YouTube to Remove Thousands of Videos Pushing Extreme Views • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube to Remove Thousands of Videos Pushing Extreme Views

#161

Post by baud147258 » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 5:00 PM UTC

vowelless wrote: post #126

chrisjc wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> White supremacy is a much bigger deal with a worse tail risk than Islamic extremism. Wait... you're saying that white supremacy is worse than islamic extremism? Is you opinion perhaps a manifestation of your perspective? I'm sure there are some people in Syria, Afghanistan, etc... that would disagree with you. BTW, I'm not saying one is worse than the other, just that they are both bad, both a problem, and both sho…

White supremacy was the cause for the worst wars of the 20th century. A white nationalist uprising in Europe would be deadlier (again) than Islamic extremists taking over most middle eastern nations due to the resources that will be available to them.

> White supremacy was the cause for the worst wars of the 20th century

Which ones? Both WW were caused by political disputes and nationalist views

Re: YouTube to Remove Thousands of Videos Pushing Extreme Views

#162

Post by biogewuerz » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 5:01 PM UTC

HBKXNCUO wrote: post #105

warp_factor wrote: post #10

And here we go. As usual the "racist" pretext is being used to censor videos. I have no doubt that there are some terrible awful racist videos in that lot but you have to wonder how many times this is ALSO used as a mean to censor pretty much any video that the youtube execs don't like. Censorship is getting worse Edit: Replacing "Censorship is coming back" with "Censorship is getting worse"

I'm not sure why we should give them a pass on censoring ANY legal political content, including racism, homophobia, anti-semitism, or any other political stance outside of the corporate mainstream. The fact is that YouTube has become one of the primary places (along with Facebook and Twitter) where people not rich enough to own a newspaper or television station engage in political speech. Preventing people from meani…

Reminds me of the shooting at Youtube HQ. Nasim Aghdam also went postal because she was deplatformed by them. Wouldn't surprise me if another nutter decides to take revenge in the future.

Re: YouTube to Remove Thousands of Videos Pushing Extreme Views

#163

Post by skrowl » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 5:01 PM UTC

javagram wrote: post #152

skrowl wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google / Facebook are private companies, and they should absolutely be able to pick and choose what is posted on their platform if they want. However, they SHOULD NOT be able to have it both ways where they censor posts they don't like (like a publisher would do) but enjoy protections afforded to actual open / neutral platforms. Once you start censoring things that aren't breaking any laws, you're now a PUBLISHER and…

FWIW, this would be a major shift in the law. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230_of_the_Communica... > The court upheld AOL's immunity from liability for defamation. AOL's agreement with the contractor allowing AOL to modify or remove such content did not make AOL the "information content provider" because the content was created by an independent contractor. The Court noted that Congress made a policy choic…

No it's not, if Facebook / Youtube / etc are found to be PUBLISHERS.

AOL in the case you mentioned was being looked at as an open / neutral platform.

I'm saying that clearly Facebook / Youtube no longer fit that definition due to the censorship mentioned in OP.

Re: YouTube to Remove Thousands of Videos Pushing Extreme Views

#164

Post by lostmymind66 » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 5:01 PM UTC

AndrewStephens wrote: post #136

ravenstine wrote: post #107

I'm starting to think that comment sections on news sites are a really bad idea. At first I thought NPR and the like were cowards for removing theirs. It's bad enough that NYT can be pretty biased on its own, but the comment sections are always full of low-tier thinking that just push whatever narrative is currently in the Overton window. What I find distressing is how people remark that a telecom and advertising gia…

I was shocked when news sites started publishing comments as a matter of course. They worked so hard to research and create a 2000 word article that accurately reflects the world (in accordance to their editorial guidelines) using their good name - and then let fReEtHiNkErChAd and 2020BloodInTheStreets chime in at the end. It would be OK if they strictly moderated the comments, but few sites seem to do that.

"They worked so hard to research and create a 2000 word article that accurately reflects the world"

I find this laughable. Many recent articles I've seen are designed to get clicks and have nothing to do with good journalism or research beyond what someone can get from behind a keyboard.

