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Twitter and TikTok are Losing the War Against COVID Disinformation (usatoday.com) 146

Posted by EditorDavid from the anti-social-media dept.
America's leading social media companies "pledged to put warning labels on COVID-19 and COVID vaccines posts to stop the spread of falsehoods, conspiracy theories and hoaxes that are fueling vaccine hesitancy in the USA," reports USA Today.

"With the exception of Facebook, nearly all of them are losing the war against COVID disinformation." That's the conclusion of a new report shared exclusively with USA TODAY. As the pace of the nation's immunizations slows and public health agencies struggle to get shots in arms, Advance Democracy found that debunked claims sowing unfounded fears about the vaccines are circulating largely unfettered on Twitter and TikTok, including posts and videos that falsely allege the federal government is covering up deaths caused by the vaccines or that it is safer to get COVID-19 than to get the vaccine.

Twitter began labeling tweets that include misleading or false information about COVID-19 vaccines in March. It also started using a "strike system" to eventually remove accounts that repeatedly violate its rules. Yet none of the top tweets on Twitter using popular anti-vaccine hashtags like #vaccineskill, #novaccine, #depopulation and #plandemic had labels as of May 3, according to Advance Democracy, a research organization that studies disinformation and extremism. What's more, when USA TODAY searched these hashtags on Twitter, unlabeled posts were served up along with advertisements for major consumer brands including Cheetos, Volvo, CVS, even Star Wars...

After coming under fire for its slow response to COVID-19 misinformation, Facebook has made significant progress in labeling COVID-19 posts, according to Daniel Jones, president of Advance Democracy... As of May 3, all of the top 10 posts discussing COVID-19 vaccines that used the #vaccineskill hashtag were labeled, compared to only two of the top 10 on March 28, Advance Democracy found... Facebook told USA TODAY it has removed more than 16 million pieces of content on Facebook and Instagram for violating its COVID and vaccine policies since the beginning of the pandemic....

As of May 3, TikTok failed to consistently apply labels to anti-vaccination hashtags used in videos with millions of views, the report said. Nine of the top 10 videos related to COVID-19 vaccines using the hashtag #NoVaccine did not have a label. Videos with the #NoVaccine label racked up 20.5 million views...

The Advance Democracy research did not look at vaccine-related content on Facebook-owned Instagram or Google's YouTube.
"Promises to address public health misinformation online are only consequential if there is action and follow through..." Jones told USA Today.

"This pandemic is not over, and with the rate of vaccinations on the decline, directing users to reliable information on vaccines is more important than ever," Jones said.
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Twitter and TikTok are Losing the War Against COVID Disinformation More

Twitter and TikTok are Losing the War Against COVID Disinformation

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  • All of them fail in other languages (Score:5, Informative)

    by kot-begemot-uk ( 6104030 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @03:44PM (#61366578) Homepage
    Facebook is not removing crap in other languages. Some of the crap I have seen in Bulgarian, Serbian or Russian simply beggars belief. These are languages which are fully supported by Facebook's machine translation. If it can translate, it should be able to label and remove.

    Sure, Twitter and TikTok are even worse, but Facebook is definitely not the knight in shining armour.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by nathanh ( 1214 )

      Removing crap in any language should not be seen as virtuous, with the exception of illegal crap. It is not the place of Facebook to decide The Truth because history shows again and again when you give that power to a small group of individuals they will abuse that power.

      Serbian people especially should know of the danger of corporate mouthpieces for the government. It devolves from good-intentions into one-sided propaganda alarmingly quickly with devastating results. That is a shameful part of their hist

      • Removing crap in any language should not be seen as virtuous, with the exception of illegal crap.

        Forcing someone else to remove something is not virtuous. Setting your own standards and abiding by them is, and that includes what help you're prepared to give others. If you want to enjoy a drink and curse like a sailor, go to a dive bar, but don't be surprised when a fancy restaurant patronized by Lady Snottington throws you out. Facebook is running an establishment, and can decide what's okay and what isn't within its virtual walls.

        there is mounting evidence the government is coercing the private companies to de-platform their political rivals

        I doubt it. Rather said rivals are going dangerously around the bend

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by nathanh ( 1214 )

          If their speech is harmful, then any rational person would, at the absolute minimum seek to avoid enabling them in the slightest.

