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Comment by nabnob

This is incredibly worrying. I understand that anti-vax conspiracy theories are dangerous, but I can think of a ton of ways banning "bad medical advice", as determined by a $10/hr contractor at Pinterest, Facebook, etc. could end up hurting people with health problems by preventing them from sharing useful information. I have gender dysphoria and at one point considered getting on testosterone, but thanks to conversations with transmen and detransitioned women on social media, I learned about less-commonly discussed side effects and decided against taking testosterone. This is an area where research is still developing and there aren't a ton of long-term studies, so it's incredibly helpful to be able to learn from other people's experiences, even if they aren't yet confirmed by research.

Likewise, I know people who've had a post or comment removed by Facebook because it was erroneously interpreted as racist or sexist. Off the top of my head, I know a friend who was sharing information on ICE raids with friends who were immigrants and they got banned from Facebook for a couple of hours (he was unbanned after appealing). I know someone else who was sharing statistics on domestic violence that was interpreted as discriminatory. The corporations making these policies don't have a good enough understanding of political issues to determine whether a statement is hate speech - and hell, even people who are knowledgeable about politics and history disagree in a lot of areas.

parent nabnob 7 years ago

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