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Social media that once helped fuel the rise of the leaders described as populist right-wingers are now taking strict action on them. YouTube, which has banned Trump, has removed videos from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for spreading Covid-19 lies.
Brazil has been among the top three countries most affected by the pandemic (death count: upwards of 545,000). Bolsonaro has been criticized for his remarks and policies that are not in tune with science. He has publicly refused to take vaccine and ridiculed masking. He has promoted hydroxychloroquine as a cure to Covid-19, though scientists do not think so. He refused to impose lockdowns and when governors did, he called them “tyrants.” His Covid-19 response is the subject of a parliamentary inquiry now.
YouTube says its decision was not based on ideology or politics, but on its content policies. Following guidance of local and global health authorities, YouTube does not “allow content that claims hydroxychloroquine and/or Ivermectin are effective to treat or prevent Covid-19, claims that there is a guaranteed cure for Covid-19, and claims that masks don’t work to prevent the spread of the virus.”
In the long-running debate over social media and free speech, the pandemic has added a new dimension. Earlier the questions were: Should private entities enforce censorship? If they do, would it be a violation of free speech? Who decides what are un/acceptable views? After the outbreak, these platforms have a doubly difficult task: They must filter out Covid-19 misinformation – it’s a question of life and death, but the definition of ‘misinformation’ changes by the day as science comes to understand the virus better.
Bolsonaro’s YouTube channel, with 3.44 million subscribers, is his preferred platform to connect with his supporters with weekly addresses in which he takes questions from viewers and dispenses Covid-19 advisories. (These chats are also simultaneously telecast on Facebook, though it is not clear if FB plans to take action.) It is the second most widely watched ‘channel’ in the country, and it helped him win power.
Facebook and Twitter, too, had last year deleted his posts, making unproven claims on Covid-19 and advising dubious remedies.
Also read:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/22/world/youtube-bolsonaro-covid.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-57923862
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/22/youtube-pulls-jair-bolsonaro-videos-for-covid-19-misinformation