45 ms·
YouTube deletes rapper's 'Let's Go Brandon' song claiming medical misinformation
- Proven 5y agoThanks for telling us about the video. Let's go, Brandon! https://rumble.com/vnxsm5-lets-go-brandon-rapper-loza-alexanders-meme-inspired-tiktok-song-goes-viral.html https://rumble.com/vnxsm5-lets-go-brandon-rapper-loza-alexan...
- mc32 5y agoNo, 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.
- catawbasam 5y ago[flagged]
- mStreamTeam 5y agoOK, that has nothing to do with YouTube censoring content and proving a false excuse why...
- catawbasam 5y agoIt 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.
- catawbasam 5y agoGoogle up marketing posters. You will see many of the same names and faces, a prominent example being Michael Flynn.
- mStreamTeam 5y agoYou're other comment already got flagged for being off topic. And now your posting conspiracy theories...
- catawbasam 5y agoSee for yourself: https://www.americasfuture.net/all-events/ https://www.americasfuture.net/all-events/ Click the Health and Freedom links.
- mc32 5y agoYou’re honest. YouTube isn’t.
- findalex 5y agoWhy assume anything?
- Buttons840 5y agoBecause 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 5y agoI 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 5y agoMy 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 5y agoDemocrats 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 5y agoHundreds 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.
- loonster 5y agoIts 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-go-brandon.html https://mychords.net/en/bryson-gray/157414-bryson-gray-lets-...
- barbarbar 5y agoGiven that their ai have spotted this that is actually quite good. But yes it is a joke.
- makomk 5y ago>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)...
- bobmaxup 5y agohttps://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jul/22/joe-biden/biden-exaggerates-efficacy-covid-19-vaccines/ https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jul/22/joe-biden/...
- nostrebored 5y agoThis aged poorly given information we have about breakthrough rates.
- loonster 5y agoI 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.
- DaveExeter 5y agoMeh. 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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4GyYPLHlwA
- someperson 5y ago> 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 5y agoI 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 5y agoI 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-want-to https://greenwald.substack.com/p/democrats-and-media-do-not-...
- JasonFruit 5y agoI stand corrected. You also didn't say that I should move to Somalia. I should be grateful. I agree about Greenwald's take there.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- 0des 5y agoWere there other lyrics besides "Let's Go Brandon"? If those contained disinfo, perhaps that is why.
- mc32 5y agoWell 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 5y agoI 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.
- mc32 5y agoYou got it right.
- 0des 5y agoThat young man must feel so bad for this to be his moment. I hope it doesn't overshadow his other accomplishments.
- mynameishere 5y agoThe 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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Kpb8eu1pEY
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- muststopmyths 5y agoHas 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 5y agoWatched it here: https://mobile.twitter.com/Saint_BTC/status/1451559663753859075 https://mobile.twitter.com/Saint_BTC/status/1451559663753859... Mostly just the rappers waving their hands around and showing their guns.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- jimmar 5y agoTry to spot medical disinformation: https://crownlyric.com/2021/10/19/loza-alexander-lets-go-brandon-lyrics/ https://crownlyric.com/2021/10/19/loza-alexander-lets-go-bra...
- JohnHaugeland 5y agoYou really need this help, champ? > Biden said the jab stop the spread, it was lies (I remember) That's medical disinformation.
- kart23 5y agoVaccines reduce the spread, and Biden overstated their effectiveness, which is called a lie. I really wouldn't classify the line as disinformation. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/oct/14/joe-biden/joe-biden-overstates-effectiveness-vaccines-preven/ https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/oct/14/joe-biden/...
- henrikschroder 5y agoNo, you're wrong. Vaccinations slow the spread, they don't stop them.
- JohnHaugeland 5y agoI'm sorry you struggle this way with casual english
- henrikschroder 5y agoI'm sorry you're resorting to insults when the facts don't support your argument?
