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Facebook, YouTube and excitement They have long lists of no to limit information about the coronavirus on their site, which they consider misleading. YouTube went a step further last week pretty broad ban Number of videos questioning the efficacy or safety of approved vaccines, including those for measles.

Maybe these rules make sense to you. But they can also feel like an attack on expression and an insult to our intelligence.

Most people who see YouTube videos (mistakenly) claiming that an animal worm medicine cures the coronavirus, most people reporting that Fido won’t swallow his pills and are concerned about vaccine side effects are not anti-vaccine fanatics. Can’t we talk freely online and make our own decisions? Isn’t it counterproductive and anti-American to declare that certain discussions are prohibited?

There are no easy answers to these questions. But after talking to you, I want to share how my perceptions have changed a bit. Brendan Nyhanis a Dartmouth College professor who studies misconceptions about politics and health care. Dr. Nyhan gave me a different way to think about online misinformation: It’s not about you.

Dr. Nyhan suggested that we think that the rules of internet companies are crafted for the very small number of people who strongly believe or are inclined to believe in things that are clearly false and potentially dangerous. Stay with me.

The talk resonated because it got to something that bothered me about the overly broad term “misinformation.” It evokes a world where everyone is either a neo-Nazi, anarchist, or scammer selling fake health potions – or is vulnerable to being taken over by them.

We know this is bullshit. However, Dr. Nyhan said it’s very important that we have rules for extremes on the internet for both speaker and listener.

Dr. “A lot of people will be exposed to misinformation and it will have no impact,” Nyhan said. “But if even a few people believe in strong false claims that elections are illegitimate or that this vaccine causes autism, this may require a more aggressive approach.”

Dr. Nyhan isn’t saying that popular websites should restrict discussions that include extreme or unpopular views. (She has written about the kinds of online restrictions on the Covid-19 discussions. should not be applied to most political expressions.)

But for a number of high-stakes issues that could wreak havoc in the real world, internet companies may need restrictive rules. Internet companies too. encourages people to think carefully about what they read and share without banning certain types of conversation.

Dr. Nyhan realizes that it’s difficult to decide which issues are high stakes, and she worries that a handful of internet companies have become so influential that they dictate public discourse and often poorly enforce their policies.

Most importantly, Dr. Nyhan rejects two overly simplistic ideas: The average person is prone to getting caught up in the weird stuff they read on the internet, and that crazy stuff carries little risk on the internet.

Dr. “We need to focus more on how platforms enable a minority of extremists to fuel harm, not how the average person can be brainwashed by a piece of content they watch several times,” Nyhan said. “We should think about People who consume large amounts of hateful or extremist content on YouTubeor anti-vaccine groups that don’t reach large numbers of people but can do a lot of harm to the people they reach.”

To be honest, I hate this. Why should sites like YouTube and Facebook be designed to diffuse the worst risks of conspirators and racists? What about a parent or coworker who is worried about the side effects of their child’s measles vaccine? Arizona election recount? Not everything we wonder or question is false information. Can’t we talk about things on the Internet? Won’t it be good?

Dr. Nyhan’s answer is basically yes, it will probably be fine for most of us – but we have to think about the margins. And in rare cases, that may mean sacrificing the ability to say absolutely anything online to protect us all.

This discussion is a difficult one and we would like to hear from our readers about it. When do you think internet companies like YouTube and Facebook should restrict what people say on their sites? How should they make this decision? Share what you got in the comments. The On Tech team will read your thoughts and respond to a selection of them.

Before you go …

• It broke Facebook. Social networking and other apps, including Instagram and WhatsApp inaccessible for more than five hours Due to technical glitches on Monday. people made funny jokes About the Facebook outage, but was serious For people who rely on WhatsApp to connect with their friends and family, and for businesses that use the app to reach online customers.

  Related: A former product manager at Facebook testifies in Congress about how the company works. my colleagues explains what you need to know.

• It wakes up at 3 o’clock so you can buy a video game console. BuzzFeed News writes about journalist Matt Swider, an online star for the gadget website TechRadar. Tips on how to hunt for PlayStation 5 game system and how to protect yourself from scams. The shortage of consoles drove gamers crazy last year.

• Being an informed customer is RISE. You search for a rowing machine on Amazon and you see a flood of unfamiliar brand names, or you click to buy a rug you’ve seen advertised on Instagram. It’s hard to know if you’re buying something great or completely garbage and shoppers don’t get much help from tech companies behind it all, The Washington Post explains (subscription may be required).

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