop at
               | this point. When the dust has settled and the government
               | regulates all speech on the web the way the FCC does
               | television, we'll regret it, though.
        
               | [deleted]
        
           | andrew_ wrote:
           | This is precisely the kind of myopic justification that the
           | parent was speaking towards.
        
         | kyle_martin1 wrote:
         | When conservatives gain power again, we're going to push back
         | and lock the door shut. We're going to take back the
         | institutions and rebalance them.
        
           | MisterBastahrd wrote:
           | You had power. You sued for the right to do what these
           | platform providers are doing, and the courts agreed.
           | 
           | Congratulations.
        
             | kyle_martin1 wrote:
             | Patience little one, it'll happen.
        
               | ChrisClark wrote:
               | Why would the Conservatives suddenly change in the next
               | administration? The past one made sure censoring was
               | possible and legal. Why the sudden change of heart and
               | wanting to undo what they just did?
        
               | kyle_martin1 wrote:
               | Do you have any evidence of this? Have you been paying
               | attention or just listening to what media has been
               | telling you what to think?
               | 
               | Did I trigger you?
        
           | bserge wrote:
           | I'm not into politics, but really? When "conservatives" get
           | into power? It's such a huge group that they're no better
           | than the other side. I don't think anyone in such a huge
           | party even gives half a fuck about the average citizen.
           | 
           | You say "we", but you're _nothing_ to them. You support some
           | huge party, does anyone there even know your name?
           | 
           | Fuck that kind of shit, might as well vote for some fringe
           | group really.
        
             | kyle_martin1 wrote:
             | Whoa that really set you off. ;-)
             | 
             | I don't feel safe now should I report you?
        
       | calsy wrote:
       | In most cases, well publicised censorship of art backfires and
       | provides more notoriety and fans for the artist.
        
         | adrr wrote:
         | Youtube doesn't care. It can't have antivax stuff on their
         | platform because advertisers don't want their ads on
         | controversial content.
        
           | Snetry wrote:
           | advertisers don't care as long as no one points it out
        
           | poorjohnmacafee wrote:
           | I think that's changing as challenging the vaccine efficacy
           | or risk profile has become less controversial in the last
           | month. Been sent about half a dozen videos in last week with
           | high viewership and they haven't been removed. This is
           | probably because all of Northern Europe has essentially
           | banned Moderna due to myocarditis risk, and data from many
           | countries, even the CDC's own, show the vaccinated now
           | getting infected at similar rates as unvaccinated (i.e.
           | antibody drop off or virus mutation).
        
             | inside65 wrote:
             | Any links I can read more about this?
        
       | _fat_santa wrote:
       | At this rate Youtube is going to have a rule soon: "saying you
       | will vote for anyone but Biden in the 2024 election
       | misinformation"
        
       | WaitWaitWha wrote:
       | Social media cannot embrace the immunity and authority, but none
       | of the responsibility.
        
         | downandout wrote:
         | The CDA as we know it definitely needs to be abolished. It was
         | written long before Facebook and YouTube became the arbiters of
         | truth for many people.
        
       | deadalus wrote:
       | Youtube Alternatives : Centralized : Dailymotion, Bitchute,
       | Rumble, DTube, Vimeo, Vidlii, DLive, Triller, Gab TV
       | 
       | Decentralized : Odysee(LBRY), Peertube
        
         | bestcoder69 wrote:
         | Also, spin up a VPS - even if it has to be on a infra provider
         | also used by Parler or whatever. The key insight IMO is that
         | this isn't about free speech it's about maximizing your reach
         | by any means necessary. YouTube is a good place for that, but
         | failing that, so is getting written about at Fox News. Rumble,
         | et al... not so much.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | ionwake wrote:
       | Lol Streisand effect
       | 
       | Have no idea what this Brandon song was about. Watched it
       | couldn't understand lyrics. 2 weeks later it's on HN. Read
       | comments, people saying it should be banned. Saying it should be
       | number 1 - that it was - but now is 23 and shadow banned. Don't
       | believe a word. Someone posts lyrics saying pandemic was planned
       | and not real "or serious"
       | 
       | Realise it's a political Comment. Suddenly understand all the
       | above is probably true and that it was shadow banned.
       | 
       | I love the way communities seem to learn more about the real
       | narrative by shadow bans than otherwise.
       | 
       | Not that I'm right.
        
         | afpx wrote:
         | Streisand effect with a dab of weaponized autism.
        
