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Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.
Over the last few years, YouTube has made headlines with its incessant banning of videos and de-platforming of influencers’ accounts causing loss of income and online presence. Last year, Youtube de-platformed a myriad of ‘alt-right’ and so-called ‘conspiracy’ groups and removed these channels from the video streaming site.
Youtube also started targeting cryptocurrency content creators and YouTubers who operated channels that discussed bitcoin and other digital assets. In late 2019, YouTube officials removed a massive number of cryptocurrency video channels for very little reasoning. The company typically just tells the person that the channel had “violated community guidelines.”
This week Bitcoin.com was also censored for sharing a video about their bitcoin mining pool. Bitcoin.com’s YouTube account was given one strike for allegedly “violating community guidelines”. This begs the question, “Who or what consists of their so-called community?”
When YouTube, the online video-sharing platform first started back in 2005, it was a community of people sharing ideas and fun videos with very little moderation and censorship. Now it’s looking more like the Ministry of Propaganda. For the last three months, YouTube, now under the ownership of Google, has taken part in historic amounts of censorship regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. YouTube CEO, Susan Wojcicki said that any videos that were in opposition to the World Health Organization (WHO) narrative of the COVID-19 outbreak would be removed.
Subsequently, Wojcicki’s ruling was carried out as many videos were banned that portrayed another opinion or fact that went against the WHO narrative regarding the ‘official’ coronavirus data. YouTube and Wojcicki decided to shelter the public from progressive ideas and data that just may have some truth in them because it went against the authorities.
Since the beginning of this virus and the panic it has caused, we now have proof as more research is taking place from many respected scientific think tanks, and epidemiologists are now trying to tell the public that the lockdowns were very irrational.
Despite the proof, Youtube has banned a number of videos that go against the ongoing fear-mongering narrative. When a video was posted on Youtube that featured Dr. Daniel W. Erickson and Dr. Artin Massihi from California, the video got 5 million views before it was removed.
Youtube also banned a video called “Plandemic,” which featured Dr. Judy Mikovits soon after it was published on the online video sharing platform. Youtube, however, does allow videos that rebut Judy Mikovits, Daniel W. Erickson, and Dr. Artin Massihi’s narratives. The company has no issues allowing rebuttals that stay on course with the fear-mongering narrative.
Whatever the veracity of the doctors’ claims, YouTube’s censorship of unorthodox ideas in the name of protecting the public from misinformation is misguided and counter-productive. Sheltering the public from ideas, even bad ones, only makes society more susceptible to dangerous error. Knowledge is power and surely we should be able to think for ourselves and have the ability to investigate.
Across social media, censors have been racing to limit the flow of information that questions these new laws imposed. Facebook also conceded it had been working with state governments in California, New Jersey, and Nebraska to remove pages for anti-stay-at-home protests events that are popping up all over the platform.
Ron Coleman, a prominent First Amendment lawyer said in a recent interview.
“It’s the kind of totalitarian thinking and conduct that has cost millions of lives in recent world history. The fact that it’s being done by private companies and not government doesn’t change that.”
The former head of biostatistics, epidemiology, and research design at Rockefeller University, Dr. Knut M. Wittkowski, recently told the public that Youtube had banned his video that went against the lockdown, and over-reaction narrative after it gathered more than 1.3 million views.
Wittkowski, who holds two doctorates in computer science and medical biometry, believes the coronavirus should be allowed to create “herd immunity,” and that short of a vaccine, the pandemic will only end after it has sufficiently spread through the population.
“With all respiratory diseases, the only thing that stops the disease is herd immunity. About 80% of the people need to have had contact with the virus, and the majority of them won’t even have recognized that they were infected,” he says in the now-deleted video.
Wittkowski told The Post, saying he had no idea why it was removed.
“I was just explaining what we had...They don’t tell you. They just say it violates our community standards. There’s no explanation for what those standards are or what standards it violated.”
Dr. Andrew Kaufman’s videos were also removed when he spoke out against the stay-at-home narrative and the data spread by people like the epidemiologist Neil Ferguson dubbed Professor Lockdown who broke his own rule after convincing Prime Minister of the U.K. Boris Johnston to enforce the stay at home rule.
Now Youtube has banned one of Bitcoin.com’s videos for sharing information about their mining pool. The video removal was based on the company’s “sale of regulated goods” policy and the video allegedly went against “community guidelines.”
The Bitcoin.com account was given a single strike, which gives the account a one week probation period. Two to three strikes could lead to far worse restrictions against the Bitcoin.com account that merely shares information and resources about cryptocurrency solutions.
Bitcoin.com’s CEO Mate Tokay has spoken out against the Youtube censorship in a tweet letting the company and Wojcicki know they have been immoral, irrational, and illogical.
Censorship tends to manipulate reality and it has engendered evil numerous times over the course of history. Social media platforms are private companies and they can impose any restrictions they choose, but what they choose to censor seems to be agenda-driven and in line with the status quo of authoritarianism.
YouTube seems to ban videos that allow for critical thinking. Cryptocurrency is one sector that gains grassroots attention and makes people think critically. Censorship and the fact they allow fake news and propaganda certainly unveil the true colors of YouTube that it just may not have the best interests of the global community in mind.
YouTube has banned videos that question the ‘official’ COVID-19 statistics because people are now realizing that a virus with a 99% survival rate isn’t as devastating as we first thought. As they scurry to remove the videos as soon as they emerge, it’s too little too late as millions have already seen them and the information that may just deliver a different point of view or perhaps even the truth.
As FEE.org explains, “Youtube’s censorship of dissenting doctors will backfire.” By taking down the videos, YouTube has limited the extent to which that social learning can happen and insulated the error from debunking. If anything, YouTube’s censorship has lent additional credence to whatever mistakes they made by feeding into the narrative that the powers-that-be fear its truth. The debunking is being drowned out by outrage over the censorship. And the Streisand Effect (how censorship can boost something’s publicity) is causing it to spread even more.
As more people realize and get sick and tired of the tech giants’ antics the more they will migrate to other platforms that do want to genuinely help people understand and change the world, giving back freedom of choice and allowing citizens to think for themselves. Once upon a time, there was nowhere else to go but now things are changing.
Image credit: observatory.tec
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Reference: Bitcoin.com
Deb Williams
A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept, and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals.
