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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

#771

Post by freeflight »

koheripbal wrote: post #112

I think a more fundamental problem is a single private company having a near-monopoly on various public communication channels, and having financial interests in various global dictatorships. The Founding Fathers could not have predicted this. Google's "We're a private company" get-out-jail-free card cannot continue to apply.

It's not only Google, some argue we have been slowly moving from an Internet to a Trinet where GOOG-FB-AMZN control the majority of the web traffic while staying out of each others way [0]

[0] https://staltz.com/the-web-began-dying-in-2014-heres-how.htm...

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

#772

Post by klyrs »

koheripbal wrote: post #715
klyrs wrote: post #613

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a problem with monopolies, not censorship. When private companies are forced to publish content, you have fundamentally lost the notion of a free press.

I don't entirely agree that companies operating public discussion forums is equivalent to "forced speech", but I do agree that the problem can be fixed by eliminating the monopoly/oligopoly.

Forbidding companies from moderating the content on their own public forums is forced speech. An easy test is when government officials participate in those forums: if you must publish what the government tells you to, that's literally forced speech.

Similarly, the Fairness Doctrine was overruled because requiring companies to air opinions they disagreed with was found to infringe free speech.

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

#773

Post by smsm42 »

SilasX wrote: post #582
subsubzero wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here are some numbers to keep you up at night, they are very scary: Google controls 91.89% of the search market [1] G controls 68% of the browser market [2] G's android is on 84% of phones operating systems [3] G has 73% of the search advertising market [4] [1] https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share [2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/544400/market-share-of-i... [3] https://beta.trimread.com/articl…

At risk of nitpicking, why do say "controls" rather than e.g. "services" or "handles"? When you say "controls" it's like you're saying Google has some kind of monopoly power that makes it hard to switch. And yet anyone can easily switch to e.g. DuckDuckGo. If that's a monopoly, it's not quite the kind of a monopoly we should generally be worried about. Browsers would be a different issue. In that case, there are netw…

> When you say "controls" it's like you're saying Google has some kind of monopoly power that makes it hard to switch

No, "controls" means decides the rules and what is happening on that part of the market. Any number that is not 100% automatically implies it's not a perfect monopoly and it's possible to switch, but once you are within the area controlled by Google, it's Google's rules. Including removal any content Google doesn't like for any reason, blocking any action Google doesn't like for any reason, etc. So for 91% of the searches, Google decides what you can and can't see.

Google hasn't leveraged their ownership of the browser to enact censorship (frequently on behalf of most vile dictatorships) yet as far as I know (surveillance is another mater) but it certainly did and is using its control over search, advertising, video hosting, etc. markets to do that.

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

#774

Post by three_seagrass »

gentleman11 wrote: post #762
three_seagrass wrote: post #633

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the perennial discussion on HN as HN'ers get popularity confused with monopoly. I get the anti-Google sentiment but outside of the Play services agreements that Google got dinged for with Android manufacturers, they're not being anti-competitive. If Google were to block search results to DuckDuckGo for example, that would be monopolistic and warrant antitrust action. As it is now, Google isn't blocking compet…

They do deliberately slow their sites on Firefox, as has been discussed in many past hn articles. YouTube for example. Pardon my lack of references, you should confirm for yourself with a hn search in case I am mistaken

IIRC that's because YT switched to polymer, and since Mozilla doesn't support the new shadow dom APIs yet, YT serves it with the older version.

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

#775

Post by thekyle »

tekstar wrote: post #581
subsubzero wrote: post #560

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did the same a few years back, use duck duck go for search, iphone for phone, apple maps for directions, firefox|safari|brave for browser, it is really easy to get google out of your life, only thing I am still looking to replace is mail, if anyone has found something that is free(or relatively cheap) and is reliable I'd love to know.

What is your alternative to YouTube?

LBRY recently launched a web interface.

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

#776

Post by janee »

Scrolling through all this I still can't find an explanation. Can anyone shed light on the context of this slur?

From my ignorant perspective I just don't understand why it would necessitate a takedown.

Is it aimed at the whole country, some subset of people, the party, communism in general??

I don't get it.

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

#778

Post by juiyout »

Flantastical wrote: post #499
manigandham wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution is to realize "hate speech" is mostly subjective and revert back to the clear rules that we had last decade before the current political climate of gratuitous outrage.

I think part of the issue is the power of comments like yours that pretends there's a simple solution. In some conversations bad actors can gain more power in a debate using misleading information than a good actor can by using the truth. Most conversations, such as this one about free speech, are so complex that it's tough for a 'good actor' to offer solutions. They may discuss the pros / cons of each side, talk abo…

Is bad actor bad because they use misleading information?

Is good actor good because they use truth?

What is good/bad actor?

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

#779

Post by throwaway888abc »

subsubzero wrote: post #472
koheripbal wrote: post #112

I think a more fundamental problem is a single private company having a near-monopoly on various public communication channels, and having financial interests in various global dictatorships. The Founding Fathers could not have predicted this. Google's "We're a private company" get-out-jail-free card cannot continue to apply.

Here are some numbers to keep you up at night, they are very scary: Google controls 91.89% of the search market [1] G controls 68% of the browser market [2] G's android is on 84% of phones operating systems [3] G has 73% of the search advertising market [4] [1] https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share [2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/544400/market-share-of-i... [3] https://beta.trimread.com/articl…

Really hope the decentralized tech stack will get there over time. Fingers crossed.

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

#780

Post by vonmoltke »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #611
fieryscribe wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever the government decides, they rarely, if ever, provide an explanation or recourse either: the Patriot Act, Ahmad Arbury, TBTF, the assassination of Awlaki, snooping on Americans, Operation Fast and the Furious, the Pentagon's missing billions, Epstein's death, etc. I'm as pro-democracy as they come, but the belief that the government is somehow (and always) more accountable than companies strains credulity. C…

Accountability to wallstreet = accountability to consumers? Where is this idea even coming from? Can you name a single instance of Wallstreet punishing anti-consumer practices? Did AT&T selling of customer location data affect stock price? All your examples are from defence. I've been watching people challenge in court every kind of decision, from roadbuilding to Brexit. But tech companies circumvent laws, uber is no…

> All your examples are from defence.

Half of those examples have nothing to do with the DOD. One of them (Ahmad Arbury) has nothing to do with the federal government at all. Where did you get this idea from?

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