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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

#861

Post by [deleted] »

jakebasile wrote: post #487
exo-pla-net wrote: post #320

YouTube filtering slurs and hateful memes is not surprising. They would target anything that gets spammed and reduces the quality of discourse (such as it is on YouTube). I see no evidence that China is getting any special treatment here. It was the subject of hateful spam, so now it gets a filter. Same would apply to any other country or topic. From my perspective, the absolutist "freedom of speech"/anti-censorship…

Who decides what is intelligent, well-reasoned critique? Those in power have an incentive to categorize anything that threatens them as "hate speech" or "obscene" or "threatening to the social order".

[deleted]

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

#862

Post by newacct583 »

macspoofing wrote: post #183
newacct583 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off topic, but this framing really struck me: > the anti-Trump center/center-left/left So... basically everyone who isn't a Trump supporter, then? Is that really how you see the world? The president of the united states vs. literally everyone else? And you've chosen the political side instead of the social consensus?

>So... basically everyone who isn't a Trump supporter, then? No. There are plenty of non-Trump supporters[1] who don't care for YouTube censorship. However, the calls for censorship and pressure on social media companies came as a result of the panic-induced from Trump's election and Russian election interference, which does correlate with anti-Trump voices, more specifically Democratic party establishment and their…

> Democrats in Congress are cracking down on social media is by far a much bigger deal

What legislation are you talking about? I mean... they only have one house of congress. I'm sure there's some rhetoric somewhere, but it's just rhetoric.

I mean, the POTUS himself routinely calls for censorship of the news media, but it's likewise "just rhetoric" because he can't unilaterally pass laws (though he can come closer than the house can). Does that not trigger your same logic? If not, why not?

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

#863

Post by knolax »

philwelch wrote: post #637
shadowgovt wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But is it replaced with "I'm an American company?" There's a deep rabbit-hole of hyper-nationalism right next to the deep rabbit-hole of hyper-corporatism. Does a YouTube beholden to the US government get banned from being used in China at all? And if it does, what happens when China creates a competing product that is more successful than YouTube, and YouTube gets displaced globally by a product that is beholden to…

I don’t consider that likely. There are many Chinese social media properties inside the Great Firewall but they haven’t ever had much success outside of it. Think about it, if a Chinese social media site could outcompete YouTube, they would just do it already anyway. If they can’t, they have to either block YouTube and have a Chinese clone propped up by an effectively protectionist policy or else try and get YouTube…

tiktok.

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

#864

Post by AdrianB1 »

gabaix wrote: post #63

Youtube is in a tough spot. They will be blamed: - if they don't take down speech some consider hateful - if they take down speech some do not consider hateful 共匪 is seen as an insult by a group, but others do not. If Youtube bans nothing, then hate speech thrives and they get bad PR. If Youtube bans anything anyone flags as hate speech, then they become de facto as censorship agents for foreign powers. Anything crit…

>> I wonder, can US regulators do something about it?

No. 1st Amendment protects hate speech ("Effectively, the Supreme Court unanimously reaffirmed that there is no 'hate speech' exception to the First Amendment."), but this applies only to government, private companies or people can do whatever they want. Not great, but better than the obvious alternatives.

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

#865

Post by akersten »

bosswipe wrote: post #766
akersten wrote: post #517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those "equal time" laws, more collectively the Fairness Doctrine, was struck down as unconstitutional because it forced broadcasters to host speech they did not agree with. Why would we expect to be able to force Google to host speech they disagree with?

The Fairness Doctrine was not struck down as unconstitutional by the courts, the supreme court upheld it several times. It was Reagan's FCC that unilaterally struck it down. And that led directly to the rise in prominence of right-wing talk starting with Rush Limbaugh which became the template for other right-wing broadcasts including Fox News.

My mistake, it was indeed undone by the FCC rather than the courts. I could have sworn it was undone by SCOTUS, but I guess a refresher is needed every once in a while.

Regardless, I think the main point from the proceedings is: it was only found constitutional because of limited airwaves available (i.e. physical constraint of the medium, or exclusive government licensing). The same rule would not be constitutional if it applied broadly to "the press."[0]

In that sense, my point remains: there's nothing intrinsically exclusive about the medium of Google's websites that would prevent another from competing for the same "airwaves" (other than their perceived popularity), so a requirement that Google shares its "airtime" with others would not be supported by the precedent.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine#Decision...

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

#866

Post by wwarner »

humaid wrote: post #59

Similar happens with the name "Eric Ciaramella", which YouTube instantly deletes. This is a name of a CIA whistle blower. It would be interesting to know what other words are in the YouTube censor list.

Wow. But this case raises the additional point that the subject definitely wants, deserves and is legally entitled to anonymity.

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

#867

Post by pnw_hazor »

ddevault wrote: post #38

Google & YouTube employees on HN: how do you justify still working at this company? Enough of the cognitive dissonance. Face your choices and tell me how you square yourself with them. For shame.

Be careful, HN put a severe post limit on my account for asking this question in threads about Google misdeeds.

The best answer to your question I received from a Google employee, is that the pay is good and the work is interesting.

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

#868

Post by three_seagrass »

heavyset_go wrote: post #854
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…

A monopoly is not a lack of other options.

Nope. A monopoly is definitely the lack of other options for suppliers, i.e. a single supplier.

Conversely, a monopsony is the lack of other options for buyers. Words matter.

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

#869

Post by dang »

ccktlmazeltov wrote: post #830
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.

Am I crazy or was there a comment in this thread calling out the moderators of HN and their own censorship? Did it disappear as well?

The thread you're referring to is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23223555. There is ample explanation there of what happened.

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

#870

Post by three_seagrass »

gowld wrote: post #756
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…

You are one of those confused HNers. Monopoly power is different from abuse of monopoly power . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly#Establishing_dominanc...

Right, hence the statement about anti-competitive behavior. GP is saying Google is a monopoly based on marketshare though, not monopolistic action, which is not correct.
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