came across this antivaxx garbage while searching the COVID hastag. that account is pumping harmful nonsense in quantity (garlic and honey are alternative to antibiotics etc). looked up the instance it's hosted on (brighteon.social) and it proudly proclaims that this sort of stuff is their mission. why exactly are we federated with them? @freemo

@herid You dont have to federate with them, do you know how to block whole servers?

As for why others on our server arent being forced to block them.. well there arent too many useful reasons, but one important one is so if someone wants to reply to their posts and correct the nonsense so others veiwers can hear the counter-evidence that seems like one useful reason.

@freemo I do know I can block servers and I will block this one but I am not worried about myself. I see zero value and only harm in federating with them at server level. Engaging with any account like that is worse than futile.

@herid I dont see much value in that account either.. what harm do you think a server full of Qualified STEM professionals would have by being able to see anti-scientific content exists and being capable of reading it? Other than wasting their time, rolling their eyes and in most cases just walking past it I dont see the harm it would cause a bunch of experts in the STEM field honestly. If anything scientists and doctors being able to see the kind of garbage that is out there so they can correct the misinformation seems like an important avenue that reduces harm more so than just blinding them from seeing it at all.

@freemo disagree. STEM doesn't mean people are medical experts. I have lots of colleagues who think COVID is over and is now like flu. One recommended homeopathic medicine for my stomach problems. and as I said engaging with quacks is useless.

@herid I suppose your right there will always be idiots out there who refuse to fact check things before they adop it as truths, even on a STEM server.

I generally find (and many studies show) the act of prohibition on almost everything results in increased usage/adoption, counter intuitive as that may sound. I also wouldnt feel right about forcing people not to see a thing simply for being wrong.. If someone wants to read something someone posted that is stupid, thy have the right to read it and have the autonomy to be treated as a responsible adult in doing so.

@freemo again, I disagree. bad medical info isn't just wrong, it's harmful. and that is grounds for blocking altogether IMO, not leaving it for individual people to judge. the latter is what lead to the spread of antivax propaganda on social media in the first place. I mean, would you allow an account like this to set up shop on qoto? I sure hope not.

@herid no on qoto itself it woukd be suspended

@herid To me we are getting into banning book and burning book territory.. i dont think even dangerous books should be burned.

@freemo please. there is a **very** large distinction between burning books and not helping someone spread dangerous medical quackery.

@herid what if the book is filled with dangerous medical quackery? How is that different?

@freemo dude.

@herid yes?

@freemo to elaborate then. I find your comparison ridiculous. and misleading. we are dealing with with a specific situation which can and should be addressed directly on merits. which is: how to deal with an instance dedicated to spreading misinformation, particularly medical one. the account I mentioned is hardly unique there. it's ALL like that (antivaxx, Alex Jones, oil to fight cancer etc) as you can easily see by scrolling through a few posts on their local timeline. by federating with them we are helping spread those messages. leaving it up to individual users to block them is the wrong recipe. that attitude is what led to the spread of antivaxxer sentiment in the first place and we are now dealing with the results.