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Google is now applying its coronavirus misinformation policies to personal files

reclaimthenet.org

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Re: Google is now applying its coronavirus misinformation policies to personal files

#101

Post by monadic2 »

Barrin92 wrote: post #61

does anyone know who the people behind the reclaimthenet.org domain are? The headline seems intentionally misleading and the entire article is biased, as seems to be the case for most of the site, almost exlcusively focussing on censorship of fringe figures out of conspiracy and far-right political circles. There is no reference to organisations, writers or editors anywhere on this site if I'm not missing anything.

I 100% agree.

Which is a shame, because this conversation does need to happen—we need a figure to argue against tech giants being unilaterally influential in how we use our phones and the internet from a place of good faith.

Re: Google is now applying its coronavirus misinformation policies to personal files

#102

Post by chroem- »

mike503 wrote: post #87
Eduard wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, they could support freedom of speech by not limiting access. They do block access, therefore suppressing freedom of speech. Arguing with "they're just saving resources" is ridiculous, especially when considering Google's wealth.

Also, freedom of speech is not guaranteed on a privately owned platform... not sure why anyone expects that.

Windows 10 is a free subscription, and users don't necessarily own a license of their operating system. Under this precedent, what is to stop Microsoft from deleting problematic files off of users' computers? After all, it's a privately owned platform.

Re: Google is now applying its coronavirus misinformation policies to personal files

#104

Post by pdonis »

icedchai wrote: post #49
drummer wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The future is all about self hosting and/or peer to peer technology not controlled by a central authority.

Self hosting was 20 years ago. Who do you think is better at running a mail server, you or Google? Do you want to deal with spam complaints, security, OS upgrades, DMARC, SPF, etc? It's all a pain. FYI I run my own mail servers as a hobby, but still have my main personal account on gmail.

> Who do you think is better at running a mail server, you or Google?

Neither. My hosting provider is better than either me or Google at that, and there are other companies providing email services who are better still.

What Google is "better" at with GMail is providing email whose suckage is just short of the level of suckage that would make it worth its users' while to give up having to just go to one place, their Google account, for everything in order to have email services that were bearable.

Re: Google is now applying its coronavirus misinformation policies to personal files

#105

Post by herostratus101 »

jrockway wrote: post #54

I don't see any evidence that Google applied a misinformation policy here. It could be that they simply don't want to pay for the bandwidth to serve video without any ads in it. It is a big file and a lot of people want it. That can get super expensive. I don't know how big this file is, but let's say it's a 4GB DVD image. That ties up 1Gbps for 32 seconds, which means that with a 1Gbps link to your server, you can s…

Does Google Drive not charge users based on data transfer? With S3 this would not be an issue, but either the uploader or the downloader (with "requester pays" buckets) would end up covering the cost.

Re: Google is now applying its coronavirus misinformation policies to personal files

#106

Post by heavenlyblue »

In a slightly parallel universe, it’s going to be quite hilarious if all of the decentralised technologies are going to end up being developed by the types of anti-vaxxers, holocaust deniers, neo-nazis because they were the only ones needing them (and not the illusory political dissidents). So in the end it’s going to have a positive impact.

Here’s a supporting example: Snowden didn’t need any of this tech to share it with us. Paedophiles and drug dealers use Tor.

I am not being entirely serious.

Re: Google is now applying its coronavirus misinformation policies to personal files

#107

Post by badlucklottery »

mike503 wrote: post #87
Eduard wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, they could support freedom of speech by not limiting access. They do block access, therefore suppressing freedom of speech. Arguing with "they're just saving resources" is ridiculous, especially when considering Google's wealth.

Also, freedom of speech is not guaranteed on a privately owned platform... not sure why anyone expects that.

A lot of "free speech advocates" like to engage in redefinition when it comes to free speech.

It becomes some ill-defined ideal that's basically "freedom from consequences of speech" instead of the strict legal definition.

Re: Google is now applying its coronavirus misinformation policies to personal files

#108

Post by amanaplanacanal »

virmundi wrote: post #62
tinus_hn wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have the right to stop hosting whatever they are hosting for any reason or no reason at all. What makes you think they can be forced to host your files?

The implicit idea that they are not a publisher. Now they are. They should lose their protections.

Given the number of conservatives in congress, it's surprising that they won't sponsor some legislation like this. But they seem to be more interested in protecting business interests.

Re: Google is now applying its coronavirus misinformation policies to personal files

#109

Post by hkt »

It seems to me that if Google (and the other platforms) don't tackle this kind of thing, the state _somewhere_ will. It only takes one country to make distribution of this stuff illegal or close to it, and that will amount to an edge of self regulation for the tech giants. They don't want that, so they do something to prevent it.

Re: Google is now applying its coronavirus misinformation policies to personal files

#110

Post by izacus »

Barrin92 wrote: post #61

does anyone know who the people behind the reclaimthenet.org domain are? The headline seems intentionally misleading and the entire article is biased, as seems to be the case for most of the site, almost exlcusively focussing on censorship of fringe figures out of conspiracy and far-right political circles. There is no reference to organisations, writers or editors anywhere on this site if I'm not missing anything.

It even quotes Bezos financed Washington Post as a source of their information. WaPo is full of biased, misleading and downright untrue articles about Google and some other Amazon competitors.
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