- JohnHaugeland 5y agoThere are no insults there, and the argument you didn't successfully understand isn't mine
- analogdreams 5y agothank you, google/youtube, for helping me to keep my mind closed and comply.
- twofornone 5y agoTech 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?
- CheezeIt 5y agoIt’s not the “bros” who are doing this.
- paulpauper 5y agoit is management doing this, not the lower level coders
- kyle_martin1 5y agoThat's like saying KGB officers are just following orders. They're complicit implementors.
- TameAntelope 5y agoWell, 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?
- twofornone 5y agoYeah, sure, I get it, you get it, but how many people do you think realize that the programmers at google effectively gatekeep search results?
- TameAntelope 5y agoRight, but I'm thoroughly unconvinced we should step in to decide how people consume information, one way or another. The arguments that rely on, "Most people are stupid and can't figure these things out for themselves." are really just riffs on, "We should control what people think."
- lazyjones 5y agoI'm expecting this to disappear from HN as well, unfortunately.
- batch12 5y agoAnd your expectation came true. Front page then no page.
- lazyjones 5y agoVery 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.
- kyle_martin1 5y agoHN is mostly young San Francisco folks. Children act like children after all. :-)
- dang 5y ago"Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community." "When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html p.s. I don't know about age, but only about 10% of HN users were in the Bay Area, last time I ran the numbers, and that was for a much larger region than most people refer to as the Bay Area (a 200-mile diameter circle IIRC). The SF number would be well below that.
- tom_ 5y agoIt’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.
- sampo 5y agoNow 7 hours later, this is #11 on the front page.
- mimikatz 5y agohttps://variety.com/2021/music/news/youtube-will-not-ban-yg-video-anti-asian-lyrics-1234940815/ 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.”
- jquery 5y agoYouTube doesn’t censor enough? I agree.
- nathanaldensr 5y agoAh, so what's good for the goose is actually not good for the gander. Interesting...
- nullc 5y agoAssaulting 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:
- collegeburner 5y agoYou want to see worse? Youtube has shadowbanned this song from search: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr_F_XQrukM 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 5y agoYoutube 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 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 5y agoVideos 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 5y agoLet me introduce a temporary workaround to you https://www.youtubeNSFW.com/watch?v=_2khAmMTAjI https://www.youtubeNSFW.com/watch?v=_2khAmMTAjI
- skneko 5y agoThose kinds of sites don't work. There are no operative workarounds as far as I know.
- arp242 5y agoIt used to be that youtube-dl worked, but on that CIA video I now get: [youtube] _2khAmMTAjI: Downloading webpage [youtube] _2khAmMTAjI: Refetching age-gated info webpage WARNING: unable to download video info webpage: HTTP Error 410: Gone ERROR: Sign in to confirm your age This video may be inappropriate for some users. Meh. The following content has been identified by the YouTube community as inappropriate or offensive to some audiences. Was it really "the community" though? Anyway, that video doesn't seem very out there at all to me. That the CIA has committed various things most reasonable people would classify as "crimes" and "terrorism" seems like common knowledge to me.
- Jotra7 5y agoWow, 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.
- Zigurd 5y agoLyrics about the pandemic being planned. And this is a "free speech" cause célèbre 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.
- cudgy 5y agoPerhaps your opinion should be throttled, since you are espousing other’s opinions to be throttled?
- Zigurd 5y agoSome 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 5y agoSure, but that's not an argument for censoring it, especially when you consider all the lyrics out there that don't get censored.
- miked85 5y agoSo preventing free speech which you don't agree with is itself free speech. Got it.
- jayski 5y agoi 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?
- ls15 5y ago> where do you draw the line? When you have lobbyists working for you.
- iab 5y agoThat’s a pretty good line IMO
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y agoHuh, yeah, as far as standards for increased regulation go that's a pretty good one.
- golemiprague 5y agoYoutube 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.
- josephcsible 5y agoYou'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.
- chrisco255 5y agoYou draw the line when you have a monopoly company with a trillion dollar market cap.
- mancerayder 5y agoApparently 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.
