These past few months have been a time that we would like to forget about. COVID-19 threw many people into a panic as it spread and was eventually declared a global pandemic, throwing our economy into recession. Many people have been stuck at home and in some cases doing absolutely nothing other than watching TV, sitting on social media or streaming content online. Social media has become an important part of our lives and for some too important a part. In an attempt to stop the spread of what is considered to be fake information many social media platforms are actively censoring speech and that is not a good thing.
Pandemic Censorship
With the COVID-19 pandemic going around many social media platforms made the decision to control the information that was posted on their platforms. This would be the first test of the rules created to try to combat false information in the upcoming presidential election. For creators that went afoul of the authoritative sources they would be punished, either by having their content demonetized, censored or even having their profile deleted. It is a scary thought and was brought into the public consciousness when two doctors from Bakersfield, California held a one hour press conference to advocate for lifting the lockdown and going back to work. Their video went viral on social media and was then unceremoniously deleted.
The video was shared hundreds of thousands of times and was viewed over 15 million times before it was removed. The press conference had been televised by the ABC and NBC affiliates in the Bakersfield area.
Sure There Are Conspiracy Theories
As with anything COVID-19 has produced its own share of conspiracy theories, from the obviously false theory that 5G is the cause of it to the Chinese Communist Party developing it to bring the US economy down as their economy crumbled. All of these and everything in between were amplified since many people had nothing else to do while sitting in lockdown. A lockdown that the doctors advocated for ending, in agreement with an increasing number of Americans. But not all to be sure.
Of course this is not the first time that social media has removed posts or profiles (see Jones, Alex) or has even had someone call for social media to moderate content. Combating false information is an uphill battle that cannot be won as long as the US Constitution remains in effect. The only way to truly combat it is to use Chinese style efforts like disappearing people or torturing them, not something likely (hopefully) to occur in the US.
Censorship Backfiring
For the two doctors they made the rounds on conservative media bringing their message to those audiences. Perhaps by censoring them they have only amplified the message making things worse. YouTube pulled down the video though parts of the video can still be found on other accounts and there have been plenty of response videos challenging their ideas. Facebook did not pull down the video.
Their message was fairly simple: COVID-19 was no worse than the seasonal flu, that all of the protective equipment was not necessary and people should be able to go back to work reopening the economy. They also made the claim that hospitals in California were being forced to list more deaths as being COVID-19 related than was actually the case.
While that final point is nothing more than speculation at this point for most people, hospitals do receive more money for COVID-19 patients, a fact pointed out by a Minnesota State Senator and something that should be fairly obvious as the equipment and labor necessary to treat it can be extensive. Whether that has been abused is probably too early to tell and may never be fully known.
Authoritative Sources
The argument against this goes right at YouTube’s plan to push content from authoritative sources. These are two doctors that have treated COVID patients and one would figure that they know what they are doing much more than a reporter working for a local media source or a moderator sitting behind a computer in Silicon Valley. At least one of the doctors did commit the cardinal sin of being a supporter of Donald Trump and in today’s hyper-partisan political atmosphere free speech advocates point to that as the reason that this was removed.
This is a rabbit hole that social media should not go down and cannot win in the end. The World Health Organization is considered the gold standard of information when it comes to COVID-19 and yet they have been wrong about it on multiple occasions, most famously their January 14 tweet that said that there was no confirmed evidence that COVID-19 was transmissible from human to human. As a story goes it is likely that the facts will change as more information becomes available but we do know that they had been told by doctors in Taiwan and Hong Kong that it was transmissible before that date. In this case the WHO was spreading false information and yet they have not seen any penalty nor are they likely to.
Were The Doctors Right?
Keep in mind that the WHO is also advocating for reopening the world, saying that Sweden’s approach to this of not shutting down their economy to try to build herd immunity was the proper approach. The UN has also stated that millions of people could die of starvation if the world does not reopen. It seems like the two doctors were in line with the “gold standard” of information.
The problem with censoring conspiracy theories is that on occasion they are correct. If labeling something as a conspiracy theory is enough to get a message banned all a politician will need to do in the future is call an attack on them a conspiracy theory and it will be banned. That is a scary thought indeed and seems to fall right in line with standard practices of authoritarian regimes.
So, the question is what if these two doctors are correct? What if COVID-19 is no worse than the season flu (there is evidence that is the case)? What if protective masks are not offering as much protection as advertised? And what if hospitals are gaming the system by labeling more deaths as COVID-19 related than is actually the case? They would be whistleblowers at that point and not conspiracy theorists, wouldn’t they?
Now, of course more evidence would need to be presented but keep in mind that about the time of this press conference Pennsylvania revised their fatality numbers down by more than 200 . We have a couple circumstantial facts that will lead people to draw conclusions. Why should that be censored? It should be debated instead. And could a platform become so overzealous that they take down legitimate posts? They could and in fact Facebook has already done it.
Sunlight Is The Best Disinfectant
And of course that goes for more than just these two doctors. YouTube recently purged several accounts, most notably British conspiracy theorist David Icke who was one of the leading proponents of the 5G conspiracy theory. We know that the 5G theory is bunk. Only a handful of nations have 5G service but the virus can be found in 182 countries around the world. Watching someone supporting a conspiracy theory answer that question could be very entertaining while they do the mental gymnastics necessary.
At the same time you are running a business and you probably use social media to communicate with your customers. What happens if you say something that runs afoul of an “authoritative source”? Would that get you in hot water and perhaps have your account taken away? Toeing the line may seem easy enough but what happens when something like this comes up in a field or industry that you are an expert in? What happens when you disagree with an expert or a politician? Will you be labeled a conspiracy theorist and have your profile or account deleted? We hope not.
This is a slippery slope that social media companies are embarking on and it could change not only social media itself but also our culture. We pride our nation for having free speech, for having the ability to disagree with anyone and not be dragged away by the police, and for having the ability to tell any politician where to shove it. There should be more speech so that the true conspiracy theorist whack jobs can be made to look like idiots in front of the people that believe them and have the good ideas rise to the top.
Censoring people will only force those people into the dark nooks and crannies of the Internet while at the same time hardening them in their beliefs. There are people after all that still believe that the Confederacy was right in what they did. By shunning those people from mainstream society they never have their ideas challenged and thus continue with their beliefs in their own echo chamber. The Internet should be a place for debate like this, and hopefully everyone will learn something from this.
Of course Facebook will not heed this as they formed a global oversight board for content moderation. This will go well.