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> Google may have taken that video down in accordance with their policy to delete videos the are counter to WHO policy. Good grief. Why are urban legends so h

> Google may have taken that video down in accordance with their policy to delete videos the are counter to WHO policy. Good grief. Why are urban legends so hard to kill? There is no such policy. There never was. The source of that bit of ginned-up outrage was an informal interview (when I looked this up earlier, there wasn't even video or a transcript available anywhere!) where someone senior was asked about what Youtube's criteria were for vetting advice in the face of the pandemic. And the answer was a hand-wavy thing about how anything that was clearly wrong, or clearly dangerous, and one of the examples given was about medical advice that clearly runs counter to existing health care bodies like the WHO. And that's as far as it went. There never was a policy about the WHO. To my knowledge no video was ever removed because of a conflict with the WHO. The whole point wasn't to nitpick about exactly what the WHO said, it was to reference the fact that Youtube would adhere to expert consensus where possible. > That is what is wrong with platforms like Google and Facebook adopting the role of fact-checkers. The irony there is that, had Google or Facebook or someone taken on that role, you wouldn't have internalized this fake fact because whoever it was that spun it to you wouldn't have had an audience. But they didn't. So you got lied to. Which is better?

ryanobjc 6y ago
This is a great comment. People complain about youtube censorship... on YouTube. There is a widespread misunderstanding of the YouTube removal reasons. Bad faith actors are spreading these rumors and creating conditions to falsely claim censorship. For example, most "alt-right" videos and users were removed due to their targeted harassment of other users. But they mix it in a larger video and then claim that YouTube removed the video for the generalized content. This is a bad faith argument, and they know what they are doing.
nostromo 6y ago
> There never was a policy about the WHO. "Anything that would go against World Health Organization recommendations would be a violation of our policy." - YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki > To my knowledge no video was ever removed because of a conflict with the WHO. "Sharyl Attkisson, host of the nationally syndicated news magazine TV show "Full Measure" had her story about "politicizing COVID-19 medicine" pulled by YouTube, because the video service deemed it 'dangerous.' The issue was that one doctor said that hydroxychloroquine still needed to be studied." https://abc3340.com/news/nation-world/youtube-reinstates-hydroxychloroquine-story-after-deeming-it-dangerous https://abc3340.com/news/nation-world/youtube-reinstates-hyd...
- shawnz 6y ago
  That is just a small, singular quote for the press and not necessarily a fully fleshed explanation of the policy.
- newacct583 6y ago
  That's the quote from the interview I mentioned. Now find me the policy you claim exists. Hell, even find me a transcript of that interview. This is literally one story written about one out of context quote with no external verification by any of the parties involved. It's the very definition of manufactured outrage. As far as the video you linked: it was reinstated. That's right there in the headline of the article you linked. They messed up, and put it back. Isn't that saying that their actual policy is the opposite of what you claim?
  - emtel 6y ago
    Here is the policy: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9891785?hl=en https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9891785?hl=en
    - pnako 6y ago
      That policy is completely absurd on its face. >YouTube doesn't allow content that spreads medical misinformation that contradicts the World Health Organization (WHO) or local health authorities’ medical information about COVID-19 What if local health authorities contradict WHO medical information? Google's mission used to be to organize the world's information. Now they seem to be want to go way beyond that.
      - josephcsible 6y ago
        >>YouTube doesn't allow content that spreads medical misinformation that contradicts the World Health Organization (WHO) or local health authorities’ medical information about COVID-19 >What if local health authorities contradict WHO medical information? Simple: then you're not allowed to upload videos on those topics at all.
cm2187 6y ago
Unless the BBC is grossly misrepresenting the statements, it is not "someone senior" but the CEO, and the BBC quotes “Anything that would go against World Health Organization recommendations would be a violation of our policy.” [1] [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52388586 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52388586
- newacct583 6y ago
  > Unless the BBC is grossly misrepresenting the statements That story ran six weeks ago, and there's been no corroboration of that "policy" by any other source in any other media. It's all a bunch of huffing about this one out-of-context, apparently off-the-cuff (quote. So yeah, I think that's pretty much the definition of "grossly misrepresented".
detaro 6y ago
> There never was a policy about the WHO. Not quite. Before there's more back and forth about some interview and what that meant, let's quote the actual policy, and focus the discussion on that? from https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9891785 https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9891785 : > YouTube doesn't allow content that spreads medical misinformation that contradicts the World Health Organization (WHO) or local health authorities’ medical information about COVID-19. This is limited to content that contradicts WHO or local health authorities’ guidance on: - Treatment - Prevention - Diagnostic - Transmission followed by a long list of examples
spikels 6y ago
Not an urban legend. YouTube removed videos from a US ICU doctor who has a channel called MedCram that does videos for medical students and ongoing education for doctors. They removed all his videos that discussed HCQ around the time the YouTube CEO made that statement. He made a lot of noise and it seems some/all of his videos were restored. https://www.change.org/p/youtube-tell-youtube-to-letusdecide-and-stopcensoring-content https://www.change.org/p/youtube-tell-youtube-to-letusdecide...

