I think what YouTube is doing is with the best intentions - but I hate it. Silencing speech you don't agree with is a dangerous road littered with totalitarian regimes. Doing so at YouTube's scale underlines how much unchecked power corporations have in our society. I think they should not have the power to decide what voice deserves a platform and what does not. They should be regulated as a utility given their market share. You should be able to challenge YouTube in court with the first amendment. This currently isn't possible with private companies.
The central kind of thing that this ban is meant to prevent is people posting on Youtube to drink bleach as a COVID cure and laughing over the ensuing deaths. We've disapproved of that kind of speech for centuries -- this slope isn't nearly as slippery as you think it is.
Why not just base it on US law? It’s illegal to get someone to kill themselves, but not to preach exceptional philosophies. In the real world, the best way to refute a quack idea is with facts and a strong argument.
He's saying you're misunderstanding your rights regarding free speech, which sounds accurate as you seem to think you have rights on YouTube's platform. (You don't.)
Free speech only protects you from the government, there are many places that saying dumb or offensive things will get you kicked out or censored.
So yes I agree with OP, the fact that you don't understand these rights but sit at your desk and yell "but my free speech!" or "un-American!" when YouTube is trying to combat disinformation during a global health crisis could likely be a precursor to a collapse of your society. While it won't be a direct cause of the collapse, if an educated programmer on HN doesn't get it, I don't favor the prospects for the rest of the society.
I literally said you can't challenge YouTube on first amendment grounds, because it doesn't work that way. I'm not sure how that is me misunderstanding anything. More like you both misunderstood me.
What I'm saying is YouTube is a monopoly. So if you say something on there that they don't like, and they censor you, you've been effectively silenced. What other video platform will you use to get your message out? Whatever you choose you won't reach nearly as many people. Should Google have that kind of power? I don't think so. They should be regulated and the government (and by extension the people who vote for it) should make those decisions, not a corporation.
