Live data from Hacker News

Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

support.google.com

971–980 of 1001 posts

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#971

People often forget that "slippery slope" is a fallacy . Political censorship is indeed of general concern; censoring anti-vax bullshit does not imply an inevitable path to political censorship. The real solution, of course, is to out the hypocrisy and malfeasance of the spineless GOP/Fox leadership that panders to this ignorance, and gives it mainstream legitimacy. Without that legitimacy, these conspiracy theories…

> People often forget that "slippery slope" is a fallacy.

This is an extremely common misunderstanding. Slippery slopes aren't necessarily fallacious, the slippery slope fallacy isn't trying to say this. Many slippery slopes have occurred throughout history. The slippery slope fallacy pertains to a certain type of slippery slope argument.

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#972

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Misinformation" is just another word for "falsehood" or "untruth." That’s not sufficiently true. In fact, asserting untrue propositions is one of the easiest-to-counter ways of misinformation. Real pros use humbuggery; of a set of n true propositions, pick a subset m to lead the audience to your conclusions and you haven’t even “lied”. That’s why “fact checking” is such a popular way of narrative laundering, becau…

> That’s not sufficiently true. In fact, asserting untrue propositions is one of the easiest-to-counter ways of misinformation. Tell that to the children ICE detained separately from their parents.

What about American citizens who are separated from their children when arrested?

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#973

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All our legal protections ultimately depend on a democratic foundation -- undo that with misinformation and you don't have anything anymore. Similarly, your rights don't matter much if you're dead. This is an insane conclusion to draw, because it blithely ignores that it positions Google as an oracle of what's threatening to democracy and what isn't. The examples in the current policy are fairly narrow, but this is…

This positions google as an intermediary. Someone else has figured out what is misinformation and is telling google.

The idea that _anyone_ can reliably enough decree what's misinformation is ludicrous. I acknowledge that there are vast masses of incredibly stupid people that need to pretend that Truth is handed down on clay tablets by God in order to function. We're much better off with the scientific establishment wearing this mantle than, say, religious institutions. And its pointless to try to convince these people that science is an iterative, incremental process that's based in skepticism, not certainty.

But the minority of society that understands and participates in the process of truth-formation (including scientists!) produces a widely disproportionate amount of epistemic value, and society depends on this process for basic functioning.

It's amazing to me that this isn't clear to everyone after the pandemic, of all things. The amount of claims that were banned from social media as "misinformation" that became expert consensus a couple of months later is mind-boggling. Following smart and quantitative people on Twitter was wayyyy more likely to provide you a healthy and safe pandemic experience than following the incoherent and self-contradictory public health recommendations (let alone policy). More important than this "direct-to-consumer" ability to discuss the pandemic is that experts themselves form their opinions through this type of discussion. The notion that there's a "someone else" who has reliably figured out which dissent is out of bounds is laughable.

I'll note again that Google's current policy is limited to fairly simple things, but it's an important Schelling fence being torn down and worthy of commenting on (and pushing back against, if yiu believe the trend is harmful).

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#974

"Misinformation" is just another word for "falsehood" or "untruth." Those of you claiming that "democracy" depends on authorities preventing the spread of misinformation are ipso facto saying that democracy requires the government, or megacorporate cartels with a monopoly on public speech most likely acting as proxies for the government (as Psaki made clear is happening), to define what counts as "truth" (a Ministry…

That answers the question of many about historical examples: "how they couldn't see they are being manipulated by totalitarians? why didn't they do something?" The same reason our current society thinks it's ok for the government to ban people for "misinformation" (the latest directive from White House demands internet-wide bans of whoever was accused of "misinformation" - without any due process of course, just on the word of White House, confirmed and implemented by the faceless army of Facebook underpaid overworked "moderators" team). Yes, there are people who are shocked and appalled by it - and they are speaking up. But the society largely either ignores them, or dismisses them as paranoid naysayers or partisan operators. That is going to cost us. And our descendants would wonder "how couldn't they see they are being obviously manipulated to cede control over their speech to the government-big tech oligarchy?!" How indeed.