- gigatexal 5y ago[flagged]
- ncxkvnxck 5y agoShould they remove all videos of cars driving over the speed limit too?
- ChrisClark 5y agoOk
- andrew_ 5y agoThis is precisely the kind of myopic justification that the parent was speaking towards.
- kyle_martin1 5y agoSilencing 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.
- tw04 5y agoRewind 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.
- kyle_martin1 5y ago[dead]
- MisterBastahrd 5y agoYou had power. You sued for the right to do what these platform providers are doing, and the courts agreed. Congratulations.
- kyle_martin1 5y agoPatience little one, it’ll happen.
- ChrisClark 5y ago[flagged]
- kyle_martin1 5y agoDo 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?
- dang 5y agoWe've banned this account for breaking the site guidelines and ignoring our request to stop. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
- dang 5y agoWould you please stop breaking the site guidelines? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- 5y ago
- kadoban 5y agoArticle goes out of its way to avoid saying what's actually in the song or video.
- syspec 5y agoThat seems to be a really common thing! It's incredibly frustrating when reading some articles about someone being cancelled or the like.
- kadoban 5y agoIt'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.
- ipaddr 5y agoLike news shows local or national. Dislike the dropping of race when describing suspects at large but identifying gender.
- Quekid5 5y agoLocal 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 5y agoClearChannel 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.
- WalterBright 5y agoThe dropping of race of suspects has been going on in the news since the 1970s.
- ofou 5y agoSo, now you cannot make even art with dissident ideas. Welcome 1984!
- undersuit 5y agoThe art was made without issue. Distribution is not a right.
- DenverCoder99 5y agoWhat classifies as distribution?
- TameAntelope 5y agoYouTube hosting the art. YouTube gets to decide what YouTube shows to its users.
- intricatedetail 5y agoSo they are they a publisher?
- TameAntelope 5y agoNo? They're a platform, the artist is the publisher.
- kyle_martin1 5y agoYouTube 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.
- TameAntelope 5y agoNope! None of that is relevant, even remotely, in determining what a publisher is. YouTube is a platform.
- undersuit 5y agoI'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 5y ago"I'm okay with youtube censoring memes that make fun of the president"
- brewdad 5y agoYoutube could pivot to nothing but cat videos tomorrow and they would be perfectly in the right to do so.
- NullPrefix 5y agoAnd 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 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28683575
- roenxi 5y agoThere are many extraordinarily biased US media companies out there. In theory, YouTube can become one more. And that is fine. But these companies 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).
- glhfgg 5y agoWe 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 5y agoCombined 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 https://i.imgur.com/e5i9BzE.png
- egman_ekki 5y agoYou see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?!
- BTCOG 5y agoThis is gold.
- jaspergilley 5y agoGet Fox News links off of HN. Even this seemingly innocuous article is pure manipulation
- loonster 5y agoAll news is manipulation. The only difference is how you are being manipulated and by whom.
- jaspergilley 5y agoThat's such a nihilistic false equivalence. Get a subscription to The Economist - their business model disincentivizes manipulation
- loonster 5y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Group 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?
- zthrowaway 5y agoGo read Manufacturing Consent.
- fidesomnes 5y agoI get all my medical information from rap songs. This is a violation of my civil rights.
- pmurt7 5y agoSomething is wrong when the king needs to censor the jester.
- silverspoonin 5y agoOh, was not aware that youtube was part of the federal government.
- cema 5y agoIt is not part of any government, but if it does work on its behest we need to ask questions.
- quotemstr 5y agoYou can't properly understand something if you can't question it. When you elevate any idea to unquestionable capital-T Truth, you blind yourself to the actual truth. You break the only mechanism we've ever discovered for figuring out how the world actually works. Censorship of anything is the enemy of human progress and always has been.
