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Free Speech Restrictions on Social Media Could Squash Harm Reduction and Addiction Recovery Efforts
Yahoo News! ^ | Sun, December 5, 2021

Posted on 12/06/2021 5:18:12 PM PST by nickcarraway

When Chad Sabora started working in harm reduction, he worked out of his car on the streets of St. Louis, Mo. Sabora's beat-up sedan was a familiar sight in neighborhoods frequented by people who use drugs. Sabora, an attorney and former prosecutor in Chicago, had been in recovery for years and experienced addiction firsthand. Based on decades of research and his own experience, he knew sterile syringes prevented infectious disease transmission, naloxone saves lives by reversing overdoses, and that a well-timed pep-talk or caring gesture could profoundly help someone in the throes of addiction. He took a boots-on-the ground approach to helping others in his hometown.

As America's unprecedented overdose crisis became a national issue, Sabora thought of ways to scale-up his operation. Like many people do, he took to social media, where he tried spreading the gospel of harm reduction and sharing simple strategies to help people survive their substance use disorder. Never use alone. Carry naloxone. Use new syringes. Statistically speaking, there are millions of drug users and people with addiction online. Tragically, over 200 people die from drug overdoses every day in America, and over 100,000 Americans died in the last year alone. But on Facebook, Sabora felt something was keeping him from reaching the masses. Then he noticed his posts ran afoul of the almighty algorithm.

"I've been put in time-out just for posting about naloxone," Sabora said. When he created educational posts about the risks of illicit fentanyl, teaching people how to use fentanyl test strips, his account would be disabled. He realized that by mentioning drugs, his account was dinged by Facebook's automated content censors meant to curb drug sales on social media platforms. The algorithm couldn't distinguish his content from that of a suspected drug dealer. The algorithm picks up particular words, phrases,

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: addiction; drugs; freespeech

1 posted on 12/06/2021 5:18:12 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Bookmark


2 posted on 12/06/2021 6:03:58 PM PST by Southside_Chicago_Republican (The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog. )
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
Sure, of course, the Biden/Obama regime plans full legalization, which is one reason for creating a fait accompli at the border.

3 posted on 12/06/2021 8:17:36 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: nickcarraway

“The algorithm couldn’t distinguish his content from that of a suspected drug dealer.”

So much for Almighty AI.


4 posted on 12/06/2021 10:18:27 PM PST by HKMk23 (The right of freedom of religion shall not be derogated even if the life of the nation is at stake.)
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