Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube • Hacker News Board

Re: Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube

#261

Post by linuxftw » Mon, May 18, 2020, 4:08 PM UTC

manigandham wrote: post #119

gabaix wrote: post #63

Youtube is in a tough spot. They will be blamed: - if they don't take down speech some consider hateful - if they take down speech some do not consider hateful 共匪 is seen as an insult by a group, but others do not. If Youtube bans nothing, then hate speech thrives and they get bad PR. If Youtube bans anything anyone flags as hate speech, then they become de facto as censorship agents for foreign powers. Anything crit…

The solution is to realize "hate speech" is mostly subjective and revert back to the clear rules that we had last decade before the current political climate of gratuitous outrage.

"Hate speech" was only ever a tool of political control. It's contemporary usage is no accident.

Re: Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube

#262

Post by guerrilla » Mon, May 18, 2020, 4:08 PM UTC

humaid wrote: post #59

Similar happens with the name "Eric Ciaramella", which YouTube instantly deletes. This is a name of a CIA whistle blower. It would be interesting to know what other words are in the YouTube censor list.

Wow I just verified this for myself

Re: Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube

#263

Post by ksec » Mon, May 18, 2020, 4:08 PM UTC

gabaix wrote: post #63

Youtube is in a tough spot. They will be blamed: - if they don't take down speech some consider hateful - if they take down speech some do not consider hateful 共匪 is seen as an insult by a group, but others do not. If Youtube bans nothing, then hate speech thrives and they get bad PR. If Youtube bans anything anyone flags as hate speech, then they become de facto as censorship agents for foreign powers. Anything crit…

Youtube this is absolutely ridiculous.

Now is the word "ridiculous" towards Google or Youtube considered as hate speech?

I mean if you look around YouTube, there are lots of name calling, idiots, rude words that starts with F and S. None of the them were considered as hate speech, but all of a sudden every single negative word used to describe Communist "共" ( Which is in no specific to Chinese Communist, after all there are still a few Communist regime around the world ), and that includes "licking" ( "舔" ) communist, which the word licking in itself isn't in anyway "hateful", is now also considered as inappropriate or hate speech and be removed?

Using the Chinese Communist standards, anything that used to support the Hong Kong movement or demand will be considered as an act of attack on China and also as hate speech. Because you are in support of Hong Kong independence. For those who are not aware none of the five demands in Hong Kong specifically mentioned independence or separation, but that label has been used as any disobedience against CCP to be considered as one. So at what point will words used to support Hong Kong, or even US Government in sanction of China considered as hate speech? Especially when Youtube is already removing lots of content that is in support of the movement.

Edit: Yes Keep up with the downvoting.

Re: Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube

#264

Post by wait_a_minute » Mon, May 18, 2020, 4:09 PM UTC

missosoup wrote: post #41

There was a previous unrelated discussion about this just a few hours ago which was climbing to the top of the front page when I saw it. And then just vanished: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23221264 It's not flagged, it just went from #13 on the front page to invisible. In a single refresh. How does that work? Looking at the votes and age, it should be in the top 5 of both Ask and the front page. What's the m…

This is very worrisome. If we cannot as computing professionals raise the alarm about censorship and tech abuses on a primary forum for computing professionals, what options are left? Ethics is an important part of what we do for a living. We cannot back down from that now or ever.

Re: Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube

#265

Post by JumpCrisscross » Mon, May 18, 2020, 4:09 PM UTC

marcolussetti wrote: post #250

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 共匪 is seen as an insult by a group, but others do not This is where the legal concept of protected classes may be helpful. They're sets of attributes society has deemed one cannot discriminate against. That tends to line up well with said society's line between insulting and hateful. As a legal definition, these class definitions tend to be precise. That makes them convenient for exporting. Notably, political affil…

However, political affiliation is a protected class in other countries where YouTube operates. It's hard to strike a balance on this I fear.

> political affiliation is a protected class in other countries where YouTube operates

At which point Google should decide on what countries they operate in. If they operate in a country where political affiliation is a protected class, go ahead and hide those comments to users in that country. But don't export that country's values to mine.

Re: Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube

#266

Post by GordonS » Mon, May 18, 2020, 4:09 PM UTC

ajconway wrote: post #173

ddevault wrote: post #38

Google & YouTube employees on HN: how do you justify still working at this company? Enough of the cognitive dissonance. Face your choices and tell me how you square yourself with them. For shame.

How do you justify being a citizen of your country? (not sure what country that is, but most of them have done bad things in the past). It's possible to be a part of a large organization and not agree with its every action.

It's not really the same though - I can choose to work for an organisation, whereas I don't get to choose where I am born.

Re: Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube

#267

Post by kauffj » Mon, May 18, 2020, 4:09 PM UTC

If you think the idea of trusting giant social media corporations with the levers to control our speech is outrageous, so does everyone working on LBRY.

We are working hard to design systems that have the same user experience as the traditional web, but fundamentally redesigned so that this kind of behavior is outright impossible. LBRY allows for local control of the publishing experience, and layers identity, discovery, and payments on top of a distributed data network.

P2P desktop client: https://lbry.com/get

Web-version: https://lbry.tv

Tech documentation: https://lbry.tech

Almost 100 people contributed to LBRY last month, and more than 2 million people used it.

Come join us, and escape YouTube :)

Re: Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube

#268

Post by s_y_n_t_a_x » Mon, May 18, 2020, 4:10 PM UTC

anoraca wrote: post #237

humaid wrote: post #59

Similar happens with the name "Eric Ciaramella", which YouTube instantly deletes. This is a name of a CIA whistle blower. It would be interesting to know what other words are in the YouTube censor list.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistleblower_Protection_Act

.

Re: Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube

#269

Post by 101404 » Mon, May 18, 2020, 4:10 PM UTC

RIMR wrote: post #225

What an infantile understanding of the issue. The reason that hate speech creates outrage is because it exists to communicate inhuman hatred of others for their immutable characteristics. The reason that sites like YouTube don't tolerate it isn't that they share in the outrage - it's that they rely entirely on advertisers to keep their bottom line positive, and advertisers aren't going to pay to be associated with ha…

> infantile understanding

I had to flag your comment for using this hurtful speech.

Re: Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube

#270

Post by save_ferris » Mon, May 18, 2020, 4:10 PM UTC

ajconway wrote: post #173

ddevault wrote: post #38

Google & YouTube employees on HN: how do you justify still working at this company? Enough of the cognitive dissonance. Face your choices and tell me how you square yourself with them. For shame.

How do you justify being a citizen of your country? (not sure what country that is, but most of them have done bad things in the past). It's possible to be a part of a large organization and not agree with its every action.

This is a very poor comparison since nobody chooses their original country of citizenship and it usually takes lots of money or familial connection to obtain citizenship elsewhere.