(2023-07-01) Barrett Policing Misinformation

Ryan Barrett: Policing misinformation. Unpopular opinion: I have deep reservations about policing misinformation...in the general case, there’s no shortcut to determining objective truth. (nature of truth)

The scientific method can’t always come up with a simple, easy answer, especially not on the first try. Instead, it approaches the right answer, narrowing in over years or decades

This is unfair, of course. We may not be able to determine 100% objective truth every time, but we can pretty damn often. Flat earth? No it’s not. Vaccines implant 5G microchips? Come on

The line is fuzzy, though. COVID-19 was a perfect example: a brand new disease, a global public health crisis, and lots of unproven, uncertain science. Our understanding changed fast – How is it transmitted? Do masks help?

and communicating the right answers clearly was a matter of life and death.

Food is another great example. For decades, nutrition scientists convinced themselves that fat was bad and carbohydrates, particularly grains, were good. (nutritionism)

We eventually figured out that this was backward. Many fats are good for us, and many grains and simple carbohydrates are bad, at least in large amounts

What if we’d suppressed or blocked everyone who questioned the “fat bad, grains good” party line? How much longer would it have taken us to come around?

The motivations for policing misinformation are similarly fuzzy. Sometimes it’s an easy call – drinking bleach will clearly hurt you, and won’t cure or prevent COVID – but sometimes it’s harder. The earth isn’t flat, sure, but does that mean we should take down flat earth content? Probably not

More egregiously, the lizard people conspiracy is clearly ridiculous, and not a direct call to violence, but it’s linked to PizzaGate, which led a crazed gunman to shoot up a family restaurant with an AR-15. Once that happened, should we have taken down PizzaGate content and accounts? How about lizard people content? Or QAnon more broadly?

I don’t know where all the lines should be drawn. In general though, I think we should tread lightly.

maybe err on the side of tolerance. It may be a lightning rod these days, but I believe in freedom of speech, especially speech we disagree with. Or in the case of misinformation, speech we think is objectively wrong.