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Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

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Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#671

OK, fine. If I share a document with all of Hacker News saying, Google will delete this document without my express written permission, and they apply their policy without exception: Do they delete the document because it's misleading? If they do, it's not. Gotcha Google.

It's not that much about the rules, as about the arbitrary enforcement of them. Welcome to the USSR.

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#672

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…

The “public square” is free for speaking because it belongs to everybody. As long as a speech is said in a private place (e.gr. Google’s servers, facebook’s…) it is subject to money. It will never be free because it is not “public”.

Google, Facebook, Twitter have positioned themselves to be the de-facto public square by buying up their competition and making themselves effectively the only game in town for what they do.

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#674

Surprised nobody has mentioned ProtonDrive[0] as a near future candidate for eliminating these types of incidents. Since the data is encrypted, ProtonDrive can't make arbitrary value judgements on your data. For me personally I can't wait for it to arrive so I can wean myself off Google properly. It's the one final thing that I need to replace Google with: Proper Encrypted Cloud Storage. [0] https://protonmail.com/bl…

You could go the decentralized way and host a document on IPFS.

Once the document is out there and pinned by nodes (and cached by gateways in periods of high demand), it's gonna be difficult to take it down.

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#675

Throwing in my comment like a penny down a wishing well: Google recently turned off my gmail because my google drive quota was exceeded . They were "protecting" me from myself, by denying me the ability to buy more storage. They refuse to accept any payment method until I deliver a passport photo to them. The problems here go a bit beyond them being the steward of information or arbiter of right vs wrong. They'll den…

They refuse to accept any payment method until I deliver a passport photo to them. That seems like something worth supporting with screenshots and posting as its own thread. I've never heard of anyone needing a passport photo for a credit card transaction, at least not in the US.

It's passport photo or government-issued ID (mine is expired), which rather narrows down the options. They also want a photo of some bill mailed to my home address with my name on it, and we've been in the process of moving for several months. I have a garbage utility bill coming to our new place, just for big G, so hopefully that'll satisfy them.

The most annoying part was that when they turned off my billing, I had been paying for 200GB of GDrive space. Boop, it went to 15GB. Turns out it's shared with gmail, which means I had now exceeded my gmail quota by around 1200%.

It's been off since April: https://twitter.com/theshawwn/status/1381027951446171648

But my gmail account kept functioning. They periodically said "You know, you really should purchase more storage..." but the service kept working.

Till Friday. Boop, all my emails shut off. Noticed it on Monday. Had to purge 185GB down to I dunno. I don't really feel like causing problems. Yeah it sucks, but I also get it, and I'm more of a "go with the flow" kind of person, and "periodically whine about it in a comment." But I'll go submit the damn passport photo and get it over with once our new house is set up. It was more of a mild annoyance than a disaster.

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#676
post #180

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…

Private my ass. I understand the terminology, but they are part of the defacto public domain, and are a publicly owned company. They built their company utilizing the resources and technological prowess of the United States, then piss in its face to cater to woke leftist silicon valley politics (which doesn't represent 90%+ of America).

If that MIT study about the end of the world turns out to be true, THIS type of woke bullshit will be the cause. And when society falls, I have a feeling who's gonna be gunned after first.

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#678
post #676
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Private my ass. I understand the terminology, but they are part of the defacto public domain, and are a publicly owned company. They built their company utilizing the resources and technological prowess of the United States, then piss in its face to cater to woke leftist silicon valley politics (which doesn't represent 90%+ of America). If that MIT study about the end of the world turns out to be true, THIS type of w…

What do you suggest? the government takes over Google? Prevents them from controlling what they store on their servers?

If society fails (which is little more than a prepper wet dream) everyone's going to go gunning for whoever has food and fuel. No one will care about Google or political parties.

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#679
post #333
post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Rarely does anyone have a problem presenting a majority position as the truth with no evidence.

We should be a little more forgiving of minority positions and a little less forgiving of majority positions, so that the truth can be determined more readily.

A reminder, at the start of the pandemic, the majority position was "Masks are bad". The "Masks are good" minority position had no evidence to back it up besides common sense, yet it is only through the efforts of those people fighting the conventional wisdom that the truth came out.

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