Reddit’s Censorship of The Great Barrington Declaration

Guest Post by Ethan Yang

spanish inquisition

Earlier this week The Great Barrington Declaration went live garnering over 100,000 signatures at the time of this writing. The declaration, which has now been highlighted by celebrities and intellectuals across the world, called for a “Focused Protection” approach to combating Covid-19. The declaration explains 

“The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity, is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk. We call this Focused Protection.”

Such a policy is grounded in the traditional response to pandemics emulated by countries such as Sweden rather than the experimental lockdown approach that has characterized much of the world’s response to Covid-19. It takes a more realistic approach to the pandemic, understanding that there are certain tradeoffs that must be weighed and affirms the necessity of preserving to the best extent possible the normal functioning of society. The original architects of the declaration are three highly respected figures in the field of epidemiology.

They are Harvard Professor Dr. Martin Kulldorff, Oxford Professor Dr. Sunetra Gupta, and Stanford Professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.

The signatories include thousands of public health officials and researchers as well as members of the general public. You can read more about the signatories as well as view the entire declaration on the website.

Reddit Censorship

The declaration appeared on the Reddit channels r/COVID-19 and r/Coronavirus, both large online communities with over 300,000 and 2.3 million members respectively. Shortly after both posts were removed by moderators.

This seems rather strange given that these are Covid-19 discussion forums filled with news and research reports relating to the virus. The declaration was crafted and signed by the world’s leading experts in medicine, particularly epidemiology. It is surely more important than this subreddit post about Lana Del Rey being criticized for wearing a mesh mask.

The reasons listed for the declaration’s removal are also unclear. Reddit’s content policy shows no clear guidelines for the removal of content such as the Great Barrington Declaration.

The explanation given from the moderators of r/COVID19

“Posts and, where appropriate, comments must link to a primary scientific source: peer-reviewed original research, pre-prints from established servers, and research or reports by governments and other reputable organisations. Please do not link to YouTube or Twitter.

News stories and secondary or tertiary reports about original research are a better fit for r/Coronavirus.”

The website features an original statement from three of the world’s leading epidemiologists advocating for a drastically different approach to the prevailing policy response to Covid-19. It has over 25,000 signatures including thousands of other public health experts. It is literally a piece of history and the moderators believe it should be viewed as a “news story or tertiary report” meant for the more general channel.

Unfortunately, the moderators of r/Coronavirus, a channel with over 2.3 million members, did not look too kindly on the declaration either. As shown above, the post was removed and the rationale given was

“Content must not be spam or be promotional in nature. Spamming the same or very similar posts or comments, as well as self-promotion of any kind will likely lead to a ban. Scams will be reported to authorities.”

The article is clearly not spam and it is not self-promotion. Although the website certainly features a section for individuals to become signatories, it is an original statement with educational material regarding the world’s most pressing issue. In fact, that is the declaration’s primary purpose; to announce to the world a viewpoint and suggest further discussion along with reconsideration. The admins of the more academic-focused r/COVID19 channel even suggested it be posted in r/coronavirus.

The r/coronavirus community description reads 

“In December 2019, a novel coronavirus strain (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in the city of Wuhan, China. This subreddit seeks to monitor the spread of the disease COVID-19, declared a pandemic by the WHO. Please be civil and empathetic. This subreddit is for high-quality posts and discussion.”

What better quality post (leading to a presumably robust discussion) than an original and profound statement from the world’s top epidemiologists? Whether or not you agree with the contents of the letter, this is a serious proposal that will likely leave its mark on history. Oxford’s Professor Gupta, one of the original signatories, has already lectured about her belief in the doctrine advocated by the declaration. The idea of opening up the economy and pursuing herd immunity is a position that experts from different professions across the world endorse. Whether or not that is a good policy can only be decided by implementation and debate.

