Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 269 posts

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

#161

Post by draw_down »

sneak wrote: post #158
jeswin wrote: post #134

I doubt this was YouTube policy, or that it was driven from the top. If it was, we'd have seen a few leaks. This is more likely mass reporting of such content (perhaps organized by State apparatus), exploiting the automated flagging algorithm. In any case, I hope Google takes a stand now.

Google wants back in to China, antagonizing the CCP is not on their agenda. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly_(search_engine) > The Dragonfly project was an Internet search engine prototype created by Google that was designed to be compatible with China's state censorship provisions.[1][2][3] The public learned of Dragonfly's existence in August 2018, when The Intercept leaked an internal memo written by a Goog…

So, your evidence that Google wants into China is that their project for entry into China has been terminated. Alrighty.

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

#162

Post by gre »

elefanten wrote: post #159
gre wrote: post #140

There's a statistic that polled Americans with 83% "approving of action against China" [1] if covid was made in a Chinese lab. This story was floated early during covid and rejected, but because the US is trying to manufacture consent for action against China it's gotten a second wind. Also the Adrian Zenz "genocide" is part of the same attempt. Don't fall for it. [1] https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking…

Adrian Zenz’s work is a generation-leading project in uncovering human rights violations and promoting human freedom. Your empty pot shot notwithstanding.

Read some of this stuff and report back!

https://www.hexbear.net/post/2361/comment/17793

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

#163

Post by throwawayboise »

slumdev wrote: post #151
toomanyrichies wrote: post #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 reve…

> what is Google's exposure here? They want in. They really want in. And they're not alone. Google and every other company dream that, one day, the Great Firewall will come down, and they'll suddenly have a billion more customers. They have a great financial incentive (like every other company) to ignore the Uyghur genocide and the literal concentration camps in Xinjiang.

Fast forward a few decades and they will be like IBM who sold tabluating machines to the Nazis.

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

#164

Post by roenxi »

jeswin wrote: post #134

I doubt this was YouTube policy, or that it was driven from the top. If it was, we'd have seen a few leaks. This is more likely mass reporting of such content (perhaps organized by State apparatus), exploiting the automated flagging algorithm. In any case, I hope Google takes a stand now.

> If it was, we'd have seen a few leaks.

What would there be to leak? Google has taken a very activist stance on moderating their content (probably driven in part by global pressure from a large range of governments). They are actively enforcing their views of what is and isn't true as has been a hot-button political topic through the Coronavirus pandemic.

There wouldn't be anything to leak even if they took a more invasive approach and started taking the Chinese government's word for who is and isn't a terrorist organisation. It is reasonable to treat the Chinese government as a source of authoritative truth, even if the average American doesn't trust them. Just enforcing a PII policy is nothing compared to what is possible here.

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

#165

Post by tablespoon »

gre wrote: post #148
tablespoon wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to echo this dead comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27647592 > But I assume it was Adrian Zenz who was throughly discredited in [1] Zenz isn't discredited, it's just the PRC propaganda apparatus is trying its hardest to smear him as part of their coverup. Also thegrayzone.com is so unreliable that it was banned from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Per... . > Grayzo…

Can you link some more sources about the gray zone? Being banned from Wikipedia just makes sense because they are a blog and not a primary source. I would like to see a writeup of what they get wrong because their podcast Moderate Rebels [1] is very informative and well-researched. [1] https://soundcloud.com/moderaterebels

> Can you link some more sources about the gray zone? Being banned from Wikipedia just makes sense because they are a blog and not a primary source.

IIRC, it was mainly banned because "there is consensus that The Grayzone publishes false or fabricated information" (as the summary states). I believe this was one of the examples: https://www.thedailybeast.com/in-nicaragua-torture-is-used-t... (Grayzone presenting the forced confession of an anti-regime activist as legitimate). Here's another about Max Blumenthal himself fabricating a quote: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/12/di.... There were questions about its editorial oversight, but those were secondary. Basically it's one of those sites, like RT, that has a political position and has little problem with pushing disinformation to support it.

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

#166

Post by bserge »

slumdev wrote: post #151
toomanyrichies wrote: post #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 reve…

> what is Google's exposure here? They want in. They really want in. And they're not alone. Google and every other company dream that, one day, the Great Firewall will come down, and they'll suddenly have a billion more customers. They have a great financial incentive (like every other company) to ignore the Uyghur genocide and the literal concentration camps in Xinjiang.

But they're not getting in. Why would the CCP allow it? They support Chinese companies.

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

#168

Post by elefanten »

gre wrote: post #162
elefanten wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adrian Zenz’s work is a generation-leading project in uncovering human rights violations and promoting human freedom. Your empty pot shot notwithstanding.

Read some of this stuff and report back! https://www.hexbear.net/post/2361/comment/17793

I’ve seen this kind of crap all over Twitter and other social media. Always these galaxy brain compilation threads that rely on the reader not clicking any links. It’s loosely cobbled together, spurious trash.

Eg- first section, the “investigations” are heavily stage-managed by CCP guides, just like WHO/Wuhan. They usually look at some one specific place, like the World Bank covering it’s ass on a particular vocational school project it funded.

These threads are always full of holes, broken logic and twisted context.

But Zenz hardly matters. There’s far too many sources and data streams from others for this to hinge on Zenz.

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

#170

Post by strangeattractr »

Aunche wrote: post #123
strangeattractr wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a completely facile comparison. They earn money by plastering ads over user submitted content. Hosting those videos is hardly some act of social conscience, why would they be owed praise in addition to the advertising revenues they receive. It's hardly prescient to predict outrage when one of the largest companies in the world that wields almost unparalleled control over the information consumed by people decide…

> Hosting those videos is hardly some act of social conscience, why would they be owed praise in addition to the advertising revenues they receive. If you treat them as neutral pursuers of profit for doing something "good", then, it's only fair to treat them as neutral pursuers of profit when they do something "evil". Let me remind that that early on, internet companies were all almost completely pro-free speech. It'…

Yes exactly, they are pursuers of profit. When they host the videos it merely aligns with their profit motives. When they block something it is because it interferes with their profit motives. I have no issue with this whatsoever, it's what I expect.

I'm curious how this negates the criticism of them rather than enhances the case for it? We cannot trust Google to behave in the public interest (information about human rights abuses qualifies in my mind) when it conflicts with their own interests. Hence people's dismay over the amount of control they wield over the distribution of information.

Do you think a news org that wiped coverage of Uighur repression from its site to protect its business in China wouldn't face similar outrage? And they wield significantly less power than Google does.

Tech companies in particular like to present themselves as enlightened and socially conscious. Hardly surprising that when the mask slips people are outraged.

Post reply on HN