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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

#961

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There s no “we” in the IT community, theres the “well funded groupthink” and “the sea of the unknowns”. When did the IT band together to achieve something?

Plenty of times, see the entire open source movement or the cypherpunks, or the browser wars in which Firefox was a major competitor, there must be tons of examples.

[deleted]

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

#962
post #876

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that attitude of customers is changing as we speak. Before, sure, it was easy to ignore the ramblings of how the CCP was upset at something and a western company just gives into them. Now, anti-CCP sentiment is growing. I think western people are starting to realize how different we actually are. The CCP will be blamed for the pandemic (which is mostly correct), and you will see a massive decoupling here in t…

> Now, anti-CCP sentiment is growing. I think western people are starting to realize how different we actually are. I don’t think one logically follows at all. The more I study it, the more I think the US and China are vastly more similar than anyone likes to think about.

intresting, how come?

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

#963
post #406

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

Good luck with that. Their services are essential to my life and I don't think they're doing this dramatic draconian version of censorship everyone thinks. Never seen this kind of hate from the HN crowd towards amazon or apple's manufacturers and warehouse workers working in deplorable conditions, which is far and away the worst thing a company could be doing. Not whatever this is.

they are all despicable to me. I boycott amazon and apple for those reasons. Google is so entrenched in everyone's life that is much harder to let go. And that's why I keep trying to get rid of it... nothing left holds me except the huge amount of google docs that I share with many others

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

#964
post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Youtube is more and more siding towards removing content. I wonder, can US regulators do something about it? A few weeks ago the discussion here was about how YouTube is not removing enough content (mostly in relation to Covid-19). The consensus was pretty much that they do it on purpose because it makes them money. I don’t think YouTube (or any large public content platform) has a winning move in this discussion.…

User configurations. Opt in/out features. This isn't even remotely difficult, and I can't believe people are so obsessed with forcing their opinions on each-other that a live-and-let-live solution does not even occur to them.

> This isn't even remotely difficult

Not technically but in practice it is difficult.

- What happens if I opt out but you reply with an "offensive" word in the thread I'm in?

- If two people are discussing and one uses "offensive" words what do I see? Nothing or one person screaming at the void?

The other problem I see having more confirmation bias. We would have a split in the community between politically correct and incorrect. You'll get deeper in the rabbit hole if you only talk to people that have the same views as you. Regardless of which side of the wall you're at.

Edit: Formatting

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

#965

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about? The impeachment is over. Everyone knows the whistleblower's identity -- it can't be protected. Horse, barn, door.

I actively didn't want to know the identity of this whistle-blower. I wish parent had put the name at the end of the comment so I could skip it entirely. I will not take part in some chilling-effect and/or stochastic terrorism effort (see Ping Pong Pizza incident); I understand why Google, wikipedia and Facebook wouldn't want to be party to that either.

Anyone who wanted to harm Eric Ciaramella could find that his name is Eric Ciaramella with a minute of research. The notion that scrubbing the name Eric Ciaramella from the internet will protect Eric Ciaramella is laughable. The only thing censoring information about Eric Ciaramella does is inhibit debate.

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

#966
post #536

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.

It has been harder and harder every year, and frankly I'm really disheartened and demoralized these days. Articles like this one don't really surprise me anymore. It's not my department, but I feel complicit none-the-less. But when I look out at the tech industry landscape, it is clear that I can do more good from within, because I have more freedom and influence on the work, and I believe that the work is net positi…

What is an example of some good that you have done from within Google?

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

#967

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.

We desperately need a Post Office of internet content. At-cost hosting and completely content-agnostic.

Total content agnosticism is not going to fly once illegal stuff starts getting hosted, and then you go down that sliding scale of what content is allowed vs what isn't. If you ban some highly illegal content, you'll probably need to ban some other illegal content, and then start picking what countries laws count to enforce (recognizing that you'll be banned in some countries if you dont comply), and you'll end up back where you started. If you decide you dont care and will let literally anything be hosted, you might find yourself in jail, and very few people will feel comfortable hosting their content on the same service that hosts some of the most despicable content in the world.

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

#968

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly about a year ago I decided to switch to an iPhone once the "contract" is up. I have used iOS and I didnt find it anymore special, but it isn't really that much different to me to be bothered by using either one. I will also take that moment to ungooglify my life including email and such.

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.

Take a look at https://purelymail.com/ - $10 per year - unlimited domains and aliases.

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

#969
post #601

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more complex than that. Imagine that you are a US company operating in Germany that provides German citizens with an incredible amount of information that wouldn't otherwise be available. You have thousands of people working in Germany. Occasionally, the Nazis ask you to censor things, If you don't, your entire team is at risk and will all loose their employment and citizens of Germany will loose access to an in…

How do you feel about the German proscription on Nazi symbolism/speech? It's not absolute; for example, Mein Kampf is still published in Germany, but in academic critical editions which provide extensive historical information to place it in context.

The restrictions on Nazi symbolism are clearly infringing on freedom of speech, and should be recognized as such.

On the other hand, they are somewhat limited in scope (though not enough to my taste, see video games) and more importantly, understandable in their very specific context. They were arguably needed in the aftermath of WW2 when denazification didn't go as smoothly and naturally as could have been hoped, if only to remove the social proof that Nazism might not have been entirely defeated.

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

#970

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the solution to this is simple: Pay for every service you use. The question was historically then how do teenagers (or the developing world for that matter) pay for electronic services and cue Facebook and Google.

How would that solve the problem at hand (Google having a near-monopoly on search and video)?

Email: Protonmail, Tutanota, etc. Storage: AWS, Box, pCloud, etc. Search: DuckDuckGo, a few open source projects, etc. Video: Not sure if there is one.

My point is just if you pay for something, you are less likely to be gamed for advertising cash.

For search you should be paying for the indexes in some way, or for the algorithms in your company.

I am just presenting this as a philosophy. Not trying to solve the world's problems on a forum.

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