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#975

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are saying that this is a lie as if that's math or physics instead of a debatable political point and then circling all the wagons around that determination. The idea that the coronavirus came from a lab used to be one of those circle the wagons points that anyone could get cancelled for. The evidence is so overwhelming that you're now allowed to post that to social media without getting cancelled. How would that…

Where is all this overwhelming evidence that the virus came from a lab?

They can’t share it because they don’t have it. One scientist said it looked like it came from a lab and all the reactionaries latched onto this one statement as if it was the real truth being hidden from them. They promptly ignored when that same scientist admitted he overstated his position because that conflicts with their world view and censorship and persecution complex.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/scientist-...

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#976
post #659

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This policy does not apply to private files. I just want to point out based on your comment that none of what you mentioned matters unless you share the document publicly.

> This policy does not apply to private files. Yet. Once people get used to it, it will be extended to private files. Likely they will even build it into Android and create an API to report citizens storing questionable documents.

I have saved my comment and will come back to it in few years.

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#977

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s also important to understand that the only reason anyone is talking about misinformation right now is because the entire world watched in horror at the events of January 6th, a direct attempt to “seize control over free societies”. (Admittedly a poor attempt at it though) which was sparked by wild accusations, unsubstantiated assertions, and a mountain of failed litigation by “the previous guy”. No amount of whi…

I saw a low-level riot with a few broken windows that was endlessly hyped over and over again ad-nauseam. So, no, the rest of the world wasn't horrified - we were wondering what was the fuss. I was far more worried about the BLM riots which burned entire districts - since I had family affected. Using Jan 6th as an excuse for government censorship is utter nonsense. What is misleading today can become fact tomorrow ve…

why are you lying about entire districts being burned down by BLM? Surely you can provide some actual evidence as to this happening. Right now is just looks like more completely unsupported right wing hysteria.

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#978

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s also important to understand that the only reason anyone is talking about misinformation right now is because the entire world watched in horror at the events of January 6th, a direct attempt to “seize control over free societies”. (Admittedly a poor attempt at it though) which was sparked by wild accusations, unsubstantiated assertions, and a mountain of failed litigation by “the previous guy”. No amount of whi…

No, the world watched in horror as American cities burned for an entire year while politicians and media whores, thoroughly protected by police and private security, did nothing. Police were ordered to take a knee to the mob. We were told that this was justice. But the second those powerful people were even slightly threatened, the gloves came off. Only one person was murdered on the 6th. A veteran and Trump voter na…

Why are you spreading more lies? You are explicitly part of the problem. What cities were burnt down? Can you name one city that was burnt? Can you name even one neighborhood?

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#979
post #802

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nog sure about the intent of Google (and as they say, the road to hell is paved with good ones) but you’re reframing. It’s not a matter of censoring deviations from orthodoxy, rather one of removing disinformation and demonstrable falsehoods, often used for propaganda and to setup victim scenarios.

Those engaging in widespread censorship create disinformation and falsehood, by omission. In history, it has always been those engaging in widespread censorship who turn out to be disastrously and/or maliciously wrong. The science now being censored has become so well-established, that at this point, Google/YT et al, has and will delete and suppress the sharing of peer-reviewed science published in mainstream journal…

Uh, I’ve read plenty about CIA techniques to overthrow undesired governments and a favorite trick is propping astroturfing campaigns claiming the wildest tripe and alt-truth against the soon-to-be “liberated”.

So please, come up with proof or yours is just another case of trumped up claims

Re: Google Drive bans distribution of “misleading content”

#980

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 alternative to Google is self-hosted Open Source and Free Software and it exists today. Unfortunately for you it isn't easy to find work on self-hosted FLOSS projects and there isn't much demand for consultants helping deploy those projects.

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-s... https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Collection:SaaSS https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/LeavingTheCloud https://www.fossjobs.net/ https://github.com/fossjobs/fossjobs/wiki/resources

Post reply on HN