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'Why YouTube's New Plan to Debunk Conspiracy Videos Won't Work' (vortex.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the video-vendetta dept.

Slashdot reader Lauren Weinstein believes YouTube's plan to combat conspiracy videos with "information cues" is "likely doomed to be almost entirely ineffective." The kind of viewers who are going to believe these kinds of false conspiracy videos are almost certainly going to say that the associated Wikipedia articles are wrong, that they're planted lies... Not helping matters at all is that Wikipedia's reputation for accuracy -- never all that good -- has been plunging in recent years, sometimes resulting in embarrassing Knowledge Panel errors for Google in search results...

The key to avoiding the contamination...is to minimize their visibility in the YouTube/Google ecosystem in the first place... Not only should they be prevented from ever getting into the trending lists, they should be deranked, demonetized, and excised from the YouTube recommended video system. They should be immediately removed from YouTube entirely if they contain specific attacks against individuals or other violations of the YouTube Terms of Service and/or Community Guidelines. These actions must be taken as rapidly as possible with appropriate due diligence, before these videos are able to do even more damage to innocent parties.

8 of 308 comments (clear)

  1. Censoring vs. Educating by Tinsoldier314 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Lauren's supposition that Wikipedia information will simply be ignored and that Youtube should simply censor the videos is based on a dodgy notion that censoring speech we don't like is somehow better than combating it with truths. Yes, they may ignore Wikipedia but not all of them. It may take longer but it's the more righteous path than censoring. imho

    1. Re:Censoring vs. Educating by the_povinator · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I believe Lauren Weinstein used to be paid as some kind of Google shill and now that the agreement has been terminated, he seems to have turned on his former employer. Most of his posts now seem to have an anti-Google bias.

      --
      The .sig is dead, and I believe I had a hand in killing it.
    2. Re:Censoring vs. Educating by the_povinator · · Score: 5, Informative
      ... also, who exactly is going to decide what information is "bad" and what is "good"? Google itself?

      I notice Lauren's attitudes towards censorship have not changed. When he blogged on Google+, he would delete any comment on his posts that disagreed with him even in a mild and reasonable way.

      --
      The .sig is dead, and I believe I had a hand in killing it.
    3. Re: Censoring vs. Educating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If a baker has to make cakes for gay weddings, YouTube has to offer an equal platform for diverse users that they might disagree with.

  2. Idiots by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The problem is that they think they know best for everyone else. Their default position is authoritarian and dictatorial.

    The best way to entrench an idea is to tell someone they're wrong, and be a smug, condescending, elitist asshole while doing so.

    So... Basically why the Democrats lost in 2016, and why the left in general is losing the culture war. They can't get over how fucking smart they think they are, and how stupid everyone else is for not thinking the same thing.

  3. "De-Platforming" by BlueStrat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's how opposing voices are to be swept from public view & dissemination. Google, Facebook, Twitter, et al are all working along the same path to de-platform views conflicting with Leftist/Progressive dogma and silence them. It's not too far down this path where we get to the pogroms, camps, and ovens part.

    Strat

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  4. Same retard who thinks ad blockers are unethical ! by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is the same retard who thinks:

    https://plus.google.com/+Laure...

    "For the record, I don't run any ad blockers. Basically, I consider them unethical"

    /sarcasm Apparently going to the bathroom during an ad is unethical.

    And now he thinks censorship will work?

    Only cowards censor.

    Why?

    Ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away.

    ONLY by having a rational discussion, where people are FORCED to confront their biases will they ever learn to see the pros/cons of BOTH sides.

  5. Agree. by gerald.edward.butler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Originally, I was very supportive of the whole LGBT movement and feminism etc., but, it seems like they've just veered into a place where they are anti-free-speech, anti-white-man, anti-man, anti-normal. If you don't have some kind of social dysfunction, then you are the problem. It couldn't possibly be that they are wacko!