- Cycl0ps 5y agoI can agree with you, but the issue is that this isn't an academic discussion on the merits of thorough vaccine trials. Here's the third verse: "Let’s go, Brandon, we know he cappin’ Patriots out in the street takin’ action Huntin’ us down for speakin’ the truth (Huh) Beat down the PEDO, let’s save all the youth (Uh huh) Media lyin’, ignore all the cryin’ They buildin’ back better, but only the Taliban (What?) Pilots on strike, but to Joe, it’s irrelevant Open the border, lose all the order Divide us up so they know what we never win But we united, we here in the stadiums (Let’s go) Everyone chantin’ it, CNN slanderin’ (Let’s go) Biden collaspin’ and Democrats stealin’ it (Facts) Ayy, we look at Joe, can we get a refund? (Brandon) How ‘bout some mean tweets? (Facts) Joe is a crook, and he knows how to decieve F.J.B. is the motto in these streets, let’s go, Brandon sing it with me" I see a lot of claims but no questions. This wasn't written to question, it was written to enforce ideas already held by the listener. I agree that the song shouldn't be censored, but I also think it doesn't have any right to be promoted or distributed by third parties. YouTube has as much of a right to take the song down as Sound Cloud has to leave it up, which is exactly equal to any venue that chooses to let him perform on stage.
- JohnHaugeland 5y agoUh. 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?
- jlawer 5y agoNo, 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 5y agoYou're ignoring this line. Not exactly subtle what is being said. > Pandemic ain't real, they just planned it
- throwbigdata 5y agoDo 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.
- nonameiguess 5y agoHonestly, 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.
- skulk 5y agoSomething's wrong when the jester is found to have played a huge part in electing a leader of a leading world power.
- rhexs 5y agoHow 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!
- a_t48 5y agoLet's ignore the wealth said "serf elected" leader was born into, eh?
- andrekandre 5y ago> 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
- theHIDninja 5y agoWhat are you going on about?
- mechanical_bear 5y agoI might be obtuse, but I’m missing your reference. Could you explain?
- bpodgursky 5y agoOutrageous that social media was used by people who elected the _wrong person_!
- dang 5y agoPlease don't take HN threads into flamewar hell. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28972291 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28972291.
- _fat_santa 5y agoAt this rate Youtube is going to have a rule soon: "saying you will vote for anyone but Biden in the 2024 election misinformation"
- deadalus 5y agoYoutube Alternatives : Centralized : Dailymotion, Bitchute, Rumble, DTube, Vimeo, Vidlii, DLive, Triller, Gab TV Decentralized : Odysee(LBRY), Peertube
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- bestcoder69 5y agoAlso, 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.
- x86_64Ubuntu 5y agoSomeone has already linked to it being posted on Gab. What people are really upset about is that they can't use Youtube's technological prowess, audience reach and outlet legitimacy to promote their ideas. When someone sees: "You can't find it on Youtube, but it's hosted on Gab", The listener draws enough conclusions about the media and it's intended audience for it to be dead on arrival.
- convery 5y agoWow, 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 5y ago> 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 5y agoI'm not sure 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.
- theHIDninja 5y agoLet'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.
- robocat 5y agoLyrics: [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, thеy just planned it, ayy, ayy (They just planned it) Lеt'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.
- m0zg 5y agoIt was a shit song anyway. This one is great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB_T54wg9KI 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.
- calsy 5y agoIn most cases, well publicised censorship of art backfires and provides more notoriety and fans for the artist.
- adrr 5y agoYoutube doesn't care. It can't have antivax stuff on their platform because advertisers don't want their ads on controversial content.
- calsy 5y agoWhat connection is there to ads and content? It’s a random (to a degree) ad selected by youtube you can’t wait to close so you watch your chosen content. Further, videos are not outright banned on behalf of advertisers, only demonetised. Also, whether you agree or not, there would be advertisers who wish to target this audience. There isn’t a shared moral code that all advertisers abide by. Somethings very wrong when advertisers are acting as content moderators.