          The same reasoning was used to ban religious speech in soviet Russia. And currently used by the Chinese to censor the Uyghur Muslims. In fact its the exact same reasoning used by every fascist in human history. "Those people have dangerous ideas so we are silencing them for the Public Good." And the citizens dutifully cheer and wave their little flags and agree that B

          • The same reasoning was used to ban religious speech in soviet Russia. And currently used by the Chinese to censor the Uyghur Muslims. In fact its the exact same reasoning used by every fascist in human history.

            Not even a little bit.

            I am saying that if you, personally, find speech dangerous or repugnant, then you should not enable it, and you can certainly urge others to not enable it, but you should not have the ability to silence it.

            So if Facebook doesn't want to host something, they can ban it on Facebook and they can encourage other social media sites and users to impose their own bans, on their respective sites, but Facebook's power stops at Facebook.

            No one is talking about the government banning speech, alth

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by nathanh ( 1214 )

              Not even a little bit.

              Yes, very much so. Fascist governments start by taking over the newspapers and censoring any opinions that arent aligned with the government. I think the best example from recent history is from Serbia. If you dont know the details now is a good time to learn.

              No one is talking about the government banning speech,

              As I pointed out above, the government is coercing these tech-giants to de-platform and censor on the governments behalf. Recall that Zuckerberg was firmly on the side of ze

              • As I pointed out above, the government is coercing these tech-giants to de-platform and censor on the governments behalf.

                I genuinely disagree. I don't think there has been coercion of that sort.

                Recall that Zuckerberg was firmly on the side of zero censorship. Then the senate hauled his ass into congress, reminded him that section 230 could be revoked at a moments notice, and suddenly Zuckerberg is singing a different tune.

                Facebook is well-positioned to pull through with the repeal of section 230 and as I recall has suggested it in the past. It would harm startups worse than them and further cement Facebook's position in the market.

                I suspect that the change was more that the attempted coup at the Capitol was a wake up call as to just how dangerous the right has become. It was basically a second Beer Hall Putsch and we all know what that led to.

                Nothing was said about the government compelling them to allow speech.

                At least a

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by nathanh ( 1214 )

                  At least as much if not more has been said about that by government officials

                  But I am not a government official and you accused me of holding that position, when in the very post you were replying to I had clearly stated the exact opposite position. As I said before, you are dishonest and you argue in bad faith.

                  I don't think there has been coercion of that sort.

                  Well thats because you are deaf dumb and blind. In this thread I have posted links to actual documented on record cases of government coercion.

                  • you accused me of holding that position

                    Mea culpa. Fair enough; your position is apparently that Facebook should remain neutral but is not obligated to do so, and can favor any side of any issue.

                    Personally, I disagree. I think that Facebook should show some backbone and take a side, but it is not obligated to do so, and can favor any side of any issue.

                    In this thread I have posted links to actual documented on record cases of government coercion.

                    I don't find Greenwald to be convincing on this issue. I'm not obligated to believe him that coercion has happened or is happening. I feel the simpler explanation is that there is a zeitgeist and

      • Removing crap in any language should not be seen as virtuous, with the exception of illegal crap.

        Says the guy posting on slashdot.

        You know they like every other forum have a ton of heavyweight spam filtering in place to prevent the forum being drowned in spam, commercial and otherwise (like the continuous flood of n@zi spam they keep fighting).

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by nathanh ( 1214 )

          Removing spam is not even in the same ballpark as de-platforming people, banning their accounts, and censoring their words, all for nothing more than having the wrong opinion. It's disingenuous to even make the comparison. A person's opinion is not spam, no matter how wrong they are, no matter how stupid they are, they still should have the right to voice their opinion without being censored.

          And how ridiculous that this weapon, formerly a favourite of the religious-right used primarily against t

          • Do you deny saying this:

            Removing crap in any language should not be seen as virtuous, with the exception of illegal crap.

            Yes or no?

            Removing spam is not even in the same ballpark as de-platforming people, banning their accounts, and censoring their words, all for nothing more than having the wrong opinion.

            Coward.

            There's a continuum between the two and you avoiding the hard question of what you would ban by pretending they're two disjoint things. That guy who keeps trying to evade slashdot's spam filters so

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by nathanh ( 1214 )

              Coward.

              Idiot.