Yet the Reddit moderators have opted to stifle what would have been a tremendous discussion opportunity on a website that purports to facilitate such a venue. Again I must reiterate that in r/coronavirus there is currently a post about Lana Del Rey and her mesh mask but the Great Barrington Declaration was taken down.

The declaration has appeared uncensored in other subreddits such as r/LockdownSkepticism, a much smaller and narrower audience.

Lockdown is an Ideology

Although this development is unfortunate and disappointing it should not come as a surprise. If one even peruses the headlines regarding Covid-19 all one sees are narratives that forward anxiety and despair. The conversation surrounding policy is overwhelmingly skewed towards more lockdowns, more masks, more hysteria. AIER has covered how quickly the media is to jump on conclusions that further their narrative and attack their enemies, even if it means using faulty information in our coverage of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota.

There is little conversation surrounding the tradeoffs of lockdowns, let alone an alternate proposal. Those who deviate from the script like former Stanford professor and now White House advisor Scott Atlas or Governor of South Dakota Kristi Noem are immediately demonized. They are called “unscientific” among many other slanderous names while the scientific and empirical discussion has yet to be seen. People seem to get a little too offended when you question the holy word of lockdowns.

Don’t just take it from me; Professor Gupta literally called lockdown a religion at a policy symposium. She noted the constant preaching, the ridiculous proposals, to the outright hostility of even a basic discussion that challenges the prevailing regime.

There can be few other logical explanations for why the conversation surrounding Covid-19 has become the way that it has. Silencing debate and demonizing those who disagree with you has more of a place in the Spanish Inquisition than it does in the halls of science. Public policy is informed not just by experimental theories but real-world observations and input from a variety of perspectives. The Great Barrington Declaration is a piece of history and an intellectual force that seeks to change the world for the better. It is not a generic petition or an obscure piece of misinformation.

Although Reddit, as a private entity, has more than a right to police content in any way they choose, they should at least attempt to stay true to their mission statement. By stifling debate on such an important topic they are not only tarnishing their brand but contributing to the problem. I pray that this was an honest mistake and that Reddit users will be able to engage in a robust conversation regarding the Great Barrington Declaration.

-----------------------------------------------------
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal

-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
Click to visit the TBP Store for Great TBP Merchandise

48
Leave a Reply

avatar
  Subscribe  
Notify of
Auntie Kriest
Auntie Kriest

What might one expect from a “website” that has this little Paxil-grinning genderless homunculus as its logo and a cutesy spelling to the name?
comment image

It is nothing less than another propaganda and thought control venue for the Silicon Valley’s junior Evil Fucker’s I.T. department; yes, Auntie is being redundant. In the Brave New World prepare and expect to be censored, serf.

flash
flash

ha ha ha men don’t create cutesy or crave the strap on either.

comment image

flash
flash

comment image?1602311432

Doctor de Vaca

But, but, that’s logic…there’s no emotion involved.

RiNS

whatta great meme!

yahsure
yahsure

Freedom? Debate and discussion in our society seem to be a thing of the past. Add common sense to that also.

Feudal Peasant
Feudal Peasant

Did you not yet realize that you are living in GAZA.

Stucky

One of Reddit’s larger investors is Tencent, a Chink company, who invested $150 million dollars.

The company is currently owned by Advance Publications, a conglomerate that has been in the hands of the Newhouse family for many decades. CEO S.I. Newhouse loathes Trump. Advance Publications controls Conde Nast, which publishes Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and the NJ Star Ledger, among many other shit rags …. all solidly Trump-haters.

So, when I read that Reddit engages in censorship, I’m like; — “Wow! I’m fucken’ shocked!!” (/end sarc)

Auntie Kriest
Auntie Kriest

(((Newhouse))) you say? Auntie is also shocked; shocked I tell you.

Stucky

Yup. From wiki ….

Newhouse was born Solomon Isadore Neuhaus in a tenement on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the eldest of eight children born to Jewish immigrants. His father, Meier Neuhaus, was an immigrant from Vitebsk, then Russian Empire and his mother, Rose was from Austria-Hungary. Meier Neuhaus later Americanized his name to Meyer Newhouse.

