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Leaked Google briefing, admitting a “shift towards censorship”

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Re: Leaked Google briefing, admitting a “shift towards censorship”

#41

I'm actually glad to see the conclusion. Everybody wants to censor what they don't like. There are people who believe free speech is not the ultimate value, but rather to protect people from 'harm'. In this case 'harm' being ideas they don't agree with. The best stance is not to take a side, but to make sure both sides are civil in the expression of their beliefs.

[deleted]

Re: Leaked Google briefing, admitting a “shift towards censorship”

#42
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would it be real when it was leaked by breitbart? Are the lizard people also real? Is the earth flat? Do vaccines cause autism?

You obviously don't read Breitbart.

Not after reading about the Clinton’s on it, no.

I don’t particularly like the Clintons, but unlike breitbart, I do consider them to be human beings.

Re: Leaked Google briefing, admitting a “shift towards censorship”

#43
post #30

Underpinning the whole question of censorship; “Under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, tech firms have legal immunity from the majority of the content posted on their platforms (unlike ‘traditional’ media publications). This protection has empowered YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit to create spaces for free speech without the fear of legal action or its financial consequence.” Censoring content is…

This is true, and some have said they have already crossed the threshold and should be regulated by the government.

Re: Leaked Google briefing, admitting a “shift towards censorship”

#44

I'm actually glad to see the conclusion. Everybody wants to censor what they don't like. There are people who believe free speech is not the ultimate value, but rather to protect people from 'harm'. In this case 'harm' being ideas they don't agree with. The best stance is not to take a side, but to make sure both sides are civil in the expression of their beliefs.

I'm speaking for myself here but I think the Russian bots as well as astroturfing bots need to be censored. And not censored by government regulation but by the terms of service. There are many "active measure" Russian bots active on twitter. Twitter doesn't seem concerned at all mostly because those Russian bots are padding their numbers same goes for FB and reddit.

Re: Leaked Google briefing, admitting a “shift towards censorship”

#45

I'm actually glad to see the conclusion. Everybody wants to censor what they don't like. There are people who believe free speech is not the ultimate value, but rather to protect people from 'harm'. In this case 'harm' being ideas they don't agree with. The best stance is not to take a side, but to make sure both sides are civil in the expression of their beliefs.

This 100000% over. Otherwise they are becoming the new kingmakers, manipulating people often without them even knowing. Incidentally there is a good documentary that is now on Amazon Prime called "The Creepy Line" that is worth watching.

Re: Leaked Google briefing, admitting a “shift towards censorship”

#46
post #40
post #30

Underpinning the whole question of censorship; “Under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, tech firms have legal immunity from the majority of the content posted on their platforms (unlike ‘traditional’ media publications). This protection has empowered YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit to create spaces for free speech without the fear of legal action or its financial consequence.” Censoring content is…

What would be the practical consequences of losing this immunity?

IANAL

You can sue Google for damages if someone uploads a copyrighted movie to youtube.

You can sue Google for libel or slander if someone posts disparaging statements about an individual to Blogspot or Youtube

Since Google has a lot of money and the people who publish this content may not have too much money, Google would become the target for many lawsuits

Re: Leaked Google briefing, admitting a “shift towards censorship”

#47
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Breitbart watermark makes me very suspicious, I would treat it as probably worthless until we see more reliable sources.

They're definitely not the most reputable news source and many of their opinion pieces definitely step into fake territory, but I think outright falsifying an entire document like this would be a very extreme move, even for them.

More likely that someone else falsified it and they didn't fact check correctly. But Google's statement appears to confirm that it's real.

Re: Leaked Google briefing, admitting a “shift towards censorship”

#48
post #22

I caution against latching onto the title and making assumptions. The bulk of the content is analyzing where the current censorship position came from and the conclusion is for Google to be more open with their stance and also be more equal with applying it. As for the why: Why the shift toward censorship? - User Demands - before, In the absence of rules, bad behaviour thrived - now, Appease users, maintain platform…

Yeah, honestly I don't think Breitbart and similar can really play this as negative for Google when it acknowledges many actions have been taken even against right wingers unfairly and encourages "Don't take sides" as a top point. The biggest thing to complain about would probably be the title... they couldn't have picked a worse title.

There's a larger question that Breitbart is raising: should we tolerate Google - or any company - as a monopolist with censorship power over information distribution. In this case, they're an extraordinarily powerful, expansive monopolist at that. Who decides the degree to which they censor, who gets censored, what information gets censored, etc. Google isn't just a company policing its own platform. Imagine Microsoft aggressively censoring what people could browse, upload to the Internet or write on its operating system in ~2001 (or any time during peak Windows monopoly): it'd be an obvious monopoly abuse, harm to consumers, and as an extension of that monopoly position a form of censorship. Google, through the leverage of its multiple monopolies (search, YouTube, Android), is pushing toward that sort of behavior.

Re: Leaked Google briefing, admitting a “shift towards censorship”

#49

I'm actually glad to see the conclusion. Everybody wants to censor what they don't like. There are people who believe free speech is not the ultimate value, but rather to protect people from 'harm'. In this case 'harm' being ideas they don't agree with. The best stance is not to take a side, but to make sure both sides are civil in the expression of their beliefs.

What both sides though? The alt-right isn’t in opposition to anything mainstream, they are anti-democratic and should be treated the same way antifa, farc, isis and others are. Every time democracy fails to shut down movements like the alt-right, things end badly for democracy itself. The most used throve is stuff like nazism and fascism, but history actually have a lot of better examples. Because both Napoleon and C…

The problem is that then you have to decide what's 'anti-democratic'. You won't find 50 opinions that differ from your own. On top of that, it can then be used as justification to censor almost anything you don't like.

Sure, right now you'll think there is a clear criteria. But in 25, 50, or 100 years from now, people could have easily twisted it to mean whatever they disagree with.

Re: Leaked Google briefing, admitting a “shift towards censorship”

#50

I'm actually glad to see the conclusion. Everybody wants to censor what they don't like. There are people who believe free speech is not the ultimate value, but rather to protect people from 'harm'. In this case 'harm' being ideas they don't agree with. The best stance is not to take a side, but to make sure both sides are civil in the expression of their beliefs.

> There are people who believe free speech is not the ultimate value

A right to free speech is a recent, American-centric invention, rather than a natural cornerstone of democracy, a fact that often seems lost on Americans.

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