ryanobjc 6y ago

This is a great comment. People complain about youtube censorship... on YouTube. There is a widespread misunderstanding of the YouTube removal reasons. Bad faith actors are spreading these rumors and creating conditions to falsely claim censorship. For example, most "alt-right" videos and users were removed due to their targeted harassment of other users. But they mix it in a larger video and then claim that YouTube removed the video for the generalized content. This is a bad faith argument, and they know what they are doing.

nostromo 6y ago

> There never was a policy about the WHO. "Anything that would go against World Health Organization recommendations would be a violation of our policy." - YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki > To my knowledge no video was ever removed because of a conflict with the WHO. "Sharyl Attkisson, host of the nationally syndicated news magazine TV show "Full Measure" had her story about "politicizing COVID-19 medicine" pulled by YouTube, because the video service deemed it 'dangerous.' The issue was that one doctor said that hydroxychloroquine still needed to be studied." https://abc3340.com/news/nation-world/youtube-reinstates-hydroxychloroquine-story-after-deeming-it-dangerous https://abc3340.com/news/nation-world/youtube-reinstates-hyd...

shawnz 6y ago
That is just a small, singular quote for the press and not necessarily a fully fleshed explanation of the policy.
newacct583 6y ago
That's the quote from the interview I mentioned. Now find me the policy you claim exists. Hell, even find me a transcript of that interview. This is literally one story written about one out of context quote with no external verification by any of the parties involved. It's the very definition of manufactured outrage. As far as the video you linked: it was reinstated. That's right there in the headline of the article you linked. They messed up, and put it back. Isn't that saying that their actual policy is the opposite of what you claim?
- emtel 6y ago
  Here is the policy: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9891785?hl=en https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9891785?hl=en
  - pnako 6y ago
    That policy is completely absurd on its face. >YouTube doesn't allow content that spreads medical misinformation that contradicts the World Health Organization (WHO) or local health authorities’ medical information about COVID-19 What if local health authorities contradict WHO medical information? Google's mission used to be to organize the world's information. Now they seem to be want to go way beyond that.
    - josephcsible 6y ago
      >>YouTube doesn't allow content that spreads medical misinformation that contradicts the World Health Organization (WHO) or local health authorities’ medical information about COVID-19 >What if local health authorities contradict WHO medical information? Simple: then you're not allowed to upload videos on those topics at all.

cm2187 6y ago

Unless the BBC is grossly misrepresenting the statements, it is not "someone senior" but the CEO, and the BBC quotes “Anything that would go against World Health Organization recommendations would be a violation of our policy.” [1] [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52388586 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52388586

newacct583 6y ago
> Unless the BBC is grossly misrepresenting the statements That story ran six weeks ago, and there's been no corroboration of that "policy" by any other source in any other media. It's all a bunch of huffing about this one out-of-context, apparently off-the-cuff (quote. So yeah, I think that's pretty much the definition of "grossly misrepresented".

detaro 6y ago

> There never was a policy about the WHO. Not quite. Before there's more back and forth about some interview and what that meant, let's quote the actual policy, and focus the discussion on that? from https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9891785 https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9891785 : > YouTube doesn't allow content that spreads medical misinformation that contradicts the World Health Organization (WHO) or local health authorities’ medical information about COVID-19. This is limited to content that contradicts WHO or local health authorities’ guidance on: - Treatment - Prevention - Diagnostic - Transmission followed by a long list of examples

spikels 6y ago

Not an urban legend. YouTube removed videos from a US ICU doctor who has a channel called MedCram that does videos for medical students and ongoing education for doctors. They removed all his videos that discussed HCQ around the time the YouTube CEO made that statement. He made a lot of noise and it seems some/all of his videos were restored. https://www.change.org/p/youtube-tell-youtube-to-letusdecide-and-stopcensoring-content https://www.change.org/p/youtube-tell-youtube-to-letusdecide...