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Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

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Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#251

Post by ihateyouall123 »

mindcandy wrote: post #74

Everyone is crying Corporate Greed in here. And, I can understand why. But, here’s another perspective based on listening to David Holz answer all kinds of questions from random users for four hours a week for over a year during Midjourney’s “Office Hours”. AFAICT, Midjourney has no shareholders and David Holz is the farthest thing from a slick CEO. He’s a big dreamer hippie dork. He made all the money he cares to ha…

Ah, a pro-dictator fascist that just uses more words to describe their Xi circle jerk.

Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#252

Post by Steltek »

FpUser wrote: post #225
walkhour wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ridiculing politicians in China is taboo You mean the Chinese politicians that are in power right? Chinese propaganda ridicules constantly politicians from other countries. Obviously this is just a well calculated move. It's acceptable to mock certain kind of people/groups. That's all there is to it. We don't need to go into Chinese psychology.

This is what can happen when you ridicule Macron in France: "She currently stands accused of "insulting the president of the republic" and will stand trial on 20 June in Saint Omer, the prosecutor said. She risks a prison sentence and a fine of €15,000 if convicted at the trial." - [0] Looks like they are learning from the best. [0] - https://www.euronews.com/culture/2023/03/30/heres-the-story-...

Somewhere out there is a good copy-pasta dismissal of these boring reflexive "But look! A Western country did something similar that one time so that makes it okay for us to do!" responses.

Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#253

Post by [deleted] »

cryptoz wrote: post #92
mindcandy wrote: post #74

Everyone is crying Corporate Greed in here. And, I can understand why. But, here’s another perspective based on listening to David Holz answer all kinds of questions from random users for four hours a week for over a year during Midjourney’s “Office Hours”. AFAICT, Midjourney has no shareholders and David Holz is the farthest thing from a slick CEO. He’s a big dreamer hippie dork. He made all the money he cares to ha…

Not so simple. No ridiculing Xi makes the platform less comfortable for people in other countries like the US. We expect freedom to ridicule and if that’s not available on a platform because the owner prefers to cater to a specific dictator, then we may be less likely to use it. I might still use it , I might not. But bowing to a dictator who says you can’t say Winnie the Pooh anymore seems like a one-sided, pro-dict…

[deleted]

Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#254

Post by robertlagrant »

suoduandao2 wrote: post #186
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bowing to foreign authoritarian censorship is okay if it’s done for a rich man’s convenience? What a shitshow begging for regulation.

Not ridiculing xi is the regulation

Indeed. Regulation isn't a magical well-intentioned, well-executed, well-self-policed endeavour. It's incredibly varied, and has few genuine incentives to improve on any of those axes.

Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#255

Post by Steltek »

0xDEF wrote: post #78
prox wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as western companies can’t do unrestricted business in China, neither should Chinese companies be able here. The earlier we break the toxic relationship, the better. But yeah, money over everything.

Honestly this is my main problem with TikTok. I know Meta and Google spy just as much as TikTok. However it is problematic that Chinese app companies have full access to Western markets while the reverse is severely limited.

I'm not sure why this point isn't rammed home at every opportunity. Reciprocity is a cornerstone of many trade agreements and tariffs/protectionism are a common answer to foreign government favoritism of domestic companies (e.g. CCP protecting its own).

Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#256

Post by himinlomax »

throwaway4good wrote: post #104

I am not going to defend Chinese censorship - I think it is way overdone and a huge waste of resources but all companies operating in China must uphold this regime and pay the cost associated with it. However all countries have laws and norms governing satire and free speech. For example the Mohammed cartoons (deliberately drawn to trigger a reaction / discussion of free speech and censorship): https://en.m.wikipedia…

Many countries have laws against homosexual displays of affection, so by that logic, Midjourney should remove any LGBT content.

Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#257

Post by [deleted] »

johnchristopher wrote: post #111
chrisdbanks wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These new models could be the downfall of authoritarian regimes. These regimes rely on suppressing access to information but soon we'll have an LLM that can answer any questions about the world and fit on a USB stick that can be passed from person to person. No more great firewall of China.

The "truth" is not enough. Look into Tian'Anmen and how the subject is completely taboo across generations. How to change social norms is a whole another thing.

[deleted]

Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#258

Post by satao »

andrewstuart wrote: post #86
mindcandy wrote: post #74

Everyone is crying Corporate Greed in here. And, I can understand why. But, here’s another perspective based on listening to David Holz answer all kinds of questions from random users for four hours a week for over a year during Midjourney’s “Office Hours”. AFAICT, Midjourney has no shareholders and David Holz is the farthest thing from a slick CEO. He’s a big dreamer hippie dork. He made all the money he cares to ha…

So it just happens that hippy values and western greed kowtowing to authoritarian regime values purely for the sake of money happen to be exactly the same thing. A story too convenient for my taste but everyone is free to believe whatever they want.

An authoritarian regime which takes people out of poverty instead of killing them or putting them in jails, what a joke!

Oh wait, is this the propaganda talking?

Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#259

Post by alkonaut »

mindcandy wrote: post #74

Everyone is crying Corporate Greed in here. And, I can understand why. But, here’s another perspective based on listening to David Holz answer all kinds of questions from random users for four hours a week for over a year during Midjourney’s “Office Hours”. AFAICT, Midjourney has no shareholders and David Holz is the farthest thing from a slick CEO. He’s a big dreamer hippie dork. He made all the money he cares to ha…

> teams tries to stay out of it.

There is no "staying out of" politics or just "remaining neutral" on topics (edit: the context here is "when doing business with the one of the belligerents of a conflict, an oppressive regime and so on. Not universally).

Not taking a stand for one side in a two sided topic means taking the other side. Either you are pro gay rights or against it. Or you are pro democracy or against it. Or you are openly against the Russian invasion of Ukraine or you are against it - whether you are silent or not. so long as you do business with or in dictatorships. This applies to any tech company as much as it applies to FIFA or anyone else.

Re: Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

#260

Post by [deleted] »

aenvoker wrote: post #240
pmoriarty wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Currently, Midjourney lets users invite the Midjourney bot to their own private Discord server/channel, where no one else can see the images they generate using that bot. There's no reason that Midjourney couldn't allow whatever content the user wants to be generated there, as other Midjourney users would not be able to see it. But they insist on censoring Midjourney even in channels/servers inaccessible to the wider…

Hi. I’m a volunteer Midjourney content moderator. They don’t pay me. I’m under no obligation to make them look good. The team behind MJ are a bunch of overly-nice people. The work very hard night and day to help people bring art into the world. When they see their hard work resulting in porn, gore, gross-out or hate material, it is very discouraging. It’s not material they want to collaborate on. It’s not what they w…

[deleted]
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