YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

#881

Post by beezle » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 4:34 AM UTC

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #758

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #386

Unpopular opinion: it is much better to have a leader hated by the media and who's every move is scrutinized by the press than to have a leader cowtowed by the press and given a free pass on anything. How do I know? I'm from Russia. Authoritatism begins with tight control of news sources.

I live in the US and I've said this for decades. I wish the media were just as hard on the politicians they agree with. The one thing different about trump is that he purposely provoked the media and responded to petty nonsense that previous presidents would have just ignored. Trump and the media have a symbiotic relationship because they both need the attention.

It seems funny to me that when people say things about the "media" they by implication omit such members as Fox News, the many, many right leaning web-only news sites and "conservative" talk radio (terrestrial and sat). In addition, much of "local" tv news stations are owned by conservative leaning Sinclair Broadcasting, an ownership which has pressed its own views on the reporting of news by its properties.

Re: YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

#882

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 4:40 AM UTC

lalaland1125 wrote: post #492

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #386

Unpopular opinion: it is much better to have a leader hated by the media and who's every move is scrutinized by the press than to have a leader cowtowed by the press and given a free pass on anything. How do I know? I'm from Russia. Authoritatism begins with tight control of news sources.

This comment is really weird. There is a good reason why the media publishes more negative articles about some presidents and fewer on others; some presidents are legitimately better or worse than others.

[deleted]

Re: YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

#883

Post by fizzbuzzah2 » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 4:40 AM UTC

grawprog wrote: post #694

https://www.engadget.com/youtube-election-misinformation-dem... So, i'm kind of curious how it's reasonable a political party can ask for partisan censorship. >YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki received a letter on Tuesday from four Democratic senators expressing “deep concern” over the spread of election misinformation on Google’s video platform. In the letter, senators Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii…

i don't think free speech applies on managed internet apps. If people are promoting fake news, it should be deleted, if they don't like it they can create their own YouTube that doesn't censor fake news.

Re: YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

#884

Post by azernik » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 4:44 AM UTC

ryaan_anthony wrote: post #75

So who decides what is true/accurate? Is this action just related to the current election or will this extend to other "fake news" and elections in other countries? Covid news comes to mind.

In this case, they are following the judgment of lots and lots of experts, just like with COVID.

Re: YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

#885

Post by stjohnswarts » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 4:45 AM UTC

grawprog wrote: post #694

https://www.engadget.com/youtube-election-misinformation-dem... So, i'm kind of curious how it's reasonable a political party can ask for partisan censorship. >YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki received a letter on Tuesday from four Democratic senators expressing “deep concern” over the spread of election misinformation on Google’s video platform. In the letter, senators Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii…

It's not censorship because Facebook is a private business, they can delete what they want, and if a post, meme, etc are full of dis/misinformation (from either party!) then it's perfectly within their rights to remove it as it damages their reputation and the enjoyment of the platform by customers. I for one am all for it. If I don't like what's going on I will simply stop using facebook. I stopped using it once for 6 months and they never sent booted thugs to my home, so they're doing just fine by me.

Re: YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

#886

Post by Lucadg » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 4:47 AM UTC

This is the same platform that runs obviously scammy ads of Vitalik Butherin Ethereum giveaways for months at the time. Ads, not even content. I wonder how they plan to monitor elections claims.

Re: YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

#887

Post by graycat » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 4:49 AM UTC

Mod: In trying to be a good contributor to this HN thread, I've been attacked by the trolls and lost 8 points of karma.

I will give the thread to the trolls.

Please delete all my posts to this thread.

Re: YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

#888

Post by colordrops » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 4:50 AM UTC

gravity13 wrote: post #744

muttantt wrote: post #176

This is ridiculous. Regardless of your politics, this is just going the wrong direction. Where was this policy when the other side was pushing the Russia collusion narrative for years?

Wait - was the "Russia collusion narrative" that one totally crazy massive investigation that ended up getting 34 people indicted? One of them Trump just pardoned Flynn for a week or so ago? Are you just gonna sit here and pretend like they're even remotely the same thing to a bunch of people calling for the dismissal of our democratic institution of counting votes fairly? As if people were talking about "civil war"…

They weren't indicted for russian collusion. Your comment should be deleted for misinformation.

Re: YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

#889

Post by derptron » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 4:52 AM UTC

shadowgovt wrote: post #218

We've seen instances worldwide in the past of false conspiracies spinning out of hand, resulting in deaths. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46145986 At some point, it becomes reasonable to ask whether private institutions have a responsibility to intercede when their media is used to spread false information that riles hate mobs to kill people.

"Think of the children"?

Is that really your argument?

Re: YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud

#890

Post by Lucadg » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 4:54 AM UTC

Many comments about whether there was fraud or not, the Democrats did the same or not etc...whole the while point here is: is it YouTube's role to decide what content has merit and what has not? I don't think so. It opens the door to even more abuse.

If we had several competing platforms we wouldn't be in this mess.