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Germany fines YouTube for removing video of anti-lockdown protest

mediaite.com

11–20 of 471 posts

Re: Germany fines YouTube for removing video of anti-lockdown protest

#11

The article calls this a "historically high fine". It's also really small compared to the scale of YouTube dollars, i.e. for YouTube to care (about this fine in isolation).

True. It's definitely not enough to send people off their loops. But hopefully it's a step in the right direction. My prediction is that in the next 2 to 3 years more detail will emerge on the massive scam that is lockdowns. I don't expect people to go back and evaluate their behavior towards others who did not believe the media scam (from people being aggressive towards people deciding not to wear mask for example), but I hope that it'll be a step in the reversion of group-think.

Edit: People continuously downvote my negative comments about lockdowns. I leave you with this before you downvote:

https://twitter.com/janesays22/status/1415354369126457346

> I turned 18 in Feb 2020. I lost my friends, my education, the first year of my adult life, my mental health, and 20lbs.

> I didn’t make sacrifices.

> I was sacrificed.

Look up: https://gbdeclaration.org/ - http://pandata.org/

Re: Germany fines YouTube for removing video of anti-lockdown protest

#12
post #7

> The German court held that YouTube failed to make its enforcement authority clear in its contract with the account operator who posted the video. Does YouTube's TOS really not contain statements giving them the ability to stop hosting any video, at any time, for any reason? Edit: I guess not: the only content removal clause I see is this one, which is definitely not "we can remove your video for any reason, as long…

They probably do.

Powerful enough governments can just choose to ignore or re-interpret things any way they like and act on them, though.

Re: Germany fines YouTube for removing video of anti-lockdown protest

#13
What's the law in question? If someone posts something that (in my opinion alone) is ridiculous as a comment on my blog and I remove it, would I have to pay a fine in Germany? Why is it okay for the government to compel speech?

Edit: Looks like it's for not upholding its terms of service.

Re: Germany fines YouTube for removing video of anti-lockdown protest

#15
post #7

> The German court held that YouTube failed to make its enforcement authority clear in its contract with the account operator who posted the video. Does YouTube's TOS really not contain statements giving them the ability to stop hosting any video, at any time, for any reason? Edit: I guess not: the only content removal clause I see is this one, which is definitely not "we can remove your video for any reason, as long…

They probably do. Powerful enough governments can just choose to ignore or re-interpret things any way they like and act on them, though.

>Powerful enough governments can just choose to ignore or re-interpret things any way they like and act on them, though.

Seems like a common trend in many countries around the world. Tech companies tend to be american, so they're a popular punching bag/scapegoat when it comes to enforcement actions.

Re: Germany fines YouTube for removing video of anti-lockdown protest

#16

I'm not sure I like the notion of a private entity being forced to host content they don't want to host. If it only applied to effective monopolies like YouTube, I would be more inclined to agree with it, but the article doesn't seem to know anything about that.

They are not forced to do anything but live up to the contract they signed.

Re: Germany fines YouTube for removing video of anti-lockdown protest

#17
post #8

Naval Ravikant seems to be a divisive figure here but I think he made a profound point when he discussed this topic on Joe Rogan's podcast. The point was that, as a platform, you cross a line which is very difficult to ever revert when you optionally censor your platform in response to political pressure because both sides are then forced from a game theory perspective to aggressively pursue censoring your platform i…

> The platform ends up being collateral damage in some political war they never cared about in the first place and they can never win because no matter who they bend too, it automatically enrages the other side.

To me, the fact that they don't care about it is the problem. Those companies are having issues because they have no moral or ethical compass. It's become untenable for them to remain neutral because there is no neutral actor in this scenario. There's never going to be a service that's not held to a moral standard for their content regardless of what the law says.

Re: Germany fines YouTube for removing video of anti-lockdown protest

#18
post #10

Good. I'd rather live in chaos than a world controlled by these technocrats. Let's do Twitter while we're at it.

State violence is being used to force a private company to host content it finds objectionable. Who's the technocrat here?

The company doesn't find anything objectionable. It's the Who (a political org that has nothing to do with science) that is dictating what YouTube should do. YouTube and other technocrats believe that can tell people how and what they should think. With that being said, forcing a private company with state violence is not good either, unfortunately there's no magic wand to wave and reset everything. We shouldn't be pragmatic, but we have to be practical.

Re: Germany fines YouTube for removing video of anti-lockdown protest

#19
post #7

> The German court held that YouTube failed to make its enforcement authority clear in its contract with the account operator who posted the video. Does YouTube's TOS really not contain statements giving them the ability to stop hosting any video, at any time, for any reason? Edit: I guess not: the only content removal clause I see is this one, which is definitely not "we can remove your video for any reason, as long…

> YouTube unsuccessfully argued the video violated its policies on Covid-19 “misinformation.”

It sounds like YouTube's stance is that the video may cause harm to their users; one of their criteria for removal.

Re: Germany fines YouTube for removing video of anti-lockdown protest

#20

The article calls this a "historically high fine". It's also really small compared to the scale of YouTube dollars, i.e. for YouTube to care (about this fine in isolation).

True. It's definitely not enough to send people off their loops. But hopefully it's a step in the right direction. My prediction is that in the next 2 to 3 years more detail will emerge on the massive scam that is lockdowns. I don't expect people to go back and evaluate their behavior towards others who did not believe the media scam (from people being aggressive towards people deciding not to wear mask for example),…

Youtube classified this as "misinformation". They have the power to crush any voice and they are.

I hope a crisis takes some power away from them.

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