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YouTube takes down Xinjiang videos, forcing rights group to seek alternative

reuters.com

71–80 of 269 posts

Re: YouTube takes down Xinjiang videos, forcing rights group to seek alternative

#71
>The group, credited by international organizations like Human Rights Watch for drawing attention to human rights violations in Xinjiang, has come under fire from Kazakh authorities since its founding in 2017.

it seem like a legit group. do Youtube even talk to the group about their video so they have a chance to redo/review the videos? what's the rule here?

Re: YouTube takes down Xinjiang videos, forcing rights group to seek alternative

#72
post #22

No worries, Google will just sponsor a human rights award and award it to themselves to help them feel better about enabling human rights violations. They have the playbook perfected. [0] [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26880262

YouTube cares about human rights because they'll deny genocide but at least for pride week they animated a gay pride parade on the YouTube logo in the app. Isn't that true human rights work after all?

Re: YouTube takes down Xinjiang videos, forcing rights group to seek alternative

#73
post #22

No worries, Google will just sponsor a human rights award and award it to themselves to help them feel better about enabling human rights violations. They have the playbook perfected. [0] [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26880262

War is peace.

quote from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four for those unaware

Re: YouTube takes down Xinjiang videos, forcing rights group to seek alternative

#74
post #7

I'm sure YT is going to trot out some stock reason for not re-instating the videos. But this is pathetic. When YT goes on a bandwagon for some cause or other, this doesn't happen, but it appears to happen when the politics don't align with either their own politics or may offend one of their markets or their sponsors. So, I guess it's their platform and they can do what they want, but there is a danger that this will…

China isn't even a market for them since YouTube is blocked. That's what makes this even more pathetic.

China is a market for Google as a whole, even if not YouTube. Just one more fun side-effect of bundling all our services under megaconglomerates.

Re: YouTube takes down Xinjiang videos, forcing rights group to seek alternative

#75

Conspiracy nuts and other unsavory members from fringe communities do make for odd bedfellows when one is being actively censored, thus why I am loathe to promote Bitchute et al. Best second alternative would be their own Peertube instance, but that of course requires them to put up their own infrastructure.

Q: What's the difference between fake news / conspiracy theories and the real news? A: About 8 months. Sure this joke is an exaggeration, but occurrences like this seem to be getting more common. Sometimes it's much longer than 8 months. The informed reader can fill in the blanks. One very big problem is YT and other content providers intentionally provide recommendations to reinforce confirmation biases of the viewe…

It’s past reinforcement bias and moved into picking winners.

Re: YouTube takes down Xinjiang videos, forcing rights group to seek alternative

#76
post #7

I'm sure YT is going to trot out some stock reason for not re-instating the videos. But this is pathetic. When YT goes on a bandwagon for some cause or other, this doesn't happen, but it appears to happen when the politics don't align with either their own politics or may offend one of their markets or their sponsors. So, I guess it's their platform and they can do what they want, but there is a danger that this will…

> it's their platform and they can do what they want this is not true for monopolies, AT&T can't disconnect your line because they don't like what you're saying on your calls.

AT&T is a common carrier. You'd have to, I don't know, get Youtube categorized as a common carrier. It's not like that's controversial a fight that Google has won every time it's come up. It's not like there are laws in places like NY that explicitly exempt information systems from being considered common carriers.

We're a long way from being able to casually make a comparison between AT&T and Youtube that will be taken seriously.

Re: YouTube takes down Xinjiang videos, forcing rights group to seek alternative

#77
post #22

No worries, Google will just sponsor a human rights award and award it to themselves to help them feel better about enabling human rights violations. They have the playbook perfected. [0] [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26880262

From the thread:

“Usually when that kind of corporate feelgood bullshit happens though, it's not publicized and isn't done in such an in your face, 'lol fuck you everybody' kind of way.”

Counterpoint: Automotive industry awards?

Re: YouTube takes down Xinjiang videos, forcing rights group to seek alternative

#78
post #7

I'm sure YT is going to trot out some stock reason for not re-instating the videos. But this is pathetic. When YT goes on a bandwagon for some cause or other, this doesn't happen, but it appears to happen when the politics don't align with either their own politics or may offend one of their markets or their sponsors. So, I guess it's their platform and they can do what they want, but there is a danger that this will…

> it's their platform and they can do what they want this is not true for monopolies, AT&T can't disconnect your line because they don't like what you're saying on your calls.

[deleted]

Re: YouTube takes down Xinjiang videos, forcing rights group to seek alternative

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies that do business with the US .gov should be req’d to apply 1st amendment rights to their users. Much like public universities who receive taxpayer funding.

Public universities can kick you out for expressing your 1st amendment right based off of whatever bs reason they want to give just to expel you. Likewise also, teachers can fail you just because they don't like you or you hold certain views. Public universities are as fair about granting your constitutional rights as the US government. At that is, only when you beat them in court.

> Public universities can kick you out for expressing your 1st amendment right based off of whatever bs reason they want to give just to expel you.

Yeah, and a company can fire you for being black if they give a bs excuse for it too. In both of these cases your rights are being violated and you can sue them for that. What's the alternative? I can't conceive of a system where it's impossible for your rights to be violated; giving legal recourse to the victim seems like the best we can do.

Re: YouTube takes down Xinjiang videos, forcing rights group to seek alternative

#80
Honest question- what is Google's exposure here? Both Youtube and Google (Youtube's parent company) are blocked in China; those revenue streams were cut off a long time ago. What does Google have to lose by letting Youtube keep the videos up?

I'm sure the exposure exists; I recognize that Googlers aren't stupid. I honestly am just curious what that risk is. Having lived in Shanghai for 5 years, I don't see China reversing their ban on either company anytime soon, so I'm curious what carrot and/or stick China has left.

So far, the one thing I can think of is their physical office presence in Beijing / Guangzhou / Hong Kong [0]. That risk is non-trivial- China could simply swoop in and arrest employees, either specific individuals or en masse (neither would surprise me). But are there other risks I'm missing?

0. https://about.google/intl/en_us/locations/?region=asia-pacif...

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