       | egman_ekki wrote:
       | You see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?!
        
         | BTCOG wrote:
         | This is gold.
        
       | downandout wrote:
       | I wonder if they will ban videos about them banning this. This
       | seems like a uniquely stupid hill to die on, regardless of how
       | biased they are toward Biden.
        
         | OrvalWintermute wrote:
         | I wonder if Google will eventually have an Offical Party Line
         | on everything. Then they'll just censor straight down the line.
        
           | downandout wrote:
           | That would probably be more acceptable than the way they are
           | doing it now, at least in my view. If they had come out and
           | said "we are pro Biden and used our platform to get him
           | elected, and we have deleted this video because it insults
           | our buddy," I'd be much happier with that. It's the false
           | labeling..."medical misinformation" in this case...that I
           | have a huge issue with.
        
       | convery wrote:
       | Wow, that's a lot of flagged comments and banned users simply
       | saying censorship is bad. No narrative being pushed here at all,
       | move along..
        
         | krapp wrote:
         | > Wow, that's a lot of flagged comments and banned users simply
         | saying censorship is bad. No narrative being pushed here at
         | all, move along..
         | 
         | As of writing this I count one banned user who was clearly
         | banned a long time ago, and the majority of flagged comments
         | not saying that at all. Some flagged comments even take the
         | opposite side.
        
         | dang wrote:
         | I'm not sure exactly what you think you're seeing, but FWIW we
         | turned off the flags on this thread. Individual comments that
         | break the site guidelines still can and should be flagged, of
         | course.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | twofornone wrote:
       | Tech bros are now the gatekeepers of information for hundreds of
       | millions of eyes (not just youtube, also google search
       | manipulation, facebook algos, arguably outlets like
       | netflix...maybe not Amazon yet) and here about half of the
       | western world is cheering on the suppression.
       | 
       | How can someone place so much trust in this suppression without
       | even seeing what's being censored? Is it just a deliberate
       | blissful ignorance? Are these people really so naive from the
       | comforts of modern western living?
        
         | paulpauper wrote:
         | it is management doing this, not the lower level coders
        
           | kyle_martin1 wrote:
           | That's like saying KGB officers are just following orders.
           | They're complicit implementors.
        
         | TameAntelope wrote:
         | Well, it's not tech bros so much as it's the people failing to
         | know where to get their information. Tech bros gon' tech bro,
         | why would you try to get your news from them?
        
         | CheezeIt wrote:
         | It's not the "bros" who are doing this.
        
       | glhfgg wrote:
       | Based HN losing their shit over a rap track while the kikes
       | collude further. Masters of misdirection plays.
       | 
       | You still trust him, you dumb fucks.
        
       | jaspergilley wrote:
       | Get Fox News links off of HN. Even this seemingly innocuous
       | article is pure manipulation
        
         | loonster wrote:
         | All news is manipulation. The only difference is how you are
         | being manipulated and by whom.
        
           | jaspergilley wrote:
           | That's such a nihilistic false equivalence. Get a
           | subscription to The Economist - their business model
           | disincentivizes manipulation
        
             | loonster wrote:
             | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Group
             | 
             | Owners: Agnelli families (43.40%) Rothschild, Cadbury,
             | Schroder Layton
             | 
             | This is supposed to be a group that abhors manipulation?
        
       | fidesomnes wrote:
       | I get all my medical information from rap songs. This is a
       | violation of my civil rights.
        
       | kadoban wrote:
       | Article goes out of its way to avoid saying what's actually in
       | the song or video.
        
         | syspec wrote:
         | That seems to be a really common thing! It's incredibly
         | frustrating when reading some articles about someone being
         | cancelled or the like.
        
           | kadoban wrote:
           | It's a speciality of Fox News. It promotes the outrage well
           | when you leave out the actually objectionable part. Others do
           | it as well of course.
        
             | Fellshard wrote:
             | This is not isolated to Fox News, whatever other problems
             | it certainly has.
        
             | ipaddr wrote:
             | Like news shows local or national. Dislike the dropping of
             | race when describing suspects at large but identifying
             | gender.
        
               | Quekid5 wrote:
               | Local news in the US is largely owned by Sinclair and/or
               | ClearChannel. (Maybe the latter is only billboards and
               | such. It's hard to keep up with the obfuscation.)
        