- Snetry 5y agoadvertisers don't care as long as no one points it out
- poorjohnmacafee 5y agoI 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). EDIT Responding to person who wants to learn more, I'm going in good faith that you're not the ad hominem type. Given the climate of cancellation and censorship not a lot of people are speaking up, so take what you can get... The recent Joe Rogan episode with Berenson is a review of quite a few papers and government data sets which they parse. Watch it on Spotify. You're going to get intro'd to data from Israel, UK, CDC, others about vaccine efficacy and about adverse events in young people due to inflammation from accumulation of spike protein. CDC's most recent data shows 40% of covid deaths over last week were of the vaccinated, e.g. relevant screen shots from CDC's website via this random guy, https://twitter.com/SteveDeaceShow/status/1451653752889516040 https://twitter.com/SteveDeaceShow/status/145165375288951604... You can certainly google Northern Europe's halt on Moderna (either for youth or for all). Sweden just halted today, e.g. Shttps://www.zerohedge.com/political/sweden-suspends-moderna-shot-indefinitely-after-vaxxed-patients-develop-crippling-heart https://www.zerohedge.com/political/sweden-suspends-moderna-... There's a lot on YT, round table discussions with medical professionals are the most interesting. I've observed the same censorious culture on HN as on social media when it comes to vaccines, so I'm not going to share links so they can stay up for others who are making difficult decisions. You can find them by poking around accounts on Twitter Gab Substack of people who are speaking out against vaccine mandates or related.
- ionwake 5y agoLol 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 5y agoStreisand effect with a dab of weaponized autism.
- glhfgg 5y ago[dead]
- WaitWaitWha 5y agoSocial media cannot embrace the immunity and authority, but none of the responsibility.
- downandout 5y agoThe 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.
- _yoqn 5y agoSocial media can and does have both. The whole point of Section 230 immunity is to basically neutralize the platform's responsibility so in that case they shouldn't care who says what and let the opposing sides battle each other on the merits of what's being said. So why do they maintain huge and cumbersome speech codes and rules of what can be said on their platforms? It's simple. Threat of regulation. The tech monopolists are like the old time robber barons of the early 20th century with their mega corps (railroads, oil, tobacco, etc). They are trying to hang on to their behemoths' power and appease political forces at the same time.
- amanaplanacanal 5y agoWell, also threat of losing advertisers, which is their major source of income.
- Zuider 5y agoIn many cases, advertisers have been pressured by activists on pain of having their brand actively smeared by those activists. This leaves the question open as to how much advertisers would be motivated to withdraw their custom, absent such campaigns, or the chilling effect of the possibility of such activism.
- amanaplanacanal 5y agoWell sure, but that’s part of the free market, and has nothing to do with pressure from the government. The government pressure story is just not convincing to me.
- downandout 5y agoI 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 5y agoI wonder if Google will eventually have an Offical Party Line on everything. Then they'll just censor straight down the line.
- downandout 5y agoThat 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 their platform...they can try to get their favorite tree elected President next time for all I care. The false labeling..."medical misinformation" in this case...is what I have a huge issue with.
- pvaldes 5y agoWell done. The song is just stupid political publicity Qmamon style without one single smart line. Nothing valuable is lost
- downandout 5y agoIt's called censorship. It rarely ends well for society.
- pvaldes 5y agoI could claim that pissing in the curtains in a room full of minors is part of my personal freedom, but most people would agree that some behaviors must be restricted. The president represents the people. If somebody spreads a song that basically repeats "f*k the president" in a loop, claiming that must be allowed because: part of my freedom to hate somebody; other could be justified to say "f*k the blacks", or the latins or the asians in a song. Could even claim that is even a minor offense against less people, right? I totally support the right to satire, but this is just hate speech against democrats. There is not a good part in the entire song. And we have 600000 people killed after allowing this snake talk roaming wild. Maybe is time to strike back against people aiming to dissolve the society... Dunno.
- yesbut 5y agoWe 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.