              That guy who keeps trying to evade slashdots spam filters so he can spam every thread with ascii art swastikas is definitely having his opinion censored.

              But if he posted his swastikas to a swastika appreciation thread on a swastika friendly forum, thats not spam so surely that would be ok under your rules. Apparently not because those sites keep getting censored too. Their web-hosting, their dns, their payment processors, all revoked, censored for having the wrong ideas. And although we ca

              • But if he posted his swastikas to a swastika appreciation thread on a swastika friendly forum, thats not spam so surely that would be ok under your rules.

                Yes, that would be OK.

                Apparently not because those sites keep getting censored too. Their web-hosting, their dns, their payment processors, all revoked, censored for having the wrong ideas.

                If you're too lazy and stupid to find a webhost that will host anything legal under the first amendment then the problem lies with you, not the world. It's not hard, typ

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by _xeno_ ( 155264 )

      Is Facebook even removing crap in English?

      The definition appears to be "shows a label." The problem with Facebook is that they show the "get the facts on COVID!" infobox on everything. From what I can tell, if you post anything that hits on any of a giant list of keywords, you get the COVID info box. I've seen meme images mocking Facebook's box since it appears on basically everything.

      And, since it appears on everything, there's no real way to tell if a post it appears on is showing actual facts or not. (As

  • Who cares? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by memory_register ( 6248354 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @03:58PM (#61366616)
    If you think social media is a good source of any type of information... I cannot help you.

    • Millions get their news and information (Score:5, Informative)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @05:55PM (#61366922)
      from Facebook, Joe Rogan, Fox News and other dubious sources. They go to the same grocery stores, movie theaters and restaurants that you do and many work along side you. They can and will breed nasty new variants of COVID, and sooner or later one of them will get past our current defenses.

      So to answer your question, who cares? Anyone who's thought about it even in passing.
    • Exactly. That's why I rely solely on Slashdot.

    • Social media is nothing more than a platform for discourse. There's fundamentally not difference between reading Facebook, watching a talk show, or sitting in the pub discussing the world over a beer.

      Every time you criticise Facebook, or Fox News, or Breitbart, remember that your post is usually more accurate when you simply replace any of those names with the word "other people" and realise that you are wholly dependent on other people for your information. The platforms aren't the problem, and propaganda

  • Censorship is only problematic if someone else does it. The answer is very simple: empower individual users to censor their own information.

    We already do this: spam filters, family filters, friend lists, dislikes, ignore flags, report flags.

    And of course, slashdot itself. You can censor comments on a sliding scale. No one moans and groans about that, because the end user is doing the censoring.

    PROBLEM SOLVED.

    • Very few spam filters are "individual". they're often centrally controlled and centrally programmed, and specifically tuned to permit the content advertised by its sponsors. If you're not convinced of this, look carefully at the rules for spamassassin.

    • Yes, because it's this easy. You've figured out a solution to every nuanced problem this presents.

  • Authoritarian measures don't work.. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Z80a ( 971949 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @04:06PM (#61366638)

    When your opponent's whole argument is about an all controlling authoritarian monster forcing you to take the vaccine with something harmful mixed in, like sterilization chemicals etc..
    If anything, they should be making a "console wars" like scheme where you turn people into fanboys of a specific vaccine and allow the public to freely choose which one they can take.

    • Re:Authoritarian measures don't work.. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by beepsky ( 6008348 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @04:37PM (#61366696)
      >When your opponent's whole argument is about an all controlling authoritarian monster forcing you to take the vaccine with something harmful mixed in, like sterilization chemicals etc.. Then you go full all controlling authoritarian and censor all dissent against vaccination so everybody gets one.
      Personally I think vaccination is good and safe, but fascism is not, even if well intended.
      • Even the view “vaccination is good and safe” is woefully lacking nuance, though generally most would be correct in that proclamation. The smart folks here are as bad as the complete idiots by taking such a generic stance. Hey, here’s a physician now saying the AZ vaccine should not be used as the math checks out that harms exceed benefits: https://mobile.twitter.com/DFi... [twitter.com]

        Now we have politicians and armchair vaccine experts saying this is dangerous messaging and all vaccines are good a

  • two weeks (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    two weeks to lower the curve!

    • "If we all do our jobs we can have this done by the end of the week." immediately followed by half the people not doing their jobs and the rest doing it wrong.

