UK MP speech about freedoms censored by YouTube • Hacker News Board

Re: UK MP speech about freedoms censored by YouTube

#11

Post by ben_w » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 10:03 AM UTC

andrekandre wrote: post #7

ColinHayhurst wrote: post #2

The video has now been restored: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VidUXZjzNVk Worth a watch. Should we "assume the best" by assuming this was taken down by AI, and without human check? MP says: “This is an outrageous attack on free speech. Throughout the pandemic we've seen blatant attempts by Big Tech to silence opposition voices challenging the conventional wisdom. This episode serves as a further example of the wor…

> "Govnt must stop the erosion of free speech online. That starts with looking again at the wholly inadequate proposals in the Online Safety Bill” why don't they (govt) open a public video site for anyone to upload to, so they don't have to mess with private sites? forcing private entities to host things they dont want to sounds like a huge can of worms

This particular government is very fond of opening cans of worms, but is always surprised and upset to find worms inside them.

Re: UK MP speech about freedoms censored by YouTube

#12

Post by PontifexMinimus » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 10:03 AM UTC

andrekandre wrote: post #7

ColinHayhurst wrote: post #2

The video has now been restored: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VidUXZjzNVk Worth a watch. Should we "assume the best" by assuming this was taken down by AI, and without human check? MP says: “This is an outrageous attack on free speech. Throughout the pandemic we've seen blatant attempts by Big Tech to silence opposition voices challenging the conventional wisdom. This episode serves as a further example of the wor…

> "Govnt must stop the erosion of free speech online. That starts with looking again at the wholly inadequate proposals in the Online Safety Bill” why don't they (govt) open a public video site for anyone to upload to, so they don't have to mess with private sites? forcing private entities to host things they dont want to sounds like a huge can of worms

It would make a lot of sense for the UK government to encourage UK-based PeerTube websites (and other federated social media such as Mastodon, PixelFed, Lemmy, etc), and to make sure all UK government content is uploaded on such sites.

Then once they have done that, and these sites have lots of users and traction, mandate that Google, Facebook etc also federate using ActivityPub. If they don't, block their sites.

Re: UK MP speech about freedoms censored by YouTube

#13

Post by bserge » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 10:04 AM UTC

basisword wrote: post #9

"Freedom is the reason the UK has had such a long an illustrious history." I'm sure the inhabitants of the many countries the British invaded and continue to hang on to would disagree. The Online Safety Bill he mentions in his outrage at YouTube taking down his speech is itself an attack on freedoms. He's also part of a political party working to criminalise protests they disagree with.

Tbf, commoners in Britain didn't fare much better.

Re: UK MP speech about freedoms censored by YouTube

#14

Post by mathw » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 10:04 AM UTC

mojzu wrote: post #4

ColinHayhurst wrote: post #2

The video has now been restored: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VidUXZjzNVk Worth a watch. Should we "assume the best" by assuming this was taken down by AI, and without human check? MP says: “This is an outrageous attack on free speech. Throughout the pandemic we've seen blatant attempts by Big Tech to silence opposition voices challenging the conventional wisdom. This episode serves as a further example of the wor…

Yeah it seems likely to me to be an overzealous AI decision, given the background noise of anti-vaccine disinformation on youtube these days I wouldn't be surprised if they've turned up their algorithms at the cost of more false and marginal positives What's strange however is them seeming to use this to try and 'strengthen' the online safety bill which in it's current form would already be damaging to free speech on…

Sadly that is not strange - if there are any technologically literate people advising our government on policy they're not being listened to.

Re: UK MP speech about freedoms censored by YouTube

#15

Post by bserge » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 10:06 AM UTC

dua2020 wrote: post #5

This is a government which is in the process of criminalising protest under a deliberately vague 'public nuisance' clause. They only want freedom of expression for their views and not for those that oppose them.

So, just like most other governments. I often wonder how these people seem to almost inevitably get into power.

Is it just because they really want to, compared to people with a more "live and let live" attitude?

