Do you believe that the system of censorship by the CCP for China's population is worse than what YouTube did, and do you understand that the two doctors weren't detained by authorities and that they could find a host to post the video on again that isn't YouTube - and so how are they being prevented from speaking?
Distribution is very different than freedom of speech, and distribution of their video is allowed on the internet - however the internet is a platform to allow decentralized moderation, so then platforms on top of the internet can moderate depending on what they believe is [hopefully] best for society - and based on that people, viewers, will decide what platforms they will trust or watch content from and give their attention and support/money to - whether through shallow manipulative ads or payment.
Of course, if Google doesn't approve your content, nobody can find it, and if Cloudflare doesn't approve of your content, it isn't actually online.
And, with everybody locked up, you can't go advertise it in the physical world.
So, basically, unless Google and Cloudflare like your content -- or the major media bullies them into liking your content -- your content does not exist.
Same goes for news you see over TV, it does not have to be true. Its their platform.
How can you make an informed decision is all you’re being told is manufactured truth?
You read and watch the media that gives you the data you need. Ignore the others once you can verify the information. Wash, rinse and repeat. It’s supposed to be a free market. There’s no guarantee that government mandates will make the data any better
There was a time when saying black people where just as intelligent as white people was considered misinformation and a dangerous way to think.
There was a time when many leaders considered homosexuality dangerous and magazines promoting homosexuality was misinformation.
It's easy to say something is misinformation now, but the standard of truth does not come now, it comes 20 years from now when history judges this moment.
You've failed to justify your equivalence. How many neo-Nazis, homophobes, self-styled "truthers", and xenophobic racists came to their conclusions naturally, without any external guidance or rhetoric?
We don't exist in a vacuum, and people are socialized into their beliefs. Either these doctors weren't given the faculties to distinguish fact from fiction in their education, they lack the mental and social capacities to protect themselves from falling for twisted logic and half-truths, or they're intentionally manipulating those vulnerable members of society for their own gain.
Because the constitutional amendments only place restrictions on the government, we don't get to have free speech if we rely on private platforms to be the primary means of political expression.
> Distribution is very different than freedom of speech
Whenever these dabates arise it would save a whole lot of time if participants assume as a given that everyone understands the first amendment as written. IMHO it will be far more useful to discuss the point of having this amendment in the first place. The idea that everytime someone has a remotely controversial idea, they have to setup an internet video company with global reach in order to propagate said idea is ridiculous. Even if you agree that Youtube has the right (which they do) to take down this video, their reasons for doing so should trouble everyone who in some way contributed to their near monopoly of internet video. Also, consider that they didnt even have to provide a reason. They provided one in the belief that the public actually favors censorship!
>The idea that everytime someone has a remotely controversial idea, they have to setup an internet video company with global reach in order to propagate said idea is ridiculous.
This isn't an idea that anyone is actually proposing to you, it's a strawman of your own making. The picture you're trying to paint whereby it's almost impossible for anyone to spread their ideas on the internet without Youtube's consent doesn't remotely correspond to reality. Every website has global reach, and plenty of controversial content has been spread on the internet in text form. You don't need video to propagate controversial ideas, but even then, video distribution existed on the internet before youtube. Filesharing and torrent sites exist, as do other streaming platforms which also have a global reach.
>They provided one in the belief that the public actually favors censorship!
The public does favor censorship. Free speech absolutism, to the degree of allowing even fraudulent and hateful speech to proliferate without check or consequence, is a minority view.
I wasn't trying to create a strawman, I only described things the way I did as a shorthand due to my belief that it was obvious to all the outsized role that youtube plays in public discourse. Just as was said on another informative thread I saw recently on HN, your facts (torrents, filesharing, non-neccesity of video etc) are correct but irrelevant.
> Free speech absolutism, to the degree of allowing even fraudulent and hateful speech to proliferate without check or consequence, is a minority view.
I appreciate your illustrating what an actual strawman looks like.
>Just as was said on another informative thread I saw recently on HN, your facts (torrents, filesharing, non-neccesity of video etc) are correct but irrelevant.
So you're simply refusing to acknowledge anything which contradicts your narrative.
Well, good to know there's no point in continuing this conversation with you further. Good day.
Distribution is very different than freedom of speech, and distribution of their video is allowed on the internet - however the internet is a platform to allow decentralized moderation, so then platforms on top of the internet can moderate depending on what they believe is [hopefully] best for society - and based on that people, viewers, will decide what platforms they will trust or watch content from and give their attention and support/money to - whether through shallow manipulative ads or payment.