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Google Needs to Come Clean About Its Chinese Plans

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Re: Google Needs to Come Clean About Its Chinese Plans

#101

Post by sctb »

europeanperson wrote: post #61

I've said it in another thread, and I will say it again: "the majority of the world sees the U.S. as the world's biggest threat to world peace, yet I don't see anybody on Hacker News claiming companies shouldn't do business with the U.S. Since the war in Iraq, can we think of something that the Chinese government has done that is worse? I disagree strongly with the notion that the Chinese government's influence on th…

> Please don't use Hacker News primarily for political or ideological battle. This destroys intellectual curiosity, so we ban accounts that do it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Google Needs to Come Clean About Its Chinese Plans

#103

Post by scarface74 »

TangoTrotFox wrote: post #76
tomc1985 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If FANG were government institutions then yes I think a lot of the people here would be alarmed. But they aren't -- they are private companies, who can suppress or promote whatever they want. It doesn't matter whether or not you or I or anyone else likes it, that's just how it is. The courts have affirmed corporate personhood, and their resulting freedom of speech, and in this case they are free to suppress things th…

While you may genuinely believe what you're saying, I think many people saying as much are doing so out of cognitive dissonance. For instance, imagine if these tech companies decided to start removing all negative discussion of Trump. There would be quite the outrage, and very understandably so. I say understandably so not because of the topic in question, but because these companies have become monoliths of speech i…

For instance, imagine if these tech companies decided to start removing all negative discussion of Trump. There would be quite the outrage

For all practical purposes does it matter? Facebook in particular creates such an echo chamber. People only see opinions from other people they already have. If it wasn't for my one wacko MAGA conservative friend, I would never have known that thier was a child molestation ring controlled by Democrats under a pizza parlor, Obama was a secret Muslim trying to impose Sharia law, the military was trying to take over Texas or that Walker Texas Ranger was going to rescue it.

Re: Google Needs to Come Clean About Its Chinese Plans

#104

Post by lawn »

est wrote: post #2

Fact 1: Google only pulled search business out of China. adsense/adwords/maps works fine in China Fact 2: Search engines are more and more irrelevant these days. All interesting new content are either from Weibo or Wechat (or other closed garden) Fact 3: all reports about "Google returning to China" are based solely on the "Intercept report"[1] as source. I suggest everyone take a look at it. I think there's a huge m…

> Fact 2: Search engines are more and more irrelevant these days. All interesting new content are either from Weibo or Wechat (or other closed garden)

Uh no. I don't see how you could even think that.

Re: Google Needs to Come Clean About Its Chinese Plans

#105

Post by scarface74 »

sheepmullet wrote: post #43
scarface74 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conservatives are always embracing the free market. If there were a market for his ideas, he should have no trouble finding funding, advertising, etc. If his ideas really are that popular, he should be able to create the conservative versions of Twitter, Facebook, etc. All of the FAANG companies started out competing against entrenched incumbents by offering a service they didn't. Why can't he do the same?

> If there were a market for his ideas, he should have no trouble finding funding, advertising, etc. Alex Jones will be fine. It’s the up and comers who are clearly being locked out of the market.

You mean like a certain reality star that had no funding, was outspent by his rivals in the primary, who the conservative establishment fought against the entire time and still ended up becoming President?

If your ideas are popular enough and you know how to market yourself, you don't have to be a sharecropper on FAANG's farm.

Re: Google Needs to Come Clean About Its Chinese Plans

#106

Post by scarface74 »

threatofrain wrote: post #38
darpa_escapee wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let this be a lesson to us all. If you blatantly violate terms of service, there's no amount of harassing families of school shooting victims that will get your platform back.

Banning people like Alex Jones won't unharass those parents either. People around the country still think that those parents lied about the death of their children in order to score financial or political gain. And what exactly is Alex Jones' brand of conservatism? Does it involve a narrative of white extinction and false black victimhood? Climate change as a conspiracy? Obama is a Muslim who isn't even a US citizen?…

No it won't "unharass people" just like it won't stop people from seeing porn just because Apple doesn't sell "Debbie Does Dallas". Every private company has a brand that it wants to project.

Re: Google Needs to Come Clean About Its Chinese Plans

#109

Post by vageli »

lawn wrote: post #104
est wrote: post #2

Fact 1: Google only pulled search business out of China. adsense/adwords/maps works fine in China Fact 2: Search engines are more and more irrelevant these days. All interesting new content are either from Weibo or Wechat (or other closed garden) Fact 3: all reports about "Google returning to China" are based solely on the "Intercept report"[1] as source. I suggest everyone take a look at it. I think there's a huge m…

> Fact 2: Search engines are more and more irrelevant these days. All interesting new content are either from Weibo or Wechat (or other closed garden) Uh no. I don't see how you could even think that.

I initially had that reaction but then remembered the initiative Facebook has to provide "internet" to impoverished places (basically just a portal to Facebook). And it's not just other countries—most of my non-technical friends do not browse news aggregators where they are exposed to multiple new sources (it's amazing how many blogs and smaller sites I've found because of HN and reddit).

Re: Google Needs to Come Clean About Its Chinese Plans

#110

Post by amelius »

kodablah wrote: post #20

It is simply not possible to both cooperate with the Chinese (or, to a lesser extent, any other) government against its citizens and remain transparent. Part of this type of cooperation includes a requirement by the government for opacity. This is easier for less-principled and/or more closed companies. You can only not-cooperate transparently (and even then, only sometimes). The real problem is you can't have a we'l…

> Just stop requiring growth at all costs, chalk up the China (and military) market as a loss, and continue operating at your massively profitable status quo.

It could be that it's not just about profit or growth, but about preventing Chinese companies from developing competing technology.

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