Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 291 posts

Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#221

Post by jacquesm »

ivan_gammel wrote: post #206
jacquesm wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So now the conclusion is he's not rational. Now what? A non rational dictator sitting on a very large number of nuclear weapons is not a good thing for the world.

Now it’s just scary. Let’s hope Ukraine will be able to resist long enough to force Putin to negotiate peace and to forget about any attempt to reach his goals along the Western borders of Russia by military means. It’s too bad that our hope is that enough Russian soldiers will die for Russian public to notice that war is in their house. There’s no popular support for the war, but the pain of war is not yet felt. Unf…

> Now it’s just scary.

And getting worse.

> Let’s hope Ukraine will be able to resist long enough to force Putin to negotiate peace and to forget about any attempt to reach his goals along the Western borders of Russia by military means.

I hope with you but the force asymmetry is large. But so far they have been doing much better than could have reasonably been expected.

> It’s too bad that our hope is that enough Russian soldiers will die for Russian public to notice that war is in their house.

This will be one of the most carefully controlled statistics, there is no way that official channels will get close to communicating these numbers. I've been wondering if this isn't one of those areas where the tech world could really assist.

> There’s no popular support for the war, but the pain of war is not yet felt.

And likely won't be for weeks or even months.

> Unfortunately there’s no other options left.

Agreed.

> Sanctions are not a short term deterrent.

Also agreed, but they are a message, especially if those sanctions hurt the EU as well. I would be happy to shut down the heat here if that's what it took to get the EU completely disconnected from Russian gas. It would be very annoying but we'd live, my grandparents went through far worse than that. And I've been trying to figure out how I can really help Ukrainian refugees.

Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#222

Post by thaumasiotes »

dragonwriter wrote: post #199
willcipriano wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's sort of a no true scottsman. Occupy wall street resulted in nothing, BLM protests were huge to no lasting effect, massive anti war protests in the early 2000's resulted in a couple decades of war. What ones recently were big enough? Million man march? That was just LBJ buying votes if you ask him about it privately.

> BLM protests were huge to no lasting effect Accountability for criminal homicide of Black people, especially by law enforcement, has definitely increased since BLM became a force. Whether that's a lasting effect is, of course, too soon to say, but it's not to be casually dismissed as you have.

> Accountability for criminal homicide of Black people, especially by law enforcement, has definitely increased since BLM became a force.

Especially by law enforcement, or only by law enforcement? Criminal homicide of blacks is way up since BLM.

Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#223

Post by jacquesm »

sneak wrote: post #220
jacquesm wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sanctions are cruel and ineffective. You know what's cruel? War is cruel.

I agree. Unfortunately those prosecuting this war knew that sanctions were coming, and will be largely/wholly unaffected by them. It is only normal people, most of whom are against war, who will suffer as a result. Doctors who can't source medicine, workers who can't pay their staff, et c. These sanctions will not negatively affect Putin; he has expected them for years and indeed has been explicitly preparing to cope…

That's true but the sanctions do send a message, especially if those sanctions also affect the EU: that we are willing to take a hit to get this under control.

Regardless: if Russia doesn't come to its senses quickly the country will likely not recover in the next 40 years or so from the kind of damage they are doing to their stature on the international stage, this is not the kind of thing you walk away from and claim it was 'just Putin'. Time is running out, and the easy solutions have all already been pre-empted by events.

Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#224

Post by z3c0 »

adambatkin wrote: post #137
z3c0 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drone assassination programs are pretty evil. Oh wait, did you mean evil to us , or evil to everybody else?

The parent asserted that Nazis are evil. While I'm sure there is a range of behaviors that constitute "evil" I don't think a drone assassination campaign in any way compares to the deliberate and systematic attempt to remove all members of certain groups (i.e. Jewish people, among others) from Earth.

And that parent was using Nazis to disclaim the US as evil. The US doesn't just get off the hook because they haven't resorted to genocide.

Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#225

Post by adriand »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #219
adriand wrote: post #214

Social media is such a problem in Western nations, has sapped our attention and divided us so immensely, that I honestly wish we would also regulate and crack down on it. Not because we don’t want people to learn about what’s happening in the world, but because what we see unfolding right now makes crystal clear the stakes of Western weakness and division. We have been fighting each other on Twitter and Facebook whil…

> I honestly wish we would also regulate and crack down on it It's mind boggling to read HN comments advocating for restricting people's free access to internet discourse. (Reminder that Hacker News is social media, too) Even a few years ago the idea of anyone in the tech world advocating for regulations or "crack downs" on letting people freely communicate on the internet would be unthinkable.

I have no issue with free access to Internet discourse! In fact, I wish we had more free access to Internet discourse. What I object to is the commodification of attention, the deployment of sophisticated algorithms intended to drive clicks/views (and thus promote the most divisive and controversial viewpoints), pervasive surveillance, and so on. I don't think regulating these facets of our present-day technology, which are driven by profit motives, not by the desire of ordinary people to speak to one another, is at all incompatible with a free and open Internet.

Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#226

Post by qiskit »

darkarmani wrote: post #189
qiskit wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

> Amazing. All social media is heavily monitored and censored everywhere. We can argue degrees but it's all censored. Nope. On WhatsApp, no message I've ever sent has been censored. I haven't heard of anyone being censored on whatsapp. (the example being wechat which i believe is equivalent). > Like that chinese tennis player right. Or jack ma? Disappeared and then reappeared. Like magic. You aren't making the point…

> Nope. On WhatsApp, no message I've ever sent has been censored.

Just because you haven't been censored doesn't mean everyone isn't censored.

https://reclaimthenet.org/whatsapp-kashmir-deactivated/

Facebook owns WhatsApp. You really think there is no censorship on WhatsApp.

> You aren't making the point you think you are. You are confirming that they were disappeared for a LONG time by the gov't.

I am making an exact point. Oh my god, a tennis player and jack ma didn't make themselves available to western press for a bit. That's so crazy. Because we all know that these chinese people belong to western journalists. Right?

People complaining about censorship in a highly censored website. That's rich. Crazy how so many "people" care about china's freedom all of a sudden.

Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#227

Post by Dma54rhs »

witrak wrote: post #141
graphpercolator wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia has a population of a 140 million people. It is utterly preposterous to believe not a single one uses Reddit AND doesn't agree with their government. Not to mention, where do you think those people would go? Maybe Reddit? Maybe that actually makes a ton of sense?

Did you see what's going on r/Russia? You can be banned not for your comment there but for the fact you are on another subreddit. No, not for your comment there! It's enough that others are against the Russian invasion.

This is typical in reddit, never liked it, but it's not something they invented.

Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#228

Post by sneak »

jacquesm wrote: post #223
sneak wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Unfortunately those prosecuting this war knew that sanctions were coming, and will be largely/wholly unaffected by them. It is only normal people, most of whom are against war, who will suffer as a result. Doctors who can't source medicine, workers who can't pay their staff, et c. These sanctions will not negatively affect Putin; he has expected them for years and indeed has been explicitly preparing to cope…

That's true but the sanctions do send a message, especially if those sanctions also affect the EU: that we are willing to take a hit to get this under control. Regardless: if Russia doesn't come to its senses quickly the country will likely not recover in the next 40 years or so from the kind of damage they are doing to their stature on the international stage, this is not the kind of thing you walk away from and cla…

Russia is a lot more than its military dictators, it is the Russian people you are talking about harming.

Should cancer patients in Oklahoma not be permitted to buy chemotherapy medications because Bush invaded Iraq?

We banned collective punishment in the Geneva Convention because it is insane and unjust.

I have persian friends with family in Iran who can testify firsthand to how damaging sanctions are to people who have no ability whatsoever to remedy the problems that caused the sanctions to be put in place. Personifying countries is an error.

Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#229

Post by PragmaticPulp »

adriand wrote: post #225
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I honestly wish we would also regulate and crack down on it It's mind boggling to read HN comments advocating for restricting people's free access to internet discourse. (Reminder that Hacker News is social media, too) Even a few years ago the idea of anyone in the tech world advocating for regulations or "crack downs" on letting people freely communicate on the internet would be unthinkable.

I have no issue with free access to Internet discourse! In fact, I wish we had more free access to Internet discourse. What I object to is the commodification of attention, the deployment of sophisticated algorithms intended to drive clicks/views (and thus promote the most divisive and controversial viewpoints), pervasive surveillance, and so on. I don't think regulating these facets of our present-day technology, wh…

> What I object to is the commodification of attention,

What exactly would you regulate or "crack down" on?

People are free to choose what websites they visit. This idea that evil social media companies have used technology to force people to view content they don't want to see has gotten out of hand.

> the deployment of sophisticated algorithms

Again, what exactly would you regulate away? Ban websites from showing related content? Ban Facebook from showing you things your friends are interested in? Ban Netflix from showing you shows you may like based on your previous viewings?

Would you ban Hacker News' algorithm that determines which posts are shown on the front page? Just force everything to be un-algorithmic and chronologically ordered like the new page and hope for the best?

Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#230

Post by [deleted] »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #219
adriand wrote: post #214

Social media is such a problem in Western nations, has sapped our attention and divided us so immensely, that I honestly wish we would also regulate and crack down on it. Not because we don’t want people to learn about what’s happening in the world, but because what we see unfolding right now makes crystal clear the stakes of Western weakness and division. We have been fighting each other on Twitter and Facebook whil…

> I honestly wish we would also regulate and crack down on it It's mind boggling to read HN comments advocating for restricting people's free access to internet discourse. (Reminder that Hacker News is social media, too) Even a few years ago the idea of anyone in the tech world advocating for regulations or "crack downs" on letting people freely communicate on the internet would be unthinkable.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN