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Google removes over 5M reviews from Play Store to improve TikTok rating

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Re: Google removes over 5M reviews from Play Store to improve TikTok rating

#23
I just stumbled on a site that heavily leans on the “tech is censoring Trump” angle, namely this article about Google taking down a study on Hydroxycholoquine. I thought of posting it to front page, but instead I can just attach to this other timely thread of Google being evil/censors.

Genuinely curious about info people have around this, if it is legit or not. It seems like something you’d have expected to see here front page, but then again this site leans left.

https://defyccc.com/google-deleted-covid19-cure-paper/

Re: Google removes over 5M reviews from Play Store to improve TikTok rating

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there was no China Vs India. Just Tiktok vs Youtube - really Indian Youtube and Tiktok content creators dissing each other...

I just meant that Tiktok is a chinese owned company (and therefore state-owned). China has forced companies to do similar things before.

Right, by strong-arming businesses with the threat of not having access to the Chinese market - i.e. forcing Apple to move Chinese citizen cloud data to government-owned data centers.

Google doesn't even have access to China so there's no financial motivation.

Re: Google removes over 5M reviews from Play Store to improve TikTok rating

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just meant that Tiktok is a chinese owned company (and therefore state-owned). China has forced companies to do similar things before.

Right, by strong-arming businesses with the threat of not having access to the Chinese market - i.e. forcing Apple to move Chinese citizen cloud data to government-owned data centers. Google doesn't even have access to China so there's no financial motivation.

In 2018 google demonstrated interest in re-entering the chinese market: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly_(search_engine)

It wouldn't be a stretch to assume there's something going on behind the scenes that China could use to force Google's hand. I'm not saying that's what happened but that is a possible response I was thinking about when writing my original comment.

Re: Google removes over 5M reviews from Play Store to improve TikTok rating

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just meant that Tiktok is a chinese owned company (and therefore state-owned). China has forced companies to do similar things before.

Right, by strong-arming businesses with the threat of not having access to the Chinese market - i.e. forcing Apple to move Chinese citizen cloud data to government-owned data centers. Google doesn't even have access to China so there's no financial motivation.

And yet...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23305149

Re: Google removes over 5M reviews from Play Store to improve TikTok rating

#27

I just stumbled on a site that heavily leans on the “tech is censoring Trump” angle, namely this article about Google taking down a study on Hydroxycholoquine. I thought of posting it to front page, but instead I can just attach to this other timely thread of Google being evil/censors. Genuinely curious about info people have around this, if it is legit or not. It seems like something you’d have expected to see here…

It looks fake. Would a real medical researcher refer to SARS-CoV-2 as "coronavirus" in the title, as if they didn't know there were other common human coronaviruses? Why are they publishing on Google Drive instead of MedrXiv? Why is the last author a lawyer? Why does it say "Stanford PhD" in the byline? Dr. Broker (the first author) does seem to have been doing biomedical research at UAB last year (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336977942_Targeting... is a legitimate virology research paper he worked on, which doesn't make obvious errors like the above), but https://web.archive.org/web/20200403213718/https://www.uab.e... suggests he was gone by April 3. https://www.peakprosperity.com/forum-topic/chloroquine-hoax/ says he was born in 1944, so he'd be 76?

Hmm, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8143845/Malaria-cur... says, "Professor Thomas Broker, who was named in the 'white paper' before it was removed from Google, asked for his name to be disassociated with it, while the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he works, said a claim that Nobel Prize winner Dr. Louise Chow's laboratory was involved was also false."

"…the university's public relations manager Bob Shepard added that Dr. Chow, a Nobel-prize winner mentioned in the acknowledgments, was no part of the study.

"'No one at UAB has any connection to this paper,' Shepard said.

"Shepard said that Broker 'had previously done research into chloroquine as a possible therapy for human papillomavirus' which is more commonly known as HPV.

"Shepard said: 'He had some contact with one of the authors of that paper at that time. He had no involvement with the work on coronavirus and is not affiliated with that research in any way.'"

Now, I don't want to depend on the Daily Mail, but it seems like they may happen to have been correct in this case.

Re: Google removes over 5M reviews from Play Store to improve TikTok rating

#28
post #27

I just stumbled on a site that heavily leans on the “tech is censoring Trump” angle, namely this article about Google taking down a study on Hydroxycholoquine. I thought of posting it to front page, but instead I can just attach to this other timely thread of Google being evil/censors. Genuinely curious about info people have around this, if it is legit or not. It seems like something you’d have expected to see here…

It looks fake. Would a real medical researcher refer to SARS-CoV-2 as "coronavirus" in the title, as if they didn't know there were other common human coronaviruses? Why are they publishing on Google Drive instead of MedrXiv? Why is the last author a lawyer? Why does it say "Stanford PhD" in the byline? Dr. Broker (the first author) does seem to have been doing biomedical research at UAB last year ( https://www.resea…

Yea would like to see source outside DailyMail.

Also to people downvoting, why? I’m not backing the source, I’m just curious.

Re: Google removes over 5M reviews from Play Store to improve TikTok rating

#29
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks fake. Would a real medical researcher refer to SARS-CoV-2 as "coronavirus" in the title, as if they didn't know there were other common human coronaviruses? Why are they publishing on Google Drive instead of MedrXiv? Why is the last author a lawyer? Why does it say "Stanford PhD" in the byline? Dr. Broker (the first author) does seem to have been doing biomedical research at UAB last year ( https://www.resea…

Yea would like to see source outside DailyMail. Also to people downvoting, why? I’m not backing the source, I’m just curious.

Probably because you said "Trump".

Re: Google removes over 5M reviews from Play Store to improve TikTok rating

#30
post #18

Google did this as part of review integrity. Doesn't have anything to do with censorship, as far as i can tell. disclaimer: ex-google employee, who did not work in play.

Work in play, heh...

Silly puns aside though, I definitely agree with your viewpoint.

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