               | bashonly wrote:
               | ClearChannel got out of the television game years ago
               | (and has since changed its name to the even-more-awful
               | IHeartCommunications).
               | 
               | And Sinclair really doesn't hold a candle to Nexstar and
               | Gray Television, who have managed to buy up the vast
               | majority of local affiliates over the past several years.
        
             | loonster wrote:
             | In this instance, showing the lyrics that were censored
             | would have increased the outrage.
        
         | throwawayboise wrote:
         | Does it really matter? Clearly it would be in the realm of
         | satire or political humor, things liberals have historically
         | been very vocal about protecting.
        
           | aeturnum wrote:
           | I mean, obviously it could matter.
           | 
           | The difference between lying and joking is always in context.
           | If I dress as a police officer for Halloween it's fine, if I
           | lead you to believe I actually am a police officer it is a
           | crime. There's also a middle ground where someone could
           | mistake my costume for impersonation.
           | 
           | I don't know what aspect of this video violated the terms of
           | service, but I think political videos on all sides regularly
           | make statements that aren't supported by 'mainstream' fact
           | checking sources and therefore might fall outside the
           | policies of services like Youtube.
           | 
           | If you want to argue that all speech with 'political intent'
           | should be protected I am open to that conversation! But that
           | is not the standard held by most services, including Youtube,
           | which Bryson Gray agreed to when he uploaded his song.
        
           | JohnHaugeland wrote:
           | youtube has rules, champ
           | 
           | lying about vaccines is against them, no matter what you want
           | to say about politics
        
             | hobomatic wrote:
             | you know, sport, it isn't necessary to call everyone you
             | disagree with 'champ'.
        
             | throwawayboise wrote:
             | Who's lying? Satire and humor are not lies.
        
               | lookalike74 wrote:
               | Satire and humor both have definitions, neither of which
               | described anything happening here.
        
               | pkulak wrote:
               | Why are you so convinced it's satire?
               | 
               | Regardless, YT doesn't want that anti-vax shit on their
               | platform, so they removed it. There's absolutely no
               | controversy here.
        
             | mechanical_bear wrote:
             | Why are you talking down to previous poster, rather than
             | just disagreeing? This seems inappropriate for HN.
             | Personally, I come here for differing viewpoints, expressed
             | with a bit of maturity, or at least without toxicity of
             | that sort.
        
           | iab wrote:
           | Ok - can someone explain to me how this is funny? Use small
           | words please, I want to understand
        
             | jwond wrote:
             | Humor is subjective
        
             | will4274 wrote:
             | Nascar is a sport where people drive cars in circles really
             | fast. A reporter was interviewing a driver after he drove
             | the fastest. The drivers name was Brandon. The crowd was
             | chanting so loud it was louder than her interview. The
             | reporter said that the crowd seemed very supportive because
             | they were chanting "Let's go Brandon." The crowd was very
             | obviously not chanting "Let's go Brandon." The crowd was
             | chanting "Fuck Joe Biden." This reporter works for a news
             | network that has a certain reputation for political bias.
             | This event was seen as an obvious attempt to dissemble.
             | This video went viral and had significant publicity.
             | 
             | One type of humor is known as "trolling". The basic idea is
             | to see how much of a reaction you can get from something
             | pointless and stupid. Now many people are making songs with
             | the lyric "Let's go Brandon" and they are receiving hate
             | mail, being banned, being demonitized, etc. This reaction
             | is seen as outsized for a reference to a fairly well known
             | piece of pop culture. Thus, to those who find outsized
             | reactions funny, this is funny.
        
         | tyingq wrote:
         | I'm curious if it was substantially different than other
         | variations on "Let's Go Brandon" songs, like this:
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9DClYso2FA
         | 
         | Note: Just curious. Didn't even know about this "Let's Go
         | Brandon" thing until now.
        
         | jfrunyon wrote:
         | "Biden said the jab stopped the spread, it was lies. How you
         | WOKE but you haven't opened your eyes?"
        
           | chroem- wrote:
           | Are you implying that the lyric is wrong and the pandemic is
           | over?
        
           | yesbut wrote:
           | Increases in COVID-19 are unrelated to levels of vaccination
           | across 68 countries and 2947 counties in the United States
           | 
           | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8481107/
           | 
           | If I recall correctly, the Biden administration and the CDC
           | both made public statements telling everyone that they would
           | no longer need to continue wearing masks once they were
           | vaccinated.
        