      • so you are saying two weeks was not realistic ever and should never have been promised? It was a false promise it could never work and the worst at breaking the rules are those who make the rules.

        We have bigger threats than COVID which thanks to Donald J. Trump we have a vaccine for.
        Such as the boarder (and if you were worried about COVID I guess you would want the boarder crisis solved due to just the COVID carries coming in.)
        Also many other issues

  • So what (Score:2, Insightful)

    by theCat ( 36907 )

    People think and say all sorts of things, some of those things are self-destructive, who cares. Everyone is an adult here, given the options they can decide what to do. Someone who happens to be susceptible to misinformation probably has a lot of other personal problems as well. Nobody has to fix that.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by LenKagetsu ( 6196102 )

      And what if those problems start to affect their friends, families, children, and communities? At that point it's no longer a "personal problem".

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by theCat ( 36907 )

        Still doesn't matter. Children suffer from bad parents, teachers, cops, and role models every day, nobody raises a hand to change that. It's just taken as given that life sucks, people suffer, stupid people suffer the most, and stupid people make everyone else suffer too. Six people were shot to death in Colorado Springs today, by someone who was crazy stupid. Nothing could stop that, nothing will be done about it, it will happen again and again and again. I don't see any point in pretending that will chang

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @06:22PM (#61367000)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:So what (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Beryllium Sphere(tm) ( 193358 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @07:19PM (#61367088) Journal

      That might have been used as an excuse for pro-smoking or pro-meth posts.

      The important thing about a contagious disease is that it's contagious. The lies affect everyone that the disinformed person breathes around.

    • Everyone is an adult here

      Actually it would appear that some people are more adult than others. Adult is not an adjective I assign to someone making self destructive decisions based on lies that they don't find themselves capable of verifying while demonstrating a complete lack of responsibility for their ability to harm others.

      Speaking of harming others, judging by your UID you are way too old to not understand how vaccines affect the community beyond the person taking them. So what's your story?

  • they're up against state actors and multi-billion dollar media conglomerates like Fox News. Plus they've been trying very hard not to anger the right wing, who let's not kid ourselves is spreading the misinformation.

    They'd need much heavier handed solutions and probably more help from the Biden administration, but thanks to our incredibly messed up politics neither are likely to happen. So say goodbye to herd immunity and hello to new variants.

  • Fuck 'em (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @04:23PM (#61366676)

    At this point I am really starting to run out of patience for many of these people. From the folks who straight up think it's not real, to "not as bad as they say" to "masks don't work". We've made it all the way through to the other side where the possibility of putting this to rest soon exists. Where we sit today at least in the US there is enough vaccine available over the next 60 days to likely vaccinate every single person in the country and the sooner that happens the sooner the rest of the world (I don't like how that works, but that's the reality). If we can't get to 75%+ to take it because some people just don't don't want to, fuck it, let's just re-open and they can have that freedom to get sick if they want (even though many of them won't because other people did)

    At this point everyone I care about is fully vaccinated. After a year of putting things on hold and doing what's right for the greater good in spite of these, lets just say, anti-intellectual jerks, it's our turn to be selfish. I want to stop wearing a mask indoors and go to concerts and travel again. I shouldn't have to stop because some people are propagandized.

    • "masks don't work"

      That applies to OPE masks, not PPE masks. Masks worn for Personal Protection and appropriately chosen work exactly as designed. However, most of the "masks" people wear are OPE, not PPE. They are designed to prevent surgeons from spitting in the open surgical wound and to prevent "blood splatter" from shooting into the surgeons mouth when they accidentally cut an artery (and they are rated according to the "stream pressure of blood" they can withstand).

      Whether OPE (source control) does anything at all is

      • You may be right but I have never encountered an anti masker in person or online who had that nuanced a take. If that was the case they would all be wearing N95s instead of nothing.

    • I sympathize, but if we reopen with enough un-vaccinated people to sustain a chain reaction then the virus will keep evolving. I don't want to give it the chance to come up with a mutation that gets past my immunity.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ogive17 ( 691899 )
      My sister-in-law's dad passed away today from Covid. He contracted it from a home health care worker that would not wear a mask in their home. He had other health issues but he would still be alive today if the home health care worker had shown any respect at all for other people.

