Hacker News Reader

Comment by Hokusai | Hacker News Reader

> polite conversation about mundane topics

Is lying polite? Is lying respectful? Misinformation is not only harmful but also disrespectful towards your audience. So, I agree with you that "polite conversation about mundane topics" should be respected. But it is not what is on discussion here.

polite: having or showing behavior that is respectful and considerate of other people.

View on HN

Is it lying? Do we have so much faith in Discord that we'd let them judge that even for private communities? For example, would they have labeled claims that the harms of fat are exaggerated due to a conspiracy by the sugar industry [1], as misinformation before 2016?

Oh but that was four long years ago. Surely by now all that we think is true, is true, and all that we think is false is false. And surely they will censor with only the best intentions, regardless of their personal politics, or external financial influence.

[1] https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074...

I agree! There are even some people disrespecting their audience with weird ideas like heliocentrism! The greatest Authority, the church, has already said that's fake news!

Yes, the flat earth nonsense is a good example. The idea is from what most people agree is a corrupt reading of religious texts. The people peddling it, dishonestly pretend to be doing science and misrepresent science and the evidence so they can dupe people who are not educated in science enough to understand why it is all wrong. And the problem is, now that they have convinced people that they are being lied to by the rest whole rest of the world, they start to believe anything including misinformation and blatant lies about wearing masks during a pandemic somehow being dangerous and rubbish about 5G harming people. I'm all for free speech but until there is a cost for shouting fire in an auditorium when there is is no fire, private companies have a duty to not be a vector for this misinformation to be propagated on their platforms.

> blatant lies about wearing masks during a pandemic

You know, back at the start of the pandemic every health authority from the CDC to the WHO to the surgeon General said that masks were bad.

Should private companies have "had a duty" not to allow "misinformation" like pro mask arguments to spread?

Actually, the advice was that the ordinary public didn't need to wear them and it was based on fears that there wouldn't be enough for medical workers as they would disappear like the toilet roll did. The advice about masks from health authorties is based on many factors, from the pragmatic use due to supply and their usefulness in preventing transmission based on research and the advice of people whose job is knowing about these things. The proliferation of misinformation about masks by people who can barely tie their shoelaces is at best bad information during normal times but during a pandemic, it is down right dangerous. Their claims that the mask doesn't protect the wearer is correct to some extent but they fail to point out that the mask that I wear, protects other people. The masks, combined with social distancing would bring down the 'r' value but because there are so many people having "learned" this misinformation and not taken precautions, we are now heading into a second wave. This is directly the fault of these people spreading the misinformation as the cost will be many more dead, more lost jobs and more damage to the world economy. If they had any valid evidence or even any real medical training (homeopathy is not valid training), there would be a case for them to present their case but most of the ones that I have seen, to put it as nicely as I can, are completely clueless.

Is your position that everything is relative and truth does not exists? Is that a quote of some book that I do not know? Am I missing the reference?

Your answer is sarcastic and I do not see how it helps to improve my understanding of your position.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com