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It appears my Google account is slated for deletion

alexaobrien.com

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Re: It appears my Google account is slated for deletion

#111

Post by fellellor »

blfr wrote: post #71
KGIII wrote: post #7

Well, she is easier to defend than Nazis. So, here I go... Freedom of expression, not just free speech the legal concept, should be a societal goal. Google has every right, legally, to delete this stuff. However, in an ideal world, they'd do no such thing and would let people judge based on the merits of the message. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd like to work towards that ideal world. Maybe the solution…

Above being more than a legal concept, it's also not really about expression, ie. the biggest value to society is not from Alexa O'Brien being able to express her thoughts and feelings, which is a minor benefit to her, but in us being able to read them and then choose the best ideas to adapt/copy/implement. The fact that you can make your (realistically, very tiny) contribution to the culture is much less important t…

The world at large is pretty complex, but participating members of a democracy often need to take simple decisions based on that complicated web of information. Society's evolution and functioning requires that we take those decisions.

In many cases it's not possible for all individuals to understand because it would very time consuming and one may not have the training to do so either. So we need the help of journalists and agencies to make sense of the world.

I agree that the availability of sources where it is reasonable, should be made to the public. But that is also not always possible, since it may, in some cases, expose the sources to danger.

A consequence of this is that since we rely on intermediaries to simplify information for us, we are vulnerable to malicious propaganda conveyed by agents disguising themselves as trusted authorities.

Re: It appears my Google account is slated for deletion

#112

Post by projectant »

quuquuquu wrote: post #3

Help me understand- Alexa O'Brien has a Youtube account with many hours of video. She also has a google account, drive, etc. Some of her videos contained material that Google (being Google), didn't like. Despite the fact that it was all very important journalism, Google arbitrarily decided it was #extremism, therefore #banned. I would say that 5 years ago I would have been shocked and outraged, but lately I just abso…

This happens. It's not good that it happens but we must expect it to happen.

What power to we have?

Change our perspective.

These online services which area now beginning to dip their toes into censorship / advertiser-hedged editorializing, are not to be seen as reliable ubiquitous platforms existing for the convenience of all. As much as they perhaps want to be seen as such, their actions belie this.

They are closed niches with particular stances, and their loyalty is never to us, despite marketing.

And we can treat them as such, we will be okay.

Backup your things. Use multiple providers. Use multiple accounts, a burner account for content against their editorial stance, and a longer lived account for other things. Run your own services. If you despise this state of affairs so greatly, form your own business services, and ape to take some of their market.

Tl;dr they are not our friends. Stop expecting them to not betray us, expect betrayal, and keep them at an appropriate distance.

Don't complain. Just start doing it if you want to protect yourself against it. I think github and npm can be included in this.

Re: It appears my Google account is slated for deletion

#113

Post by efreak »

userbinator wrote: post #76
severine wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question: what are some examples of great content virtually erased from the web by search engines?

Great and obscure content --- that you'd most want a search engine to find, tends to be at most risk. For one example, I've noticed that finding information on obscure electronics part numbers has gotten much harder, and the search results are getting "diluted" with useless "fillter" results that don't even contain all the words you're searching for. Example queries I've had poor luck with recently: TVN_DELETEITEM re…

I've been annoyed at this for a while too, but I've noticed that if you put your search terms in quotes, that almost always fixes it. I have yet to see any existing search results disappear without the website they link to also disappearing. If only Google indexed the web archive...

Re: It appears my Google account is slated for deletion

#114

Post by flukus »

donalhunt wrote: post #56

The following articles may be of help: 1) https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/40695 2) https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2802168?hl=en Despite claims in this thread that Google likes to do things without due process and clear guidelines, the reality is that something like an account deletion is both pretty rare and not done lightly (you'll see that in some of the language in support articles and T&Cs r…

> With regard the "how to escalate?" issue: The company still struggles with corner cases like this. When you're building systems that cater for billion+ users, you have to look at systematic ways to deal with incoming requests such that the set of requests that need human intervention is as small as possible (assuming you don't want a company with millions of employees).

Maybe part of the lesson here is that it's simply impossible to scale to a billion+ users.

Re: It appears my Google account is slated for deletion

#115

Post by jldugger »

wallace_f wrote: post #86
banned1 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://twitter.com/DeadPrecariat/status/907778635817521152 This person asks that she "demands answers." Since when are beggars choosers? Google is free. Did we really expect a different behavior from them?