             | gzer0 wrote:
             | Did you not read the first sentence of the very study you
             | cite?
             | 
             |  _Vaccines currently are the primary mitigation strategy to
             | combat COVID-19 around the world._
             | 
             | The lack of critical thinking in this thread is concerning.
        
               | yesbut wrote:
               | Yes, vaccines prevent you from ending up in the ICU, but
               | they aren't preventing the spread.
               | 
               | Did you think the vaccines would prevent you from
               | contracting covid?
               | 
               | Wear your masks people.
        
               | gzer0 wrote:
               | _Yes, vaccines prevent you from ending up in the ICU, but
               | they aren 't preventing the spread._
               | 
               | This portion of your comment in particular is false.
               | 
               | People who receive two COVID-19 jabs and later contract
               | the Delta variant are less likely to infect their close
               | contacts than are unvaccinated people with Delta.
               | Relevant Nature article (October 5, 2021).
               | 
               | However, good job on the masks part, please keep wearing
               | them! :-)
               | 
               | [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02689-y
        
               | yesbut wrote:
               | Less likely != prevent
        
               | gzer0 wrote:
               | They are helping to prevent. You are truly grasping at
               | straws here.
        
               | u801e wrote:
               | You could make the same argument about any commonly
               | administered vaccine if only 58% of the population are
               | vaccinated. There were a number of outbreaks of measles
               | several years ago when the localized percentage of people
               | vaccinated dropped below 95%.
        
               | yesbut wrote:
               | In regards to covid in particular:
               | 
               | > Increases in COVID-19 are unrelated to levels of
               | vaccination across 68 countries and 2947 counties in the
               | United States
               | 
               | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8481107/
        
           | chroem- wrote:
           | Flagged for some reason, so I will post it again:
           | 
           | Are you implying that the pandemic is over?
        
             | city41 wrote:
             | The vaccination has been thoroughly shown to work. The
             | pandemic isn't over because only about 50% of Americans are
             | fully vaccinated. We should be at herd immunity by now and
             | moving on, but yet here we are.
        
               | ggdG wrote:
               | > The vaccination has been thoroughly shown to work
               | 
               | How has this been shown?
               | 
               | Countries with a high vaccination rate don't have a lower
               | infection rate than other countries:
               | 
               | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10654-021-0080
               | 8-7
               | 
               | And after 3 months of being fully vaccinated, whatever
               | level of immunity you had is completely gone by then:
               | 
               | https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02689-y
               | 
               | > Unfortunately, the vaccine's beneficial effect on Delta
               | transmission waned to almost negligible levels over time.
               | In people infected 2 weeks after receiving the vaccine
               | developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca,
               | both in the UK, the chance that an unvaccinated close
               | contact would test positive was 57%, but 3 months later,
               | that chance rose to 67%. The latter figure is on par with
               | the likelihood that an unvaccinated person will spread
               | the virus.
               | 
               | The only thing that remains, is some protection against
               | symptomatic disease.
        
               | exporectomy wrote:
               | Italy is at 80% and they still see the need to ban
               | unvaccinated people from places. New Zealand is planning
               | to ban unvaccinated people form places after we reach 90%
               | of over-12-year-olds. So even with a massive 80%
               | vaccinated, the vaccine doesn't stop the spread. Maybe it
               | would at 90%? 95%? Who knows.
               | 
               | In New Zealand, the unvaccinated are largely the
               | indigenous Maori, not stereotypical anti-vaxxers.
        
               | hackflip wrote:
               | The media really wants to paint the average antivaxxer as
               | white rednecks, when white people are among the most
               | heavily vaccinated demographics.
        
               | chroem- wrote:
               | But is the pandemic over? It's clearly not, and that was
               | the point of the lyric. Countries with 90%+ vaccination
               | rates are still having lockdowns because of breakthrough
               | cases.
        
               | city41 wrote:
               | You're adding things that aren't there. The lyrics are
               | just "the jab stops the spread." That is true.
        
               | chroem- wrote:
               | I was unaware that we interpret poetry literally in 2021.
        
               | city41 wrote:
               | You're acting as if your interpretation is the only valid
               | one. Since not everyone will interpret "the jab stops the
               | spread" as "the pandemic is over", the best we can do is
               | interpret "the jab stops the spread" as ... wait for it
               | ... "the jab stops the spread".
        
               | jakeva wrote:
               | My interpretation would be closer to "the jab slows the
               | spread".
        