- neartheplain 5y agoSurprised how quickly YouTube deleted this video, when they firmly resisted both internal and external calls to take down a different rap video promoting violence against Chinese: https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/30/22358804/youtube-yg-song-meet-the-flockers-anti-asian-violence https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/30/22358804/youtube-yg-song-... I wonder how Chinese Googlers feel about this development.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- cjlovett 5y agoI thought it was brilliant wokeness by the NBC reporter to translate "F* Joe Biden" chant to say "Let's Go Brandon". The subsequent adoption of "Let's Go Brandon" as a code for what people really want to say is hilarious and has become a major meme across America. For YouTube to deny this hilarious turn of events is happening is downright laughable. Clearly YouTube (and Facebook) are in deeply in bed with the Whitehouse, which should make everyone very concerned.
- _yoqn 5y agoI'm actually a regular listener of Bryson Gray on Spotify and heard this release yesterday. I'm glad Fox is giving him the spotlight. I would argue that by YouTube taking down his video they gave him a lot more publicity than he otherwise gets... good for him!
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- shadowgovt 5y agoIs it taken down? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9DClYso2FA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9DClYso2FA
- therealdrag0 5y agoDifferent one
- EastOfTruth 5y agoI'm happily surprised that this post is staying in the front of HN for so long.
- DJ_Wasntme 5y agoYouTube also removed this parody clip in just 1 hour for being "hate speech": https://www.bitchute.com/video/xvjbNKSG3b8O/ https://www.bitchute.com/video/xvjbNKSG3b8O/
- lettergram 5y agoFor those who think this isn’t political, check out what they posted on the POTUS Twitter the day before https://twitter.com/potus/status/1451544259992203266 https://twitter.com/potus/status/1451544259992203266 The goal of this is to reclaim “let’s go Brandon” and it’s obvious. EDIT: for those who don’t know what “Let’s go Brandon” means, a child comment linked to a 40 second video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ8asiDn2_A&feature=youtu.be https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ8asiDn2_A&feature=youtu.be For those who don’t watch or attend sport events — this happens at many of the events lately.
- tragictrash 5y agoThe video has the lines "pandemic ain't real, they planned it". That's called disinformation, and it was removed as such.
- retrac 5y agoI am reminded of a quote I just ran into from the Canadian Supreme Court on free speech in R v. Zundel. Setting aside any legal questions, I found it interesting for its emphasis on the potential expressive value to disinformation. > The first difficulty results from the premise that deliberate lies can never have value. Exaggeration -- even clear falsification -- may arguably serve useful social purposes linked to the values underlying freedom of expression. A person fighting cruelty against animals may knowingly cite false statistics in pursuit of his or her beliefs and with the purpose of communicating a more fundamental message, e.g., `cruelty to animals is increasing and must be stopped'. A doctor, in order to persuade people to be inoculated against a burgeoning epidemic, may exaggerate the number or geographical location of persons potentially infected with the virus. An artist, for artistic purposes, may make a statement that a particular society considers both an assertion of fact and a manifestly deliberate lie; consider the case of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses, viewed by many Muslim societies as perpetrating deliberate lies against the Prophet.
- tragictrash 5y agoAnd I'd like to point out that a majority of comments to this post are about how 'they' are censoring 'us'. It is censorship but not for the reasons most commenters want. Its medical disinfo about covid being removed. They are not being opressed, as much as the commenters want it to be that. You want exaggerated expression? I got one for you: Freedumb.
- mensetmanusman 5y agoSo much of YouTube is songs promoting violence against women and this gets censored, ha
- iab 5y agoThe my-team/your-team nature of this whole fiasco is astounding. D/R lawmakers are heading together to lobbyist dinners, and they are leaving us with the 3degree warming check.
- joemazerino 5y agoHow many artists, journalists, politicians and industry people literally said "Fuck Donald Trump" without being banned or censored? What a joke. 1 example - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FjPeF4lkEeQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FjPeF4lkEeQ
- therealdrag0 5y agoIt’s not about political speech? Is it?