Free in the most obvious sense, but they still profit off of you.

When I checked a few years ago, Youtube was still not actually profitable. There's a reason it's owned by the company that spins off so much free cash it doesn't know what to do with it all, I guess.

Re: It appears my Google account is slated for deletion

#116

Post by fiddlerwoaroof »

mankyd wrote: post #13
KGIII wrote: post #7

Well, she is easier to defend than Nazis. So, here I go... Freedom of expression, not just free speech the legal concept, should be a societal goal. Google has every right, legally, to delete this stuff. However, in an ideal world, they'd do no such thing and would let people judge based on the merits of the message. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd like to work towards that ideal world. Maybe the solution…

> Maybe the solution is enabling people to realistically host content themselves, on their own property, and just ensuring the ISP is nothing but a dumb pipe? For what it's worth, this is mildly achievable, but I doubt there's much of a market for it. It's (usually) not hard to convert one's internet connection to some sort of business-class connection, get a static ip, and have port 80/443 unblocked, (I've done it).…

There are things like Yunohost and, I think, sandstorm.io

Re: It appears my Google account is slated for deletion

#117

Post by anotherbrownguy »

Mtinie wrote: post #40

Resolved. https://mobile.twitter.com/carwinb/status/907778135957131265

>I hope for good. But, I honestly don't know.

I love how Google handles their customers. They just block/remove without any warning, don't respond when asked and reinstate if they have to without any apology or explanation.

Re: It appears my Google account is slated for deletion

#118

Post by KGIII »

wallace_f wrote: post #104
KGIII wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I do it. I hold what is now considered an extreme view on free speech. I don't even have anything politically incorrect to say, really. I just strongly believe in the freedom to express ideas. A survey of young people really disturbs me. Some 40% don't believe we should have the right to free speech. I'll be damned if I know how to fix this. I see the same sentiments expressed by some people here. Credible…

Yep, younger generations are being brain washed, unfortunately, to believe in an un-American authoritarian view on speech. I agree with you. If you dont believe in free speech for those you disagree with, then you don't believe in free speech at all.

I literally defend literal Nazis. The Nazis hate me but they actually seem slightly less hyperbolic than those who dislike that I defend their basic human rights.

The White Nationalists tell me they'd kick me out of the country, which is funny because I'm mostly Native American. The others (I don't have a name for them) tell me that I don't even have a right to support their right to free expression. I'd rather be told that I'm hated then be told I have no right to speak.

Really, I think we can pretty much all agree that the Internet is largely a basic human right. With that, so shouldn't other protections apply. I think it's probably going to take regulation to get beyond this. I'm kind of hoping it's sensible regulation but it seems destined to happen eventually.

Re: It appears my Google account is slated for deletion

#119

Post by anotherbrownguy »

jdietrich wrote: post #55
gavanwoolery wrote: post #5

Normally I try to rule out conspiracy theories, but this one is pretty interesting. A video being removed I could understand, but deleting an entire Google account seems like a rather extreme measure, and I wonder who is really pulling the strings here. I could certainly think of motives for doing so.

> I wonder who is really pulling the strings here With 99.9% confidence, I'm saying an algorithm. It isn't unusual for a company to automatically delete accounts that seriously breach their ToCs; the unique problem with Google is that their ecosystem is so large and pervasive.

The "algorithm" seems very much in bed with American military industry.

Re: It appears my Google account is slated for deletion

#120

Post by KGIII »

cptskippy wrote: post #102
taurath wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cynical side of me thinks that a society with no control over (certain) information is one which is more vulnerable to control by bad actors. We have more of a filtering problem than an access problem at the moment - there's too much information to support all beliefs so people are more likely to become entrenched in whatever they do believe.

By and large I think people's desire for raw data has grown from a mistrust of the News stemming from the move away from reporting towards commentary and hidden agenda. Once upon a Time you could mostly trust the news but these days we have "no spin zones" which are in fact entirely spin. You can no longer sit back and consume news, to get the real facts requires a great deal of effort and attention which is exhausti…

You might wish to look into the history of journalism. I've written about this before, but there really wasn't a golden age of journalism. This doesn't mean good journalism didn't exist, just that there have always been biased sources.

Head to your local library and hit the archives. From yellow journalism to papers owned by political parties, bias and dishonesty has always been a problem.

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