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Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube

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

#751

Post by MiSeRyDeee »

Swenrekcah wrote: post #720
MiSeRyDeee wrote: post #619

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't you even see removing the CIA's whistle blower's name is in interest of US gov? How can that be interpreted as protecting an individual?

It certainly does not seem to be in the interest of the current US government. To answer your question: Protecting a whistleblower's identity is in the interest of US society as a whole. It protects the individual somewhat from persecution which in turn encourages people to blow the whistle on illegal activities, thus benefiting society.

Still, it's redacted due to some interesting parties pressing charges. Protecting a whistleblower's identity is the right thing for sure, but I don't believe Google add his name on the list for the righteous reason.

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

#752

Post by yashap »

jshevek wrote: post #724
yashap wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strongly disagree, there are some blurred lines around hate speech, but this isn’t one of them at all. This is a critique of a political party, that’s clear cut not hate speech.

I am opposed to censorship, and I disagree with your claim. This qualifies as "hate speech". It's derogatory, its directed at a specific group of people, and it can foster animosity. That the group is a political party is not material.

Every hate speech law I’ve seen has a reasonably rigorous definition of what qualifies, including what kind of groups are protected. I’ve never seen a hate speech law that protects criticism of political parties, if you have please link to it.

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

#753

Post by dang »

atomashpolskiy wrote: post #538
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…

Seems like a child comment has been detached from this thread and moved into a separate top-level thread, that is currently at the top ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23223772 ), while its' former parent (comment that I'm currently responding to) has been moved to the bottom (2nd page). QED.

If we're downweighting an off-topic subthread A, but it has a subthread B which is actually on-topic, we sometimes detach B so that it doesn't get pulled down by its parent. This is a good example. In this case A and B were almost completely unrelated.

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

#754

Post by elefanten »

rbanffy wrote: post #526

As someone who's regularly on the receiving end of far-right anti-communist rhetoric that, in places I have lived, includes death threats and a reasonably credible suspicion government may soon want to arrest and disappear some people, I welcome some measure of hate speech suppression. Before I hit submit, let me add a mandatory "burn, karma, burn" because I know what I'm stepping into.

Yeah, it's stunning that someone who's experienced motivated authoritarian repression is arguing in favor of the CCP's bullshit regime-preservation distortions on speech, thought and discourse.

You know who the global leaders of disappearing citizens they disagree with are?

Automated filters on a global communication platform instituted for bullshit, regime-appeasing reasons are not going to solve community-driven hate in localities.

Anyone motivated to hate you will invent as many slurs as they need. Warping our institutions to play whack-a-mole against bad actors is shooting ourselves in the foot.

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

#755

Post by vorpalhex »

chki wrote: post #721
vorpalhex wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is either the case that the parent likes to add random facts into conversations such as "the word communist contains 9 letters" which has nothing to do with the conversation, or the parent clearly felt that the phrase being perjorative was tied to it being censored. Let us assume the parent was being on topic and relevant. Therefore they seem to indicate the censoring was due to it being perjorative. As most other…

I guess we're on a tangent now but maybe it's an interesting exercise. >the parent clearly felt that the phrase being perjorative was tied to it being censored. How do you come to this conclusion? In my view the comment is not implying anything at all, it is merely translating (not only using a direct translation but also conveying the implications of the phrase "communist bandit"). The word "pejorative" adds to the…

So then the parent was adding in random fun facts for our benefit?

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

#756

Post by gowld »

three_seagrass wrote: post #633
SilasX wrote: post #582

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At risk of nitpicking, why do say "controls" rather than e.g. "services" or "handles"? When you say "controls" it's like you're saying Google has some kind of monopoly power that makes it hard to switch. And yet anyone can easily switch to e.g. DuckDuckGo. If that's a monopoly, it's not quite the kind of a monopoly we should generally be worried about. Browsers would be a different issue. In that case, there are netw…

This is the perennial discussion on HN as HN'ers get popularity confused with monopoly. I get the anti-Google sentiment but outside of the Play services agreements that Google got dinged for with Android manufacturers, they're not being anti-competitive. If Google were to block search results to DuckDuckGo for example, that would be monopolistic and warrant antitrust action. As it is now, Google isn't blocking compet…

You are one of those confused HNers.

Monopoly power is different from abuse of monopoly power.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly#Establishing_dominanc...

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

#757

Post by orblivion »

manigandham wrote: post #442
jayd16 wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What were those clear rules we apparently abandoned for no reason?

The First Amendment of the US Constitution.

I'm mostly on your side of this debate, but I don't think this quite works because of spammers (though perhaps that's the only reason). Are spammers protected by the first amendment? I bet Gab has anti-spam measures too.

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

#758

Post by djdjrjebfbfjd »

I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess the phrase was added to their hate speech filter. I would guess that if I wrote racist or anti-semitic phrases those would be automatically deleted as well. Sometimes it gets a bit silly. I remember that in the game Words With Friends you’re not allowed to play “jew”. Which is one of the easiest ways to use a ‘j’.

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

#759

Post by b0rsuk »

koheripbal wrote: post #112

I think a more fundamental problem is a single private company having a near-monopoly on various public communication channels, and having financial interests in various global dictatorships. The Founding Fathers could not have predicted this. Google's "We're a private company" get-out-jail-free card cannot continue to apply.

Sure, a more fundamental problem. But many people don't have enough imagination and foresight and for them concrete examples are more convincing. Same with the country I'm currently in - democracy has been rotting for the last several years as the ruling party has been busy disabling protection mechanisms and pulling out screws. It's only now that the government is blatant in its abuse of law and police fine people with no chance of appeal and straight up beat them, nurses get pay CUTS... that citizens realize what suckers they've been. That laws and procedures exist for a reason.

Maybe they're not just stupid, but have a different way of thinking. Bottom-up versus top-down.

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

#760

Post by ickwabe »

There's a gazillion videos all over youtube criticizing, mocking, and calling out the Chinese government for all sorts of repressive activities.

I'm confused as to why people would think youtube is bothering to sensor those two characters in oparticular as opposed to something much more likely like spam/bot filtering or channel word filtering. I'd think the Chinese Gov would be much more animated about videos like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9AvUuEPgvA

or this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=S3RzKKfNkTk

or this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4TReo_G74A

or any of millions of other videos.

i can find plenty of negative comments directed at the chinese communist party in comments all over youtube.

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