Fucken Joo bastard.

But, at lease mama was from AUSTRIA! Hip hip hooray!

daddysteve
daddysteve

Born in a tenement? Born owning tenements , more like.

James
James

Folks ti simple,find good sites like this and Do Not use fecesbook/gaggle/lockedup/rubit ect.

Tis hard to totally avoid these cretins but at least do not voluntarily give em any clicks ect.

rhs jr
rhs jr

Yahoo mail always tracked my writings and harassed me; once turned my screen all blue and in large orange letters wrote “How does it feel to be censored”. While writing in Microsoft Word about Zionist, someone got triggered, harrassed my typing, then erased my document and destroyed my laptop. The Censors deserve jail; I’d support firing squads.

Harrington Richardson
Harrington Richardson

Yahoo are cowards. They couldn’t stand the heat so they suspended comments on their articles. Then they doubled down with even more outrageous manufactured BS and over the top headlines. I sold all my Verizon stock as they are the owners of Yahoo and the f’ing HuffPo and a couple of other shit streaks. I sold all my AT&T as well. Those asshats own CNN and HBO among others including Time Warner.

SmallerGovNow

Here’s everything AT&T now owns, apart from your soul

I’m surprised. Our cell phones are with AT&T. We’ll be a changing that. Anyone use Patriot Mobile? Chip

morongobill
morongobill

Reddit will only understand force- cut off the money supply. Boycott the bastards.

Iska Waran
Iska Waran

Did you see the owner that Stucky referenced and all of the other publications they own? They don’t run those to make money. WaPo, NYT, MSNBC – they’d just as easily run at a loss. Readers are not the customers, they are the prey. Owning and running media companies and Reddit is just an expense to push their agenda.

javelin
javelin

This is a good point– they also are their own advertisers/promotions.
I’ll give an example that some of you probably have noticed but some have not:
A new “blockbuster” movie with a $200 million budget is being released. TV channels owned by the same parent company as the movie studio run trailer after trailer of promotion. The ads themselves have pop-ups like, ” The Times calls it the funniest movie of the year”…or ” Joe Blow of The Washington Post says it is the most important movie of our times”…… the movie critics and newspapers are all employed/owned by the same group who made the movie.

Now you see how easy it is to slowly change a culture when you own everything. Especially with the young/youth who have no point of reference when it comes to normalcy, morality etc… if movies, newspapers and paid critics ( entertainment judges?) espouse the same virtues or behaviours as acceptable, then to a young mind, men wearing women’s clothes and cutting off their weenies is normal, white men are either bumbling idiots or dangerous redneck extremists, black men are cool/intelligent/honorable and desirable, priests and clergy are pedophilic, judgemental, haters, intolerant or closet gays, every spanish person is portrayed sympathetically with man/woman and 2 small kids striving to become American and build their new lives here ( never seen MS13 or the 80% of single males that stream across on TV) Christians are either simple (slow) throwbacks from the 50’s or frothing with hatred hypocrites …etc etc etc..

Doctor de Vaca

Comrade,
Do not worry, Big Brother will do all of your thinking and take care of you no? Wave at apparatchiks as they drive by in Mercedes and we stand in line for stale bread and moldy cheese from government.

JimN
JimN

“…There can be few other logical explanations for why the conversation surrounding Covid-19 has become the way that it has….” No different from anthropogenic global warming., just a variation on the same anti-intellectualism that dominates collectivist “thinking”.

Trapped in Portlandia
Trapped in Portlandia

So many of the dumbshits who call themselves human do not want to confront any questions that might require they THINK. We are told that climate change is based on “settled science.” We aren’t allowed to hear any COVID theories promoting herd immunity because that is somehow dangerous.

This isn’t much different than the church persecuting Galileo for his theory of the solar system or the people who thought Columbus was nuts because the earth was flat and he would sail off the edge.