Re: UK MP speech about freedoms censored by YouTube

#16

Post by wizard-beta » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 10:06 AM UTC

basisword wrote: post #9

"Freedom is the reason the UK has had such a long an illustrious history." I'm sure the inhabitants of the many countries the British invaded and continue to hang on to would disagree. The Online Safety Bill he mentions in his outrage at YouTube taking down his speech is itself an attack on freedoms. He's also part of a political party working to criminalise protests they disagree with.

>I'm sure the inhabitants of the many countries the British invaded and continue to hang on to would disagree.

Propose one colony where the indigenous society was freer

Re: UK MP speech about freedoms censored by YouTube

#17

Post by PontifexMinimus » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 10:07 AM UTC

basisword wrote: post #9

"Freedom is the reason the UK has had such a long an illustrious history." I'm sure the inhabitants of the many countries the British invaded and continue to hang on to would disagree. The Online Safety Bill he mentions in his outrage at YouTube taking down his speech is itself an attack on freedoms. He's also part of a political party working to criminalise protests they disagree with.

> British invaded and continue to hang on to

The only places I can think of that Britain currently "hangs on to" against the will of the inhabitants are arguably Scotland and Northern Ireland, but in both those places about half the population want to continue to belong to the UK.

So it's not obvious to me who you're referring to here.

Re: UK MP speech about freedoms censored by YouTube

#18

Post by mschuster91 » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 10:08 AM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #3

And just to try and be helpful for the direction of the debate... The issue isn't that YouTube can do this. They can, that is cool. Free world. The issue that is if they are going to do this everyone should respond. Nobody ever vetted YouTube as the arbiter of truth. They are not qualified for this, and they are going to screw up really badly. If they're going to set themselves up for failure, we all have to make sur…

> Nobody ever vetted YouTube as the arbiter of truth.

The institutions we set up to arbitrate truth - the courts - are already swamped beyond belief in many countries.

The problem is that our societal systems of governance have been designed hundreds of years past, when life was focused on a couple dozen kilometers around where one lived. Nowadays, with global instant communication and knowledge available to almost everyone, conflicts and disagreements achieve far, far more reach and impact - and our societal foundations have never been updated to reflect the new reality and its demands.

The US still votes on Tuesdays because of farmers commitments to church and market days in the 19th century (https://www.history.com/news/why-is-election-day-a-tuesday-i...), copyright as a concept dates back to the 1700s, and legal language is so full of Latin and other outdated language it is impossible to understand for normal citizens.

We are witnessing a break-up of society, especially between the old/Boomer generation and the young "digital natives". For us young people, we see the possibilities and dangers of technology - and we see that our societal infrastructure is horribly outdated and the old generation which is in power dragging their feet and doing everything they can to prevent progress.

Re: UK MP speech about freedoms censored by YouTube

#19

Post by Iolaum » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 10:08 AM UTC

wizard-beta wrote: post #16

basisword wrote: post #9

"Freedom is the reason the UK has had such a long an illustrious history." I'm sure the inhabitants of the many countries the British invaded and continue to hang on to would disagree. The Online Safety Bill he mentions in his outrage at YouTube taking down his speech is itself an attack on freedoms. He's also part of a political party working to criminalise protests they disagree with.

>I'm sure the inhabitants of the many countries the British invaded and continue to hang on to would disagree. Propose one colony where the indigenous society was freer

Native American populations.

Re: UK MP speech about freedoms censored by YouTube

#20

Post by mathw » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 10:10 AM UTC

wizard-beta wrote: post #16

basisword wrote: post #9

"Freedom is the reason the UK has had such a long an illustrious history." I'm sure the inhabitants of the many countries the British invaded and continue to hang on to would disagree. The Online Safety Bill he mentions in his outrage at YouTube taking down his speech is itself an attack on freedoms. He's also part of a political party working to criminalise protests they disagree with.

>I'm sure the inhabitants of the many countries the British invaded and continue to hang on to would disagree. Propose one colony where the indigenous society was freer

India