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Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube

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Re: Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube

#41

Post by missosoup »

There was a previous unrelated discussion about this just a few hours ago which was climbing to the top of the front page when I saw it. And then just vanished: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23221264

It's not flagged, it just went from #13 on the front page to invisible. In a single refresh. How does that work? Looking at the votes and age, it should be in the top 5 of both Ask and the front page. What's the metric or decision that made it disappear?

@dang might be worth commenting on this? Moderation is fine, opaque removal of content with no explanation, not so much. I fully believe @dang has the best interests of the community in mind, so please give us a clear explanation of what's going on here.

Re: Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube

#42

Post by mmhsieh »

The netizens of China have come up with very clever code talk to get around censors. For instance, Hu Jintao's surname can be broken up into the Chinese radicals for "Old Moon." So instead of Hu, they refer to him as Old Moon, etc. I wonder if non-Chinese Google users will be doing the same thing soon.

Re: Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube

#44

Post by macspoofing »

nunodonato wrote: post #9

wow, three "google bans/deletes" on the frontpage today. Its never too early to start ditching everything google.

To be fair, Google is in a no-win situation. Post-2016 election, there has been enormous pressure put on Google (and Facebook and Twitter) to ramp up their censorship from the anti-Trump center/center-left/left. The mainstream media is on it too and relishes taking shots at social media every chance they get (the YouTube 'adpocalypse' was spurned by a hit piece by Washington Post against some minor doofus thing that PewdiePie did, and explicitly targetted advertisers of YouTube).

Even tech commentators are in on it. Kara Swisher, for example, has been railing at social media companies every chance she gets to get them to ramp up censorship against things she deems offensive.

Re: Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube

#45

Post by grimjack00 »

buckminstrix wrote: post #30

In other news, Youtube will soon be coming to China. Pick your adventure, which do you want? Youtube in CN or write whatever you like? You'll also get videos deleted if you include in them info against WHO advice.

Which gets interesting when advice changes.

Re: Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube

#50

Post by mmhsieh »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #32

How far does this go? How far could it go? Can one take out an ad with "共匪" in the text? Adwords against it? Is this censored on Orkut? Would Google consider censoring Gmail? Or Google Voice? Would they consider bleeping Google Meets? Google will need to be very public about who signed off on this and under what framework.

What if "共匪" is presented graphically? Do the sniffers have the image recognition to flag those too?
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