San Francisco, CA — “Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”—Albert Einstein.
Don’t tell YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, but Albert Einstein is widely accepted as one of most preeminent scientists throughout history. You know, he developed this thing called the theory of relativity and contributed to the theory of quantum mechanics.
But alas, Wojcicki thinks that appeals to authority is the be-all and end-all of science. She said so on a “Future of Technology and Democracy” panel with the McCain Institute last month regarding YouTube’s policies regarding boosting of content.
“If you think about science right, they look at references, who’s referred to different content and sources and how many times that paper was cited as examples of authoritativeness of different medical or scientific documents,” Wojcicki said.
Wojcicki added: “And so, in a sense, like, we’re also looking at publishers, providers of information. And so, like in medical, we’re going to look at Mayo Clinic or CDC (Centers for Disease Control) or the American Medical Association and use all those signals in terms of the information. So that’s one of the ways we try to be able to help users connect with the right information.”
Of course, those policies go far beyond just boosting of content. Wojcicki readily admitted on CNN early on in the COVID-19 scamdemic that YouTube will censor anyone who disagrees with her preapproved “authorities.
“Anything that would go against World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations would be a violation of our policy, and so removal is another really important part of our policy,” Wojcicki said.
Never mind the endless examples of lies and deceit from WHO, CDC, governments in general, etc. Never mind the inconsistent messaging on masks or propaganda on vaccine efficacy from the “authorities” and “experts.” Never mind all the doctors who have actually treated patients who disagree with YouTube’s preapproved sources. Never mind the corrupt fact-checkers and shills.
YouTube just doesn’t want you to hear any dissent. What’s wrong with that?
“If we search YouTube, and it will not take much, we will find huge amounts of objectionable material that YouTube allows,” wrote Michael Rozeff, a professor of finance at the University at Buffalo. “Its community guidelines are a joke, an excuse, a cover for the prejudices and biases of the censors.”
Rozeff added: “There are understandable reasons for censorship. We self-censor all the time. But not in this case. With its censorship, YouTube has entered the realm of politics and public debate. It makes itself like a newspaper with an editorial policy, but it hides it under censorship. In doing this, it makes itself an unreliable information source because it infuses its content with editorial decisions. It’s like a newspaper that censors stories all along the way. But it doesn’t make this clear to its readers. Instead, it claims to be protecting them from various dangers. It’s not, and that’s disgusting.”
Of course, appeals to authority is one of the greatest logical fallacies and one the creator of the scientific method, Sir Francis Bacon, warns against.
But maybe Wojcicki is just enlightened and we, who value thinking for ourselves and who understand that science requires skepticism and the ability to dissent, are just uneducated rubes? Nah, Wojcicki is just a petty tyrant worthy of scorn.
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