Re: YouTube to Remove Thousands of Videos Pushing Extreme Views

#165

Post by stcredzero » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 5:01 PM UTC

chocolatebunny wrote: post #90

shadowmore wrote: post #25

'“Opinions can be deeply offensive, but if they don’t violate our policies, they’ll remain on our site,” YouTube said in a statement about its decision on Mr. Crowder.' I'm sure those policies will shift stealthily until everything except Baby Shark videos is banned. Left, right or center politically? But a little too spicy for your average 8-year-old? Banned. Gotta keep the Coca-Cola ad execs happy. It's a curious h…

We can always go back to liveleak and vimeo. I think all the youtube I watch would be fine for an 8 year old and I think most of the people who use youtube are the same. The most popular platform should be the most innocuous. But there should be alternatives.

We can always go back to liveleak and vimeo.

Good luck trying to monetize that. Good luck getting viral traction with that. (I will be happy if someone succeeds, because that will be the end of the YouTube monopoly on video commentary.)

Re: YouTube to Remove Thousands of Videos Pushing Extreme Views

#166

Post by redog » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 5:01 PM UTC

rukittenme wrote: post #27

wnevets wrote: post #15

Why do some people think they're entitled to say what they want on youtube?

Because some people view free speech as more than a legal requirement. Its a philosophy of individual rights.

Wait what? The first amendment protections are just a limit on GOVERNMENT power. The right is that THE GOVERNMENT won't prevent your speech. Youtube isn't the government, therefore they can limit the fuck out of your speech when you're on their property.

I think most agree that Government needs to be prevented from preventing our speech not that our neighbors must allow us to grandstand upon their property even if their property is listed as a public place to grandstand. They have been given rights over the venue and we're supposed to be intelligent enough to recognize government activity vs private activity.

Why can't the voice actor of mickey mouse say fuck more often? iTs hIs pHiloSoPhicAl rIGhT!!! Sure, he can say fuck and then get fucking fired.

Re: YouTube to Remove Thousands of Videos Pushing Extreme Views

#167

Post by staunch » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 5:02 PM UTC

Private companies like Google can't be expected to uphold human rights. They will almost always act in their own financial interest. It's up to the citizenry and their elected lawmakers to force them to do what is right.

All it would take is a law that compels public internet services to behave as if they're public services once they start reaching >33% of citizens.

The problem seems to be that a large percentage of citizens don't grasp that important freedoms often have a high price tag. Anyone can see this with the response to second and fourth amendment issues, and the same is becoming true of the first amendment.

Free societies have an inherent amount of chaos. That chaos is the price you pay. People desiring to live in a fully ordered society are unwittingly asking to live in a prison.

Re: YouTube to Remove Thousands of Videos Pushing Extreme Views

#168

Post by guitarbill » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 5:02 PM UTC

AndrewStephens wrote: post #117

In my opinion, sites like YouTube that rely on user generated content should drop any pretense of being neutral - they aren't and never have been. What they have been doing is dodging responsibility for being the publisher of racist and harmful material. I'm sure that YouTube would say that they don't play favorites but even if that were true, as we have seen there are organizations all the way up to nation states th…

But if you editorialise too much, do you lose e.g. safe harbor status? Most edited media is liable.

It's possible their hands are tied here. The copyright strike thing is out of hand, too, but in that case the blame is also on the (often scummy) copyright owners/enforcers. (That isn't to say they don't benefit from keeping advertisers happy, or that their platform/brand won't suffer the consequences of this approach)

Re: YouTube to Remove Thousands of Videos Pushing Extreme Views

#169

Post by happytoexplain » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 5:02 PM UTC

Simulacra wrote: post #125

I strongly disagree banning anyone or any video that does not call for violence. I think it's a slippery slope and smacks of book banning. The information is out there, right or wrong. Who is it to judge what the public should see?

I think that line is just too unsubtle. If that rule, and that rule alone, were applied to practically any platform, it would be overrun with extremely low-quality content (though the entertainment value might increase, for whatever that's worth).

Re: YouTube to Remove Thousands of Videos Pushing Extreme Views

#170

Post by throwaway190605 » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 5:02 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #139

throwaway190605 wrote: post #82

We're not talking about the removal of extreme political views. We're talking about the censorship of one particular ideology. Where is the corresponding elimination of polarizing videos espousing views from the radical left? A wholesale expunction from one end of the spectrum is hard not to interpret as politically charged censorship. Let's see how many Antifa and BLM videos get taken down.

> We're not talking about the removal of extreme political views. Yes we are. You are implying equivalence where there is none. Black Lives Matter and Antifa are not equivalent to white supremacists.

You're arguing with the least interesting part of my point.

Just watch how many radical left videos get removed, irrespective of what group posted them.