Anti-vaxxers in power

[ed]

I apologize but I don't get the reference. Could someone explain?

[Pyrrho]

[Anaxagoras]

I think this is the relevant bit:

[Witness]

[shemp]

Removal of their children and forced sterilization is too good for these imbeciles. Work them to death in the salt mines!

[Doctor X]

This is simply child abuse.

--J.D.

[ed]

I think this is the relevant bit:

Is that like damning with faint praise?

Sorry, almost completely opaque.

[xouper]

[Anaxagoras]

Despite parents' best efforts, boy survives to adulthood:

https://www.eastidahonews.com/2019/02/t ... of-others/

[Witness]

Facebook is thinking about removing anti-vaccination content as backlash intensifies over the spread of misinformation on the social network

• Facebook said in a statement Thursday that it may remove, reduce, and demote anti-vaccination content on the platform in an effort to combat the spread of false information.
• As an outbreak of measles spreads across the US, advertisements promoted by anti-vaccination organization have been targeting pregnant women on Facebook.
• At the same time, posts are frequently shared within various Facebook Groups discouraging people from vaccinating their children.
• Facebook said it is "thinking through what the right approach for this effort might look like" in a statement to Business Insider.

https://www.businessinsider.com/faceboo ... &r=US&IR=T

[xouper]

Facebook is thinking about removing anti-vaccination content as backlash intensifies over the spread of misinformation on the social network

• Facebook said in a statement Thursday that it may remove, reduce, and demote anti-vaccination content on the platform in an effort to combat the spread of false information.
• As an outbreak of measles spreads across the US, advertisements promoted by anti-vaccination organization have been targeting pregnant women on Facebook.
• At the same time, posts are frequently shared within various Facebook Groups discouraging people from vaccinating their children.
• Facebook said it is "thinking through what the right approach for this effort might look like" in a statement to Business Insider.

https://www.businessinsider.com/faceboo ... &r=US&IR=T

Next up, Facebook will be censoring any dissent about global warming. Or any dissent about evolution. Or any dissent about intersectional identity politics.

Not a good precedent to set. Facebook should not be an authoritarian arbiter of what is "true".

I understand that the First Amendment does not apply to private companies. Nonetheless it is a bad precedent for large and powerful companies to be anti-free-speech.

[sparks]

Agreed. Let these foolz spread the nonsense and then watch natural selection in progress.

Sorry kids, but someone must be sacrificed on the altar of Dumbth.

[gnome]

Unfortunately "natural selection" has collateral damage.

Just the same, as evidenced by my presence at this forum's founding, my preference for places like Facebook is that they avoid blocking content unless it is literally illegal or violates privacy, similar to the standards we have here. Instead, I would have them make sure the block functions work well, possibly provide an option to search any post against fact checking sites, but most importantly--I think they would get a lot of mileage looking at how they decide what content to promote based on user behavior. I think this very mechanic is one of the primary promoters of inflammatory content, and it is their product's own features that are causing it. Look what happens when you start posting political things--their software matches you to all kinds of content that "matches" and tries to get your attention with it. It definitely creates an echo chamber of sorts, and not one of the user's choosing. They should address that instead of policing users for accuracy.

[Witness]

[Witness]

Addendum:

Measles spreads at Osaka site; infected woman used Shinkansen

OSAKA--Health officials have issued measles warnings to anyone who shopped at a commercial complex here, particularly for Valentine’s Day gifts, or used specific bullet trains connecting Osaka and Tokyo earlier this month.

A public health center in Osaka said Feb. 14 that a staff worker and six customers were infected with measles at the Abeno Harukas commercial complex, bringing to 16 the number of confirmed cases there.

Earlier this month, nine workers at a Valentine’s Day fair venue on the ninth floor of the complex’s wing tower were confirmed infected with measles. The latest announcement is the first to list customers.

The six customers are in their teens to 30s and visited the complex on Jan. 26 or 27.
[…]
Also on Feb. 14, the Osaka prefectural government said a woman in her 40s who traveled between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka stations on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line on Feb. 8 and 10 was infected with measles.

The Osaka woman developed a fever on Feb. 6 and rashes broke out on her body on Feb. 9, according to the prefecture’s medical division. The disease was confirmed on Feb. 13.
[…]
The number of confirmed measles cases in Osaka Prefecture this year was 46 as of Feb. 12, more than triple the figure for all of 2018.

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201902150031.html

Anax, you had your shots, right?

[sparks]

What madness.

Doomed.