               | city41 wrote:
               | Yeah, to be fair that is probably a more accurate
               | statement.
               | 
               | Edit: and while we're here, here is politifact's take:
               | 
               | https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/oct/14/joe-
               | biden/...
               | 
               | Concluding it's "half true" fits this thread well :)
        
               | jjulius wrote:
               | >The lyrics are just "the jab stops the spread." That is
               | true.
               | 
               | I say this as someone who's vaccinated; that is not true.
               | It can limit the spread by reducing the viral load you
               | give off, but you can still be vaccinated, get the virus,
               | be asymptomatic (or not) and transmit it.
        
             | bmarquez wrote:
             | You're probably getting flagged because the parent
             | commentator is quoting the lyrics of the song (in quotation
             | marks), as a response to someone asking what was in the
             | video.
             | 
             | Your question should be directed at the creator of the
             | video, not the HN user.
        
               | chroem- wrote:
               | We're posting in a thread discussing why YouTube took
               | down the song. The GP asked for what was objectionable
               | about it. Your comment does not make sense.
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | franga2000 wrote:
             | The quote is calling the statement "the vaccine will stop
             | the spread of covid" a lie. That statement can be a lie
             | only if the vaccine can not stop the spread. An overly
             | optimistic prediction wouldn't be a lie, so the quote must
             | be calling the vaccine ineffective at best.
             | 
             | Regardless of whether the pandemic is over or not, the
             | statement isn't a lie and therefore the quote is incorrect.
             | The vaccine significantly slows ths spread and from both
             | theory and past experience can fully stop it, given a high
             | enough vaccination rate. At best it hasn't come to fruition
             | yet and at worst it won't not because the statement is a
             | lie but because people actively prevented it from coming
             | true, despite all reason and logic.
        
               | chroem- wrote:
               | If this is the standard that we go by, are other
               | lyricists _literally_ commanding me to rob banks and
               | abuse women?
        
               | ggdG wrote:
               | > The vaccine significantly slows ths spread
               | 
               | Based on what data do you come to that conclusion?
               | 
               | The vaccination rate of a country is not correlated with
               | its covid infection rate:
               | 
               | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10654-021-0080
               | 8-7
               | 
               | And after 3 months of being fully vaccinated, people are
               | just as likely to spread the virus as unvaccinated
               | people:
               | 
               | https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02689-y
               | 
               | From the article:
               | 
               | > Unfortunately, the vaccine's beneficial effect on Delta
               | transmission waned to almost negligible levels over time.
               | In people infected 2 weeks after receiving the vaccine
               | developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca,
               | both in the UK, the chance that an unvaccinated close
               | contact would test positive was 57%, but 3 months later,
               | that chance rose to 67%. The latter figure is on par with
               | the likelihood that an unvaccinated person will spread
               | the virus.
        
               | kpommerenke wrote:
               | Thank you for the links. I followed them and came to a
               | different conclusion:
               | 
               | 1) "The vaccination rate of a country is not correlated
               | with its covid infection rate". From the article: "The
               | lack of a meaningful association between percentage
               | population fully vaccinated and new COVID-19 cases is
               | further exemplified, for instance, by comparison of
               | Iceland and Portugal. Both countries have over 75% of
               | their population fully vaccinated and have more COVID-19
               | cases per 1 million people than countries such as Vietnam
               | and South Africa that have around 10% of their population
               | fully vaccinated." You can interpret this as either the
               | vaccine not working (unlikely) or that high-income
               | countries such as Iceland and Portugal test a larger
               | share of their population than low-income countries such
               | as Vietnam and South Africa (very likely), thus
               | confounding the relationship between vaccination levels
               | and reported Covid cases.
               | 
               | 2) "And after 3 months of being fully vaccinated, people
               | are just as likely to spread the virus as unvaccinated
               | people". From the article: "The risk of spreading the
               | Delta infection soon after vaccination with that jab
               | [Pfizer] was 42%, but increased to 58% with time." Your
               | quote shows that the AstraZeneca vaccine loses
               | effectiveness over time. However, the chance of an
               | unvaccinated person passing on the virus is 67%, which is
               | significantly higher than the 58% for a person who
               | received the Pfizer vaccine.
        
         | briane80 wrote:
         | Only government approved rap lyrics should be allowed on
         | YouTube, such as making dolla, shooting my *** and slapping my
         | *** etc
        
         | gruez wrote:
         | sibling comment further down:
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28972609
        
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       (page generated 2021-10-23 23:01 UTC)