Chinese Social Media Site Reverses Gay Content Ban After Uproar • Hacker News Board

Re: Chinese Social Media Site Reverses Gay Content Ban After Uproar

#21

Post by rectangletangle » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 5:55 AM UTC

mc32 wrote: post #17

rectangletangle wrote: post #15

Incidents like this are starting to make me feel that software engineers should have a code of ethics, similar to the Hippocratic Oath. So technologies aren't abused to marginalize individuals/groups.

Not to put a damper on things, but it's not like the Hippocratic oath means anything as attested by[1]. It's only good if people heed it, otherwise it's meaningless. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_harvesting_from_Falun_...

Although the Hippocratic oath has no teeth, or real enforcement. Hopefully popularizing a code of ethics, helps move the needle toward a better direction.

Re: Chinese Social Media Site Reverses Gay Content Ban After Uproar

#22

Post by PakG1 » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 5:56 AM UTC

mattliu wrote: post #9

Where in the article does it say that Weibo is backing down? All it seems to say is "backlash happened".

Heh, the article actually really didn't say it. I was thinking maybe you just didn't read it carefully. Here are articles that explicitly say it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/world/asia/china-weibo-ga...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/16/china-weibo-ba...

Re: Chinese Social Media Site Reverses Gay Content Ban After Uproar

#23

Post by PakG1 » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 5:57 AM UTC

dang wrote: post #19

mattliu wrote: post #9

Where in the article does it say that Weibo is backing down? All it seems to say is "backlash happened".

Agreed. We changed the title to that of the actual article. Submitted title was "China's Weibo backs down from censoring gay content following backlash". Submitters: rewriting titles like that is a violation of the site guidelines. If the facts have changed since the article was written, you can explain that by posting a comment about it to the thread, or by finding a more up-to-date article and submitting that. http…

See my other reply, there are articles that explicitly say that it actually happened. See other reply for links. Perhaps change the link instead?

Re: Chinese Social Media Site Reverses Gay Content Ban After Uproar

#24

Post by est » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 5:57 AM UTC

darawk wrote: post #14

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't really make it better.

In fact i'd say it makes it worse.

Another fun fact: censorship is a business in China.

Profitable, lucrative, serious business. Every branch of government want its own little kill-switch button. e.g. 舆情系统. Lobbyist plays a key roll in all this.

Re: Chinese Social Media Site Reverses Gay Content Ban After Uproar

#25

Post by maxxxxx » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 6:00 AM UTC

rectangletangle wrote: post #15

Incidents like this are starting to make me feel that software engineers should have a code of ethics, similar to the Hippocratic Oath. So technologies aren't abused to marginalize individuals/groups.

You have to be careful with this. Ethics can also be used to discriminate against people for religious reasons. These people think they are as ethical as you think you are.

Re: Chinese Social Media Site Reverses Gay Content Ban After Uproar

#26

Post by ars » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 6:04 AM UTC

westiseast wrote: post #8

I was in Fujian, China, two weeks ago and did a Bing web/image search for ‘gay men’ (unrelated to any of this news). Zero results returned, and a standard note about violent and sexually explicit content being censored. Thought that was odd.

Did you try to search for "straight men"?

If there is no sexual content in the photo, what would be the difference in a picture of a gay or straight man? They would look the same.

By specifying sexual orientation you are by definition requesting sexual content.

Re: Chinese Social Media Site Reverses Gay Content Ban After Uproar

#27

Post by dang » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 6:04 AM UTC

PakG1 wrote: post #23

dang wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. We changed the title to that of the actual article. Submitted title was "China's Weibo backs down from censoring gay content following backlash". Submitters: rewriting titles like that is a violation of the site guidelines. If the facts have changed since the article was written, you can explain that by posting a comment about it to the thread, or by finding a more up-to-date article and submitting that. http…

See my other reply, there are articles that explicitly say that it actually happened. See other reply for links. Perhaps change the link instead?

Ok, we've changed the URL from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/15/world/asia/china-gay-ban-.... Thanks!

Re: Chinese Social Media Site Reverses Gay Content Ban After Uproar

#28

Post by dlwdlw » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 6:09 AM UTC

est wrote: post #24

darawk wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fact i'd say it makes it worse.

Another fun fact: censorship is a business in China. Profitable, lucrative, serious business. Every branch of government want its own little kill-switch button. e.g. 舆情系统. Lobbyist plays a key roll in all this.

Isn't it the robustness of distributed power rather than the benign dictatorship that turns ugly due to too much centralized power during leadership changes?

Re: Chinese Social Media Site Reverses Gay Content Ban After Uproar

#29

Post by dlwdlw » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 6:11 AM UTC

maxxxxx wrote: post #25

rectangletangle wrote: post #15

Incidents like this are starting to make me feel that software engineers should have a code of ethics, similar to the Hippocratic Oath. So technologies aren't abused to marginalize individuals/groups.

You have to be careful with this. Ethics can also be used to discriminate against people for religious reasons. These people think they are as ethical as you think you are.

All discrimination already is doing this, just indirectly. There's always an implication. The major one in the US is that harder working people are ethically better than lazy people. This combined with the belief that hard work equals success allows for very easy punishment based mindsets to spread.

Re: Chinese Social Media Site Reverses Gay Content Ban After Uproar

#30

Post by jamesrcole » Tue, Apr 17, 2018, 6:11 AM UTC

est wrote: post #5

Western media intends to portrait "china" as one single top-down entity, but as a matter of fact it's not. There are thousands of bureaucratic federal or local government branches can start an Internet crackdown. The whole "anti-gay" nonscence might came from a office clerk smashing his head for April KPI campaigns and baidu'd for random shit to block and passed through the chain of command. That's it.

> Western media intends to portrait "china" as one single top-down entity, but as a matter of fact it's not.

Are you saying this article does that? I don't see anything in it that does. Can you quote me anything in it that does?

> There are thousands of bureaucratic federal or local government branches can start an Internet crackdown.

You seem to be wanting to imply that this precludes the existence of attempts that come from a higher level.