      My message for anyone who doesn't want to wear a mask in public... stay home. In a civilized society, we all have a responsibility to act in a manner that is respectful.
    • As one of my best friends is fond of saying, 'The masses are asses.' True dat.

  • My attitude? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @05:01PM (#61366754)
    I've had my second shot. I feel insulated from getting sick. I do not feel insulated to spreading the virus.

    I figure anyone who cares has at least had their first shot. So they're what, 70% protected?

    Mid June I'm gonna quit wearing my mask, and go where I want. If you get sick it's because you couldn't be bothered to get the shot. So, fuck you. No, seriously, I'm actually glad in a pleasurable way I made you sick. I hope you not only end up in the ICU, I hope you fucking die. And all your Social media Pro Trump Anti Vaxx posts somehow get Lester Holt's attention.

    I've never before felt like such a super hero. I am immune while smiting the enemies of good.

    • I will keep wearing the mask in many places. Never before in my life was I able to get through a year without catching a cold.

  • Where is the motivation (Score:3)

    by Camel Pilot ( 78781 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @05:02PM (#61366756) Homepage Journal

    I don't understand the psychology behind the motivation to invent vaccine disinformation, to propagate it, and the eager willingness of some to believe it because it comes to them via social media. Like the protein armour of the virus, the vaccine usually comes with a political armour to increase the uptake in the brainless.

    • It's about the power to control. It doesn't matter for what, or how, only that it works. That in and of itself feeds those who desire to wield such power.

      I honestly think it's a biological imperative that drives humans to act in this way, but only broken humans do so without regard to the larger whole. History is replete with examples of both, including current politics in the United States of America.
  • Those "social networks" label people's posts very often and sometimes even delete them or turn off stats and the ability to share them within their platform, even posts written by some high-ranking professionals, and sometimes ban those people (again, various professionals included, and also journalists), even when those posts are far from "conspiratory" and malicious, they simply don't fall in line with those platforms' chosen "reputable sources" (their Science(TM) is better than your science, and your que
    • Exactly they are losing cause like you said anything that doesn't fall in the narrative are considered misinformation or disinformation and they wonder why they are losing. As the saying goes, "when you cut out a liars tongue you aren't proving him wrong, you only show you are scared what he will say next."

  • For the record (Score:5, Interesting)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @05:15PM (#61366792)

    When the polio vaccine was developed by Jonas Salk, Democrats wanted a federally funded program to distribute the vaccine to all school children. It was Republicans, led by then secretary of health education and welfare Oveta Culp Hobby, a Texas millionaire, who railed against the proposal. Guess what his objection was? Socialism. He claimed it was socialized medicine.

    And now we have Republicans going about spreading lies (it's not disinformation, it's lies) about covid vaccines.

    The question becomes, why do Republicans want people to die when it's so simple to protect them? It's bad enough they've been deliberately manipulating the number of people who have died from covid resulting in a large undercount [thehill.com], but now it seems they just want the deaths to keep on going.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The question becomes, why do Republicans want people to die when it's so simple to protect them? It's bad enough they've been deliberately manipulating the number of people who have died from covid resulting in a large undercount [thehill.com], but now it seems they just want the deaths to keep on going.

      It's not that they want the deaths to keep going, so much as they don't want to lift a finger, even if it just means paying a few extra cents on their taxes, to help the people who will die from it. Why? Because to them, the people who are dying are the "wrong kid of people" — the poor, the people of color, the overweight, the people with diabetes, the people who "aren't like them". Many of them even feel that those with health issues who died deserved to die for not being healthier.

      Republican lead

    • The question becomes, why do Republicans want people to die when it's so simple to protect them?

      Their whole brand is based on "Government can't fix anything, only make it worse'

      It's easier for them to let those people die, than come up with a better brand their followers will believe in.

  • ... that the wrong message is getting across, you need to double your efforts to get the *right* message across, not try and silence/ridicule the critics. Working to silence/sensor people that you haven't convinced just legitimacies their side of the argument and causes more people to doubt your intentions. You either have a choice to take a vaccine, or you don't... It doesn't look good when the government says you have a choice, except when it comes to information/opinions about your choices. Stupid peopl

  • Why Do They Exist? (Score:3)

    by SlashbotAgent ( 6477336 ) on Sunday May 09, 2021 @05:28PM (#61366834)

    Why do these misinformation/disinformation posts and videos exist? I'm not asking about the completely moronic posts for clueless idiots incorrectly repeating old wives tales that they heard clueless Great Aunt Mable say. I'm asking about the lengthy recordings from "doctors" and "scientists" prattling utter horseshit for 20-30 minutes fanning fear of the virus, or the vaccines, or the "hoax that is the virus"...