Science is never, never settled. New scientific discoveries will continually upend the current thinking and theories. Of course, if we don’t allow any new scientific discoveries that might change our world, then we can all be happy in our current blissful state.

Bob P
Bob P

Now ZH reports that Google has memory-holed the declaration.

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/big-tech-has-become-tool-totalitarian-facism-google-has-memory-hole-great-barrington

Sooner or later we’re going to have to get our pitchforks out and storm the damn castle. The people in power won’t help us; they’re the problem.

Doctor de Vaca

Yep

tr4head

Yep. But we have to get the rank and file in police and military on our side. Not sure of that quite yet.

Harrington Richardson
Harrington Richardson

Here’s a scheme for you. A few thousand people dress up like Antifuques conducting the requisite peaceful protest. Claim to be marching to some place that just happens to require marching past one of the tech behemoth HQ’s. The few thousand stop in front, produce main battle rifles, slug guns and the like and put about 100,000 rounds on anything looking like glass, electrical, entrances, parked vehicles, et cetera. Over in 90 seconds and everyone scatters.
Anyone who is stopped can claim they are fleeing from the White Supremacists who just shot up XYZ’s HQ during the peaceful protest. Probably stupid but what isn’t these days?

22winmag - Jewish Yankee L.D.S. M110A2 Gunner
22winmag - Jewish Yankee L.D.S. M110A2 Gunner

Wait!

What happened to the Oath Keepers, who claimed to have all kinds of LE and military clout?

What happened to cops quitting in disgust or better yet, arresting their superiors?

It was all a hoax pumped by Ron Paul and other disinformation douchebags.

View post on imgur.com

mark
mark

The ‘Southern Poverty Law Center’ and hobby horse riding .22…both on the same page!

You can tell a lot about a group by its enemies.

OATH KEEPERS SEE ‘PURPOSE’ IN PROTECTING PROPERTY, DESPITE ACCUSATIONS OF RACISM.

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/behind-the-oath-keeper-armor-men-seek-purpose-in-protecting-property-despite-charges-of-racism/

22winmag - Jewish Yankee L.D.S. M110A2 Gunner
22winmag - Jewish Yankee L.D.S. M110A2 Gunner

Sir, it’s sad to see what too many YouTube rabbit hole and best-seller rabbit holes has done to you.

Rich Jews love attacking other rich Jews.

Intelligence fronts love attacking other intelligence fronts.

The SPLC and Oath Keepers are both intelligence fronts pretending to oppose each other. That’s how they lend credibility to each other and keep the masses divided. Fight as they may, nobody ever really gets hurts.

You’ve been blinded by the precepts of men.

mark
mark

Come on .22…let’s play…

You repost the identical same snarky Oath Keepers and Ron Paul blather memes and attacks over and over like a scratchy broken record offering nothing but repetitive crap with zero substance, links, evidence, or proof.

Just like all the BIG LIE tacticians your method is BOLD BIG LIE REPETITION.

The list of radical Left, Bolshevik, and Globalist owned media groups and Think Tanks, who deride The Oath Keepers and Ron Paul is long…and you fit right in as one of their countless dupes or maybe more?

It’s not that you are a useful idiot .22….when it come to this line of your constant slander…YOU ARE JUST AN IDIOT.

But it gets you attention…and it is obvious you desperately crave attention…no matter what type.

Unlike you I have met OK members and even actually stood with them once against an overwhelming force of Antifa, BLM thugs, and Snowflakes they were using as cover to shut down and disrupt a FREE SPEECH RALLY. Together some Oath Keepers, some Proud Boys, and a bunch of regular citizens, including some families, successfully defended the right of free public speech that those enemies of the Republic would have closed down without us standing in the Gap..

