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Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

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Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#331

Post by ukie »

irthomasthomas wrote: post #280

I just cancelled my drive subscription. I don't know how anyone could continue using it after this. I probably have dozens of docs and hundreds of research papers contradicting government health advice on diabetes and heart disease. These would fall under "Misleading content related to harmful health practices" since they promote a health theory which the government considers harmful. However I would have cancelled r…

It will change nothing. Google has too much money. Getting away from its services is the right thing to do though.

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#333

Post by Latty »

dfdz wrote: post #310
jonnycomputer wrote: post #22

What. The. Hell. I suppose limiting sharing might be justified. But limiting access and/or deleting own files is outrageous. For that matter, collections of misleading content can have legitimate purposes. Such as research. Now I'm seriously considering dropping my Drive subscription. Update: I got a lot of upvotes, but tbh I may have misunderstood the new policy, which does seem to (maybe?) only be limited to distri…

A recent high profile example is the lab leak "conspiracy theory". Facebook block discussion of the possibility that Covid-19 started from a lab leak, but now scientists are seriously considering the issue. Imagine if Google had this policy last year, and a scientist posted a Google Slides presentation about the merits of the lab theory (and imagine it was banned under the misleading "health" information umbrella) ..…

There is a distinction between discussing a theory, and presenting it as the truth with no evidence.

Not a distinction I imagine automated moderation systems are going to manage well, of course, but it exists.

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#334

Post by ayngg »

semitones wrote: post #39

The road to hell is paved with "good intentions". We desperately need to find a globally adoptable alternative to google and the services that it provides. Docs, Sheets, Drive, etc. are fantastic services in that they work really well on a massive scale. However, Google's increasing role as an arbiter of right vs wrong and a steward of information puts too much power into the hands of one corporation, whose best inte…

You need to remember that people actually wanted Google and tech companies to be arbiters of truth and moderate content. This is what people asked for, so the real issue probably has to do with why people are comfortable with giving this amount of power to companies like Google in the first place.

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#335

Post by m-p-3 »

ixacto wrote: post #155
jonnycomputer wrote: post #22

What. The. Hell. I suppose limiting sharing might be justified. But limiting access and/or deleting own files is outrageous. For that matter, collections of misleading content can have legitimate purposes. Such as research. Now I'm seriously considering dropping my Drive subscription. Update: I got a lot of upvotes, but tbh I may have misunderstood the new policy, which does seem to (maybe?) only be limited to distri…

Does this apply to google workspace (paying)customers too? If so google is actually scanning what is supposed to be private information.

If it's not end-to-end encrypted, it's not private from Google.

Google can and will scan anything you feed it.

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#336

Post by grawprog »

Nifty, censorship built right into office tools now too. It's so great my word processor and my spreadsheet app can police my thoughts now too.

Maybe they'll be able to use AI at some point and just detect when I'm writing the wrong combination of words together and preemptively block me from even writing things.

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#337

Post by clairity »

izacus wrote: post #180
semitones wrote: post #39

The road to hell is paved with "good intentions". We desperately need to find a globally adoptable alternative to google and the services that it provides. Docs, Sheets, Drive, etc. are fantastic services in that they work really well on a massive scale. However, Google's increasing role as an arbiter of right vs wrong and a steward of information puts too much power into the hands of one corporation, whose best inte…

I think your fundamental error is in the fact that you think that a private company (and market competition) can fix these issues. It seems that many people on HN are just waiting for the new Savior company, that will magically have incentives to fight for them instead of making money. It's like hoping for market competition create health regulation in the food industry. Turns out, not even Apple is that messiah, and…

we could get a lot closer if markets were well-regulated for fairness and competitiveness. instead, we get all sorts of distortions, some well-meaning but most not. one sign of a good market dynamic is a lot of medium-sized companies, rather than very large or very small, because that means the companies have taken advantage of economies of scale but no one firm has outsized advantage, so all must still compete.

to that end, google, facebook, et al. should each probably be split up into dozens of companies to start, with stong privacy, portability and interoperability standards/mandates at minimum.

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#338

Post by tyingq »

irthomasthomas wrote: post #280

I just cancelled my drive subscription. I don't know how anyone could continue using it after this. I probably have dozens of docs and hundreds of research papers contradicting government health advice on diabetes and heart disease. These would fall under "Misleading content related to harmful health practices" since they promote a health theory which the government considers harmful. However I would have cancelled r…

Yes, this is really bizarre. I get this kind of policy for some kinds of platforms, but not Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms. Those are my documents, and I should be free to put whatever I want in them.

What if I just like to collect and share old conspiracy theory stuff that I know is wrong? For whimsy, historical, whatever purposes...

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