YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Gets 'Freedom Expression' Award Sponsored by YouTube • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Gets 'Freedom Expression' Award Sponsored by YouTube

#51

Post by rurp » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 10:15 PM UTC

TameAntelope wrote: post #39

AlexandrB wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this reflects the fact that no one is particularly happy with Youtube. Between the bans, increasingly aggressive (and abusable) copyright strikes, and constantly shifting rules around content and monetization most Youtubers I watch express unhappiness about some aspect of Youtube on a regular basis. Many have started seeking alternative revenue streams to mitigate platform risk.

I'm sorry, but I simply can't believe that "no one is particularly happy with YouTube" while so many people still use it, including the vast majority of the people who are supposedly "not particularly happy" with it. When people ask, "Why hasn't someone disrupted YouTube?" I think the more boring answer that keeps getting overlooked is that it still meets the expectations of enough users, and the dissatisfied constit…

YouTube's brand and network effects are a huge moat, in a market that is massively expensive to build a competitor in. There are only a handful of companies in the world with the available tech talent and capital to create a serious competitor and they apparently aren't interested in trying to attack that moat at this time.

YouTube can absolutely be widely disliked and keep chugging along for the foreseeable future. All it needs to do is not be so bad that people would rather spend their time on something completely different. There is no BingTube with a robust ecosystem that users can easily jump to.

Re: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Gets 'Freedom Expression' Award Sponsored by YouTube

#52

Post by whereis » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 10:16 PM UTC

Youtube's algo gaslighted me about the suicide of a childhood friend, by picking content that mocked his life after I learned the bad news.

I had already curated my feed to two specific science topics, and the top rec was a blaring million IQ evil AI punching me in the gut with an Iron Fist. I've never been the same since. Florence Nightingale effect.

People such as Wojcicki have poor moral compasses, or they aren't accountable.

Re: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Gets 'Freedom Expression' Award Sponsored by YouTube

#53

Post by Grustaf » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 10:16 PM UTC

jollybean wrote: post #22

Let this be a lesson to all: intelligence does not in any way correlate with self awareness. It's likely that 'smart' people are just as likely to be unaware of their own follies or inabilities, I would argue, maybe more so as a lot of smart people tend to be 'inwardly focused' and less concerned about their direct environment. This kind of thing happens all the time among Exec. level, but normally we'd expect it fro…

I think it says much more about how they see the consumers. They're probably counting on 99% of people not noticing the absurdity of it, or the irony in boasting about your industrial scale censorship when accepting your free speech award.

Re: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Gets 'Freedom Expression' Award Sponsored by YouTube

#54

Post by mc32 » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 10:17 PM UTC

GuB-42 wrote: post #24

Isn't it standard practice not to allow people involved in the process to participate? I mean, even if you deserve it, it is an obvious conflict of interest and makes the award worthless. I mean, if say, Tesla sponsors an electric car award and a Tesla car wins, it will sound like a farce. Even though it would be expected for a Tesla car to win an electric car award in an independent contest.

At least at radio stations they have the decency to not publicly allow their staff to win on-air prizes.

Re: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Gets 'Freedom Expression' Award Sponsored by YouTube

#55

Post by spaetzleesser » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 10:17 PM UTC

They are learning from the entertainment industry. Industry insiders giving each other awards like the Grammy and Oscar.

Re: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Gets 'Freedom Expression' Award Sponsored by YouTube

#56

Post by capableweb » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 10:17 PM UTC

realsimplesynd wrote: post #30

iab wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always think about Richard Feynmans take on awards and honors whenever these things get brought up: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fes-kqRDRoY

I wonder if there is a correlation between being super good and having a disdain for awards or not.

Do you have a disdain for awards?

Re: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Gets 'Freedom Expression' Award Sponsored by YouTube

#57

Post by all2 » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 10:19 PM UTC

whereis wrote: post #52

Youtube's algo gaslighted me about the suicide of a childhood friend, by picking content that mocked his life after I learned the bad news. I had already curated my feed to two specific science topics, and the top rec was a blaring million IQ evil AI punching me in the gut with an Iron Fist. I've never been the same since. Florence Nightingale effect. People such as Wojcicki have poor moral compasses, or they aren't…

I want to hear more about this.

Re: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Gets 'Freedom Expression' Award Sponsored by YouTube

#58

Post by spaetzleesser » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 10:19 PM UTC

speps wrote: post #34

Igelau wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're going to have to be more specific than that :\

He means Obama

Obama’s main achievement at the time he received the Noble was that he wasn’t Bush. Worst peace prize ever.

Re: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Gets 'Freedom Expression' Award Sponsored by YouTube

#59

Post by Grustaf » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 10:20 PM UTC

bsaul wrote: post #3

it almost reads like an oil company sponsoring an environmental ngo working on wildlife preservation.

No it doesn't. Oil companies do that all the time, and it's great that at least of their money go to something worthwhile.

In your analogy, it would be like Shell awarding Shell for its environmental work, while not doing any.

Re: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Gets 'Freedom Expression' Award Sponsored by YouTube

#60

Post by munk-a » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 10:20 PM UTC

jkingsbery wrote: post #33

belval wrote: post #2

This reads like an headline from "The Onion".

There was also an episode of The Office (US) about this. Dwight suggests to Jim he starts an employee-of-the-month award, then rigs it so Jim wins so that everyone turns on Jim. Jim at least had the good sense to decline the award.

We can't really tell what is going on behind the curtain but my optimistic view is that no one in the room realized that receiving this award would have some terrible optics and that the awarders chose YouTube genuinely - if you have a narrow view of the content on there (and nobody sees everything) there are some segments where youtube does try to reinforce free speech sorta... maybe I'm being too charitable though.

My cynical hope though is that Youtube pressured the award committee to give them one for hosting it - please someone in Youtube leak a memo about putting pressure on the committee it would be so absolutely delicious.