The first involves YouTube’s decision to take down a widely circulated video by the co-owners of a Bakersfield, California, “Urgent Care” clinic, Dr. Dan Erickson and Dr. Artin Massahi. Their presentation, based on their own research, suggests that widespread lockdowns are not necessary to combat the virus.
The second is The Atlantic‘s publication of an article by two law professors, Harvard’s Jack Goldsmith and the University of Arizona’s Andrew Keane Woods, in which they argue that some censorship of the internet “can do enormous public good.” This, they say, is because today’s technological sophistication, combined with data centralization and government-industry cooperation, makes it possible for social media to reliably screen out all unscientific ideas.
“Significant monitoring and speech control are inevitable components of a mature and flourishing internet,” Goldsmith and Wood say. “And governments must play a large role in these practices to ensure that the internet is compatible with a society’s norms and values.”
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