Amazon Removes Anti-Vaccine Movies After CNN Inquiry (cnn.com)

"Amazon has apparently started removing anti-vaccine documentaries from its Amazon Prime Video streaming service," reports CNN: The move came days after a CNN Business report highlighted the anti-vaccine content available on the site, and hours after Rep. Adam Schiff wrote an open letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, saying he is concerned "that Amazon is surfacing and recommending" anti-vaccination books and movies....

Amazon did not respond to questions about why the films are no longer available on Prime Video.

However, while some anti-vaccine videos are gone from the Prime streaming service, a number of anti-vaccine books were still available for purchase on Amazon.com when CNN Business reviewed search results on Friday afternoon, and some were still being offered for free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers... Amazon also had not removed some anti-vaccine books that CNN Business had previously reported on, which users searching the site could mistake for offering neutral information accepted by the public health community.

Comments

Just what we need.....

[pollarda]

While I don't agree with the anti-vaccine crowd, the last thing we need is for Amazon / Google / Facebook to become the arbiters as to what we think, see, and hear. Having everyone think in lockstep is far more dangerous than the anti-vaccine movement imho.

Re:Just what we need.....

[PopeRatzo]

Having everyone think in lockstep is far more dangerous than the anti-vaccine movement imho.

Tell that to somebody with smallpox or polio or cervical cancer from HPV. Or the family of someone who died in one of the recent measles outbreaks.

Too bad there isn't a vaccination against people who think that accepting study after replicated study - thousands of them- that show vaccines are effective and safe is somehow, "thinking in lockstep".

Re:Just what we need.....

[PopeRatzo]

Uhm. No. Did you learn that at Berkeley?

Um, Berkeley was literally the place the free speech movement started, you stupid sonofabitch.

And yes, forcing someone to publish something is as bad as being forced not to publish something. We're not talking about prior restraint here. This was a letter from an elected representative to a CEO showing concern that a product could be knowingly hurting people. There's no law, no regulation, no compulsion. Jeff Bezos got the letter and said, "OK, good point. Fuck anti-vaxxers. Let them go on Infowars and spread their bullshit. I don't have to carry them in my store."

Re:Just what we need.....

[shilly]

Corporations don't have power over what you can say or hear. Give it a try: open your mouth and say something vile and you will find the words coming out of your mouth without Google or Amazon or anyone else preventing you.

Corporations aren't obliged to buy and re-sell your particular brand of idiocy, however.

Re:Just what we need.....

[DNS-and-BIND]

Corporations don't have power over what you can say or hear.

If your video isn't on Youtube, does it really exist? Our public square today is dominated by corporations. It's foolish to say otherwise. We have moved on from the era of soap boxes on the street. Imagine in the old days if Ma Bell had the ability to listen in to every phone call and was ordered by management to disconnect calls that opposed the war in Vietnam.

Not going to work

[alvinrod]

This type of thing never works, it just makes the people who already believe in this hunker down because now they believe it's an even bigger conspiracy. If you want to get people to stop believing in this, just make a pro-vaccine movie. Only you don't fill in full of scientists, reason and logic. Go film some of the anti-vaxxers whose children got sick with perfectly preventable diseases. Make sure to really capture the suffering of those poor children and the misery of the dumb-fuck parents. Go to the corners of the earth where polio still exists to show them the horrors of that. I think that will get their attention.

Re:Not going to work

[Gravis Zero]

This type of thing never works, it just makes the people who already believe in this hunker down because now they believe it's an even bigger conspiracy.

You are absolutely correct. However, the real issue here is not the people that already believe this bullshit but the people that may be inclined to believe bullshit by a spreader of said bullshit.

If you want to get people to stop believing in this, just make a pro-vaccine movie. Only you don't fill in full of scientists, reason and logic. Go film some of the anti-vaxxers whose children got sick with perfectly preventable diseases. Make sure to really capture the suffering of those poor children and the misery of the dumb-fuck parents. Go to the corners of the earth where polio still exists to show them the horrors of that. I think that will get their attention.

A good start but I think we should go one further and show how much money is made by "big pharma" from each kid that gets sick from these diseases and then claim they founded the anti-vax movement. ;)

Re:Not going to work

[umafuckit]

This type of thing never works, it just makes the people who already believe in this hunker down because now they believe it's an even bigger conspiracy. If you want to get people to stop believing in this, just make a pro-vaccine movie. Only you don't fill in full of scientists, reason and logic. Go film some of the anti-vaxxers whose children got sick with perfectly preventable diseases. Make sure to really capture the suffering of those poor children and the misery of the dumb-fuck parents. Go to the corners of the earth where polio still exists to show them the horrors of that. I think that will get their attention.

It probably won't get their attention: they are blind to reason. They will just think the film is propaganda and either not watch it or do so but use twisted logic to disregard it. People believe the Earth is flat, so believing vaccines are bad for you is a far easier delusion to maintain. The only thing that might change their minds is if their kids die or are debilitated by the diseases they are failing to vaccinate them against. Their current belief system has little of any obvious repercussions on themselves, so it's easy to continue the self deception.

Re:Not going to work

[DrXym]

it just makes the people who already believe

It's not the people you already you need to worry about. It's the ones who don't believe but who are receptive to this kind of crap. It doesn't even have to turn them into true believers to cause harm. It just has to sow doubt / fear / distrust so they don't get shots and put their children and others at risk of serious harm or death

Amazon and social media sites don't have to stop hosting antivax (though that would be nice), but there is no reason either that they should give it due prominence. If someone searches for vaccine information, then the science, evidence based information should appear before any antivax stuff. Bury the antivax results where they belong. There is no reason either for Amazon, or social media services to actively promote the antivax through suggestions, keywords, targeted ads etc.

If major websites actively did that then eventually this brain damage would be contained. There would always be true believers but it would not be a mainstream belief. So yes it could work, providing the likes of Amazon grew a pair and actually did something.

Re:Not going to work

[AmiMoJo]

Then why is it only now becoming a big problem? This kind of material has existed for decades but was hard to find and access. Yet suddenly the movement is taking off again. What is your explanation?

The reality is that it's become a big monkey maker for some people, who have figured out how to push it. Where as previously no publisher or movie theatre would have given then a platform, Amazon and YouTube decided they wanted to be the new platforms but that any kind of moderation probably wasn't necessary.

Re:anti-vaccine is a cult

[ArchieBunker]

Wow. No more Mr. Nice Guy.

Let's try information and education instead, hm'kay?

Sure, next up I'll try talking some fundamentalist christians out of the existence of god. Surely scientific methods and facts will sway their opinions.

Re:Freedom! Oh no

[ShanghaiBill]

Yet another person who fails to understand the First Amendment.

The poster you replied to didn't mention the 1st Amendment.

Just because corporate thought control is legal, that doesn't mean it is a good idea.

Re:Disturbing trend

[AC-x]

Why shouldn't a bookstore be able to choose what they stock? Why should a bookstore be forced to carry a product they don't want to sell?

Re:Freedom! Oh no

[DNS-and-BIND]

In a copororatist system, it does not matter who is censoring you. Corporations can buy whatever laws they want. America certainly has such a system. The real question is why are you on Slashdot defending the right of billionaires to suppress us from speaking, even if we're wrong? You work for a social media management company, don't you?