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> And not moderating them is a slippery slope to facilitating violent extremism, and to anti-science activists leading an otherwise-developed country to top the

> And not moderating them is a slippery slope to facilitating violent extremism, and to anti-science activists leading an otherwise-developed country to top the chart in pandemic deaths. Have we really learned nothing over the last year and a half? What will it take to shake your faith in the media? Four weeks ago, the idea that COVID-19 originated from a lab was a conspiracy theory, likely to get you banned with extreme prejudice for being a qanon white supremecist. COVID-19 was a conspiracy theory. Then it was a conspiracy theory that human to human transmission was possible. Then it was a conspiracy theory that wearing masks was at all helpful. What will be the next domino to fall? What will the new truth be a few weeks from now? If anything, censoring "conspiracy theories" led directly to the COVID-19 pandemic. If this was 2015, I think things would have gone much better for us. Citizens would have been able to fill in the gaps where journalists failed us. There might have been a panic for people to buy masks and close the borders, sure, but the pandemic would have probably been contained. I was banned for spreading conspiracy theories in February 2020 when I pleaded with people to practice basic hygiene and postpone travel until we had figured out what was going on.

deorder 5y ago
An entire subreddit was quarantined in February last year for spreading misinformation about what was considered fact just months later. As of today that subreddit is still quarantined, even after the last "misinfo", the lab theory, is no longer considered taboo to talk about.
- hammock 5y ago
  Which subreddit?
  - deorder 5y ago
    /r/Wuhan_Flu More info here: https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7jqbx/reddit-cant-quarantine-coronavirus-misinformation https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7jqbx/reddit-cant-quarantin... Also here: https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/f6jpm7/what_is_up_with_rwuhan_flu_being_quarantined/ https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/f6jpm7/what_i... And a quote from /r/OutOfTheLoop about /r/WuhanFlu: > The users of that subreddit believe in a conspiracy that the Wuhan Coronavirus is more serious than the governments of China and the United States are telling them. They believe the government is mismanaging the outbreak. They were quarantined because an admin believed the subreddit was spreading misinformation. Note that /r/WuhanFlu was already talking about this mismanagement since mid-January. Unfortunately @apostacy (who is getting downvoted) is from what I experienced back then mostly right.
    - hammock 5y ago
      thank you hadn't heard of this. the quarantine process really works huh
      - deorder 5y ago
        It mostly destroyed that subreddit-community and prevented anything from that subreddit to ever reach the frontpage again. It is now just a shell of its former self. Back then it helped me and others to stock up on masks, sanitizers and other stuff early. We warned other people early about the upcoming virus as well. Meanwhile the other corona-subreddits were and/or still are controlled by moderators that also control many of the other largest Reddit-approved (corona-)subreddits: https://i.4pcdn.org/pol/1582202873483.jpg https://i.4pcdn.org/pol/1582202873483.jpg (Sorry, this 4chan archive of the image is all I could still find) And this is all just one example of how crazy things can get and not even the worst (like people getting doxxed and personally harassed, getting banned on multiple sites en masse etc.). Many people who aren't in the right place at the right time within certain communities probably can't even imagine things like this could happen (like I couldn't 6 years ago) until it happens to them. They just call you a "conspiracy theorist". Not everyone who is skeptical of the mainstream story believes in "flat earth", is "anti-vaxx", thinks they want to "inject us with microchips" and "control us with 5G". Those are used as an example to censor and/or discredit other alternative views. All we did on that subreddit was just trying to find out what was happening before everyone was talking about it (which was suspicious in itself).

deorder 5y ago

An entire subreddit was quarantined in February last year for spreading misinformation about what was considered fact just months later. As of today that subreddit is still quarantined, even after the last "misinfo", the lab theory, is no longer considered taboo to talk about.

hammock 5y ago
Which subreddit?
- deorder 5y ago
  /r/Wuhan_Flu More info here: https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7jqbx/reddit-cant-quarantine-coronavirus-misinformation https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7jqbx/reddit-cant-quarantin... Also here: https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/f6jpm7/what_is_up_with_rwuhan_flu_being_quarantined/ https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/f6jpm7/what_i... And a quote from /r/OutOfTheLoop about /r/WuhanFlu: > The users of that subreddit believe in a conspiracy that the Wuhan Coronavirus is more serious than the governments of China and the United States are telling them. They believe the government is mismanaging the outbreak. They were quarantined because an admin believed the subreddit was spreading misinformation. Note that /r/WuhanFlu was already talking about this mismanagement since mid-January. Unfortunately @apostacy (who is getting downvoted) is from what I experienced back then mostly right.
  - hammock 5y ago
    thank you hadn't heard of this. the quarantine process really works huh
    - deorder 5y ago
      It mostly destroyed that subreddit-community and prevented anything from that subreddit to ever reach the frontpage again. It is now just a shell of its former self. Back then it helped me and others to stock up on masks, sanitizers and other stuff early. We warned other people early about the upcoming virus as well. Meanwhile the other corona-subreddits were and/or still are controlled by moderators that also control many of the other largest Reddit-approved (corona-)subreddits: https://i.4pcdn.org/pol/1582202873483.jpg https://i.4pcdn.org/pol/1582202873483.jpg (Sorry, this 4chan archive of the image is all I could still find) And this is all just one example of how crazy things can get and not even the worst (like people getting doxxed and personally harassed, getting banned on multiple sites en masse etc.). Many people who aren't in the right place at the right time within certain communities probably can't even imagine things like this could happen (like I couldn't 6 years ago) until it happens to them. They just call you a "conspiracy theorist". Not everyone who is skeptical of the mainstream story believes in "flat earth", is "anti-vaxx", thinks they want to "inject us with microchips" and "control us with 5G". Those are used as an example to censor and/or discredit other alternative views. All we did on that subreddit was just trying to find out what was happening before everyone was talking about it (which was suspicious in itself).