- myfavoritedog 5y agoIf you think you are up on American politics, but you hadn't heard of the "let's go, Brandon" phenomenon - your media sources are heavily left biased.
- cronix 5y agoI think the US government messed this internet thing up big time when they didn't classify the internet as a utility, which I think it clearly is. A phone company can't discriminate based on politics. Neither can a power company. They were deemed important for all of society, business and personal use, equally. Everyone gets equal access regardless of beliefs. We play silly games that overall bring disharmony to everyone. None of this is good in the long term. No one is winning.
- pupdogg 5y agoI’ve been led to believe that the Pfizer vaccine (being distributed in US) has not been granted an official FDA approval…though the media outlets state otherwise. I’ve tried to look for documentation on FDA’s website with little to no success. Can someone please provide me a link to FDA approval notice of the Pfizer vaccine that is being distributed here in the US?
- commoner 5y agohttps://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-covid-19-vaccine https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-appr...
- HatchedLake721 5y agoWhat does this have to do with the topic at hand? site:fda.gov pfizer approval
- commoner 5y agoThis song is similar to Flatline by B.o.B: - Stream: https://soundcloud.com/bobatl/bob-flatline-feat-neil-tyson https://soundcloud.com/bobatl/bob-flatline-feat-neil-tyson - Lyrics: https://genius.com/Bob-flatline-lyrics https://genius.com/Bob-flatline-lyrics - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatline_(B.o.B_song) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatline_(B.o.B_song) Flatline wasn't removed by the platform it was published on (SoundCloud), but it was widely ridiculed.
- tim333 5y agoSeems to be up again now: https://youtu.be/CRjO52VOITo?t=34 https://youtu.be/CRjO52VOITo?t=34 I think you could argue "Pandemic ain't real, they just planned it" is not medically accurate and might discourage the fans from taking precautions against the thing.
- iudqnolq 5y agoThe song contains the line "The pandemic ain't real/They just planned it". I believe that the solution to incorrect or dangerous speech is only more speech and oppose YouTube's takedown. However, it's absurd to say this is "political" and thus not medical misinformation. It's clearly a political statement in support of a political movement that maliciously lies about public health.
- sampo 5y agoThe song says both that the pandemic isn't real, and that the vaccines failed to stop the spread. So the song contradicts itself on the realness of the pandemic.
- iammisc 5y agoSo not even art can contain lies now? Will I am the walrus be fact checked next?
- iudqnolq 5y agoYou have the right to make art with lies. If the general gist suggests you intend to be taken seriously and the lie is dangerous I'll criticize you for it.
- 8458e112e7b2 5y agoIt is interesting that this post, despite numerous upvotes, is hidden away on page 2-3 of HN. Wonder why...
- rpmisms 5y agoUpvote/comment ratio. More comments than upvotes implies a flame war, so it gets bumped down.
- fithisux 5y agoProof that capitalists are bolseviks.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- fithisux 5y agoWe may need alternatives for scientific content. Youtube has too much power I'm afraid.
- controlgroup543 5y agoI like how this thread was flagged, then un flagged and skyrocketed in terms of posts. Sounds like the proles here are slowly waking up to the political tricks and misdirection that the Jews are running on your country. Very good. A tad late, but better late than never.
- realpistil 5y agoI have been absolutely delighted by Let's go Brandon, but annoyed that it's always Trump as the alternative. I agree with the person in this thread who said there is a lot more discontent outside of Trump’s contingency. I’ve been really shocked how powerful rampantly repressive neoliberal corporate takeover is if you just sprinkle a little identity politics on top. Seriously, the same people who were critiquing globalization, pharma and bad trade deals, and supporting free-speech are... where? These issues used to be firmly the territory of the left. What’s... left? Now anyone questioning power can’t even get an interview anywhere but Christian, libertarian and conservative media. my question to those who still think Trump is the great hope is: what on earth makes you think that man is going to do anything substantively different about those issues? I feel like it’s time to stop talking about the office of the presidency entirely.