I shared two meals with the Oath Keepers during that two day experience, all former military, what a bunch of great men, all rock solid and all family men standing up for their kids and grandkids. All seriously armed at great risk as we were all threatened by the Raleigh Police (I was almost arrested). All of them were salt of the earth types who you slander every chance you get, because you know nothing about them except what some British PSYOPS Agents who call themselves Miles Mathis told you…and whatever other looney tune thoughts are running around in that Swiss cheese mind of yours.

I posted a video of Oath Keepers once who had surrounded a Texas Police Department with ARs and AK-47s demanding they stop arresting citizens who open carried…and the terrified Cops did, crickets from you. Evidence is useless with you…you just ignore it and blather on, and on, and on with the same bullshit.

You have fallen completely for the M-16 British Mathis bullshit and the easily exposed Mormon cult crap while constantly shitting on thread after thread with your loony tune lies, false doctrines, and slander.

I have no problem debating you on any point…but it is a bit unfair as in a battle of wits and evidence, logic and truth…it is like battling an unarmed man.

Here let me use a .22 tactic…I’ll just drop in an unrelated topic…but the difference with mine is its true, and I have evidence.

MORMON FAITH
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Examined, Refuted, Rejected!

Definition of a Mormon:

“Someone who accepts Joseph Smith as a prophet and the book of Mormon (translated from the Nephi Plates) as an inspired message from God.”

(Left: Joseph Smith receiving the Nephi Plates from Angel Moroni)
Why we must reject the book of Mormon:

1. The Book of Mormon does not give us any new information regarding salvation. We have all we need in the New Testament.

2. The Book of Mormon teaches many things that contradict the New Testament.

3. The Book of Mormon claims the entire old and New Testaments are essentially worthless being corrupted, lost and altered.

a. LDS do not know what parts are original or which parts have been corrupted, so they use the Bible as a general guide but hold it at distance and suspicion.

b. If there are differences between the Bible and the Book of Mormon, they reject the Bible.
c. In fact there are MORE “lost, altered and changed” sections in the Book of Mormon when you compare the original 1830 Book of Mormon to the current edition, than the few variant readings in the New Testament.

d. So in spite of claim that the Book of Mormon is superior to the New Testament, such is totally false when you look strictly at the facts.

e. There are fewer variant readings in the Bible than the Book of Mormon!

4. The Book of Mormon claims to be a perfect inspired translation.

a. Unlike the Bible which only claims inspiration in the Original and scholarship in translation, the Book of Mormon claims both the original and the TRANSLATION are inspired and error free.

b. This opens up a wide range of problems including the broken, bad English spelling and grammar (which we call “reformed hillbilly”) of the original 1830 AD edition of the Book of Mormon, the hundreds of additions, deletions (including entire chapters) of the Book of Mormon in editions after 1830 as compared to the present edition.

c. There are over 5000 papyrus manuscripts of the New Testament and two almost complete copies (~325 AD) wherein we NEVER find bad grammar, spelling errors etc.

d. The Bible has ZERO grammatical or spelling errors but the first edition of the Book of Mormon looks exactly like what you would expect from someone like the uneducated (but otherwise brilliant) Joseph Smith.

e. Mormons claims these errors were introduced in one or all of the following ways:

i. The Holy Spirit chose to write the Book of Mormon
in bad grammar. (if so, then the modern updates violate the wishes of the Holy Spirit who wanted it written that way)

ii. The person whom Joseph Smith dictated the words to from the seer stone in the hat copied it wrong. (but first hand accounts of the translation process say the new text would not appear until the copied text was perfect and Joseph would certainly know errors had occurred when he had finished with the translation and simply read it himself.

iii. The printing shop made all the grammar, spelling and textual additions and deletions corrected in latter editions. (Impossible since Smith never EVER claimed such)

