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

Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 256 posts

Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#21

Post by Zenst »

I read the article and shame the BBC went for the small sound-bite click-bait title. Most of the article is about other aspects, from AI, Quantum computing, corporation TAX and the title per-say does not do the article justice.

With that in mind, it seems most comments appear along the lines of a response to the title and not the content and is just going to clog Dang up with work.

I personally found the aspect and questioning about corporation TAX more insightful and perhaps would of been a better sound-bite of a title.

Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#22

Post by [deleted] »

bsmith0 wrote: post #10
Sophistifunk wrote: post #2

From where I sit the #1 risk to the free and open internet these days is Google. Edit: two reasons: 1) Because adtech is destroying society. Surveillance is never good. Ads as funding smears absolutely everything with perverse incentives that act consistently against both the explicit wishes and implicit best-interests of the viewers, and (it seems moreso every year) society at large. 2) Google is doing everything it…

These are the most predictable HN comments

[deleted]

Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#23

Post by MattGaiser »

Sophistifunk wrote: post #2

From where I sit the #1 risk to the free and open internet these days is Google. Edit: two reasons: 1) Because adtech is destroying society. Surveillance is never good. Ads as funding smears absolutely everything with perverse incentives that act consistently against both the explicit wishes and implicit best-interests of the viewers, and (it seems moreso every year) society at large. 2) Google is doing everything it…

Ahead of all the regulation happy governments, the walled gardens, and spam/trolls making areas of the web that are not resourced largely unusable?

Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#24

Post by threatofrain »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #8
throwawaysea wrote: post #6

This article feels like a rosy, uncritical review of Google under Pichai. Even the opening sentence here is full of tone deaf hypocrisy: > [Sundar Pichai] says many countries are restricting the flow of information, and the model is often taken for granted. Like when Google, with more influence than most countries, censors content on YouTube or the Google App Store? Google’s manipulation of information amounts to pol…

Google doesn't give interviews with executives to outlets that ask critical questions. (Neither does Apple, pretty famously.) Executive interviews tend to lean more towards press releases than journalism.

MKBHD can be very critical of Apple.

Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#25

Post by bpodgursky »

ditonal wrote: post #17
bsmith0 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are the most predictable HN comments

The article is a fluff piece that's comically uncritical of Google. There's obvious hypocrisy for a company that's done all sorts of user-antagonistic things to internet users as Google has, from Google AMP stealing traffic, to PRISM actively violating the 4th amendment, to Dragonfly explicitly enabling censorship. Google's gotten away with the hypocrisy due to a relentless PR engine. Maybe if you don't like predicta…

Please don't distort the meaning of words. PR "submarine" pieces are a very real thing, but they are exactly what the phrase suggests — an article put out by a corporate PR department for publication.

This was literally an interview by a real reporter, edited into an article. You might not like that the interviewer wasn't antagonistic (let's be real — most aren't!), but this is not a "PR submarine piece" by any sane definition of the phrase.

Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#26

Post by MeinBlutIstBlau »

Free and open internet isn't under attack because major corporations want it that, it's because people want it that way. The average computer user is a non-programmer. Why would they want things more complicated for themselves? So where does the money flow? To the path of least resistance. While many companies are willing to oblige that thought process, it unfortunately creates the system that strips "free and open internet" away from us.

Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#27

Post by threatofrain »

ditonal wrote: post #17
bsmith0 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are the most predictable HN comments

The article is a fluff piece that's comically uncritical of Google. There's obvious hypocrisy for a company that's done all sorts of user-antagonistic things to internet users as Google has, from Google AMP stealing traffic, to PRISM actively violating the 4th amendment, to Dragonfly explicitly enabling censorship. Google's gotten away with the hypocrisy due to a relentless PR engine. Maybe if you don't like predicta…

This article isn't a fluff piece. It's the Google CEO giving conversation on many topics such as quantum computing or AI.

Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#28

Post by Spooky23 »

Sophistifunk wrote: post #2

From where I sit the #1 risk to the free and open internet these days is Google. Edit: two reasons: 1) Because adtech is destroying society. Surveillance is never good. Ads as funding smears absolutely everything with perverse incentives that act consistently against both the explicit wishes and implicit best-interests of the viewers, and (it seems moreso every year) society at large. 2) Google is doing everything it…

Google is literally the only tech giant with an interest in the open internet.

Facebook scored the mortal wound on the web — they reinvented a bigger, badder AOL closed garden.

Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#29

Post by Clewza313 »

> Third, a lot of Pichai's big bets have failed: Google Glass, Google Plus, Google Wave, Project Loon

Every single one of these predates Pichai, who only became CEO in 2015:

* Google Wave was already turned down in 2012

* Google Plus launched in 2011 and the writing was on the wall by 2015

* Google Glass consumer edition was discontinued in Jan 2015 before Pichai started

* Loon is the only arguable exception; it was started in 2011 but only promoted into an official Bet during Pichai's tenure in 2018. However, it was also an experiment from day 1, not "the next big thing" like Wave/Plus/Glass were supposed to be.

Re: Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

#30

Post by R0b0t1 »

bsmith0 wrote: post #10
Sophistifunk wrote: post #2

From where I sit the #1 risk to the free and open internet these days is Google. Edit: two reasons: 1) Because adtech is destroying society. Surveillance is never good. Ads as funding smears absolutely everything with perverse incentives that act consistently against both the explicit wishes and implicit best-interests of the viewers, and (it seems moreso every year) society at large. 2) Google is doing everything it…

These are the most predictable HN comments

These are the most predictable HN comments
Post reply on HN