    These things seem to be relatively high production quality, likely scripted, claim extensive pedigree or credentials, and are always beyond belief for any reasonably logical or critical thinker. But they keep churning them out.

    Who is behind these posts and why are they making this rubbish? It seems like a lot of effort for stupidity with no apparent reward. What is the motivation or agenda behind these posts that all too easily spread like a malignant cancer?

  • I keep seeing those article about how a company tried to do something on millions of post and someone figured out that they missed some. If the company doesn't heed the warning that does tell something about them, but reporting that a semi automated language processing system isn't perfect, is that news ? Do they expect it to be once they track three hashtags ?

    I know it's easy to flag those hastags. And if they refuse to do it then sure, that's something I want to know. But "as of writing, computers have

  • Perhaps this is just another stage of civilization evolution - the naive, gullible, and just plain stupid get weeded out over time. No different than other inventions, say fast cars - sure some people get stupid and crash to their fiery deaths, while their relatives want to sue anyone in sight for enabling that, but such events also serve as warning to others, so it happens less and less. So, perhaps at some point a large enough group pays the price for lack of critical thinking, and future generations lear

  • A lot of justifiable frustration here at stupid people not getting vaccines. These people are willfully acting in ways that will make other people sick - actually risking lives - when they KNOW there are mitigation methods that are solid for preventing harm to themselves and others.

    Fair enough.
    But I'm genuinely curious how many of you expressed the same rage a few decades ago at homosexual men during the explosion of the AIDS crisis? Do you think the media took the same slant "these people are stupid and

    • But I'm genuinely curious how many of you expressed the same rage a few decades ago at homosexual men during the explosion of the AIDS crisis?

      I'm not quite old enough, but in retrospect, I have no problem with closing bathhouses just as I have no problem with providing needle exchanges. Neither of them is a solution, but both have useful tactical value in responding to the epidemic. And as an eerie similarity, I understand that at some of the early discussions about AIDS as it was only beginning to be understood, when it was suggested that people shouldn't be so sexually promiscuous so as to slow the spread of the disease, a lot of people took

      • I have to ask: with a 4 digit ID you're not old enough? What did your parents sign you up for /. pre-conception?
        I've been a regular user of slashdot since I don't know when, and while I did have an id, lost it (my contact email was @iname.com which died what, 2002?) and had to restart...but still, I've been here a while.

        I appreciate your open response. Thanks.
        My point is that in fact, no, there absolutely wasn't any public excoriation or condemnation of people deliberately making dangerous, irresponsible

        • By the time I was old enough to be aware of AIDS those fights were basically over. Slashdot started when I was in my 20s.

          no, there absolutely wasn't any public excoriation or condemnation of people deliberately making dangerous, irresponsible choices, while now there is

          There was terrific discrimination against the gay community and lots of people lied about their illness just to conceal its origins. Others who got AIDS through other sources, eg blood transfusions, hid it or tried to cope with the reactions (like Asimov or Ryan White). Maybe it's hard to pick apart what was due to bigotry and what was due to concern about the epidemic (as well as drug us

  • I received both Moderna shots. When I got my second dose I was in really bad shape unable to do anything for 2 days. And I am healthy. My co worker's brother died the day after he got the second vaccine shot. That second day is when it hits hard and I can see a person who isn't too healthy could possibly trigger a heart attack or something. I've never had a vaccine shot in my life that messed me up like this, so why is it so hard to believe people are dying of it?? Anyone in the medical community

    • You obviously never had to take some of the early anti-rabies vaccinations. They messed me up several orders of magnitude more than the CV-19 vaccine ever did. The second shot didn't produce any side effects.

  • Social media operates on one content metric: popularity. Whatever gets clicks and generates ad impressions, they don't really care. None of the platforms have any incentive to improve the quality of content, they rely purely on quantity.

  • Jfc these companies have enough employees devoted to monitoring posts to fill a small stadium.

    Figure out how to deal with it, and earn your billionaire club entry ticket.

  • Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

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