5. Archeology has found ZERO confirmation of the book of Mormon. The Bible, on the other hand has clear tangible archeological proof of every Bible city, river, nation, king, ruler, coin, country (and hundreds of confirmed Bible stories) have been confirmed from professional archeological controlled digs. It is well known in professional archeological circles that the Book of Mormon has failed to find any connection with the extinct nations of South America (Nasca, Ica etc) and the Book of Mormon. All of the “star archeological witnesses” of the Book of Mormon are either flat out rejected as forgeries, fakes, frauds and fabrications (the 4 F’s of archeology) or highly suspect since NONE of them came from controlled professional archeological excavations and ALL of them are unproven.

a. Book of Mormon COUNTRIES verified from archeology: ZERO
b. Book of Mormon NATIONS verified from archeology: ZERO
c. Book of Mormon CITIES verified from archeology: ZERO
d. Book of Mormon RULERS AND KINGS verified from archeology: ZERO
e. Book of Mormon RIVERS verified from archeology: ZERO
f. Book of Mormon LAKES, SEAS verified from archeology: ZERO
g. Book of Mormon COINS verified from archeology: ZERO

6. We don’t need the Book of Mormon… we have the New testament being infinitely superior in every way.

https://www.bible.ca/mormon.htm

daddysteve
daddysteve

You slander Miles Mathis the same way you claim the OK is being slandered. Can you be more specific than “British Intelligence disinfo agent”?

mark
mark

Steve,

You are late to that old and ongoing shitfest…I have specifically challenged .22 countless numbers of times on his individual and group repetitive blather mouth slander, as well as with many links exposing it, as well as his constant Mathis or Mormonism bombardment, usually with crickets in response.

I don’t care about his political views, or Trump, gay Republican tirades…but unsupported slander, and pumping the same constant Mathis British PHYOPS links, and cult Mormon crap…I challenge him on it.

If you have missed my retorts, not my job to catch you up.

Here is just one link from a year ago…have at it. I’m not the only one who gets tired of it.

Read the commemts. Same old shit from .22.

Its like debating a brick wall.

BRAVE ANTIFA WARRIORS

On The Beach
On The Beach

So says the mormontard Romney shill.

luke2236
luke2236

wont ever happen – they are the frontline of the enemy and will do whatever they are told. Also, note that the military has been systematically relieved of Whites; they even have recruiting commercials in spanish on the tube..

TampaRed

it came up 4 me but i had to completely type it in & it has lots of negatives close to it so readers can’t miss them–

https://www.google.com/search?q=thegreatbarringtondeclaration&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS775US775&oq=thegreatbarringtondeclaration&aqs=chrome..69i57.34708j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

KaD
KaD

22winmag - Jewish Yankee L.D.S. M110A2 Gunner
22winmag - Jewish Yankee L.D.S. M110A2 Gunner

Petitions are worthless.

Lawsuits are generally pretty useless too, but maybe not in this case.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0M1qsGN1mc

Also, it’s funny how Plandemic Part II was virtually ignored.

But don’t watch Plandemic 2 without understanding this major misdirection planted near the end of the video.

View post on imgur.com

very old white guy
very old white guy

Well, the CDC says masks don’t work and now the WHO has said that lockdowns were unnecessary and destructive. Who’d a thunk it.

ths jr
ths jr

Now that they have killed the economy to save it, they can kill cash and introduce Fedcoin to save it.

22winmag - Jewish Yankee L.D.S. M110A2 Gunner
22winmag - Jewish Yankee L.D.S. M110A2 Gunner

Ooops, I missed that this was an AIER article.

I would not trust a single word coming from Massachusetts based think-tank!

wdg
wdg

Who owns reddit? Follow the money because the COVID fraud has nothing whatsoever to do with science. I was just banned from Zerohedge of all places by presenting research related to the so-called COVID pandemic and the role of central banks in currency debasement and the massive plunder of honest workers. I also challenged the use of PCR to test for CV-19 because PCR is not a test for infectious diseases and can give false positives by a factor of ten. So who owns Zerohedge and is it another fake conservative news site?

John
John

What is Reddit and why should I care?

Discover more from The Burning Platform

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading