[HN Gopher] YouTube CEO receives freedom of expression award spo...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       YouTube CEO receives freedom of expression award sponsored by
       YouTube itself
        
       Author : the-dude
       Score  : 426 points
       Date   : 2021-04-20 19:36 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (marketresearchtelecast.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (marketresearchtelecast.com)
        
       | cosmodisk wrote:
       | We discussed and I decided that the most worthy person in this
       | room is me and therefore I award myself with this amazing award.
       | Look at me,you little people,look!
       | 
       | At some point, she'll go home after a long day of executive
       | meetings, crash on a sofa and there will be the award placed in
       | the most prominent place in her home. She'll look at it, sight
       | and say: 'well done me!'.
        
       | MattGaiser wrote:
       | The award website.
       | 
       | https://www.freeexpressionawards.org/
        
         | the-dude wrote:
         | Featuring : Colin Powell!
         | 
         | However, I searched but found nothing about the award for Susan
         | Wojcicki, the YT CEO ( she is listed prominently on the site ).
        
           | MattGaiser wrote:
           | I assume that she just got a regular award.
        
           | himinlomax wrote:
           | Lying to the UN security council is protected speech!
        
       | melff wrote:
       | > YouTube CEO
       | 
       | > freedom of expression
       | 
       | is that a joke? this gotta be some kind of prank right?
        
       | karmasimida wrote:
       | This is ridiculous in too many ways. Don't know where to start.
        
       | xbar wrote:
       | Congratulations!
        
       | mudil wrote:
       | We live in the through the looking glass world, where things are
       | also upside down. What's next? Google and Facebook receiving
       | Defenders of the Privacy awards?
        
       | bronson wrote:
       | This appeared earlier on HN but got squelched:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26875971
        
       | colpabar wrote:
       | more discussion here:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26875971
       | 
       | notably, the title of that post was changed to omit the fact that
       | it was sponsored by youtube.
        
         | the-dude wrote:
         | Are you sure about that? Currently it is consistent with the
         | Youtube title, which is the HN etiquette ( don't editorialize
         | titles ).
        
           | ortusdux wrote:
           | The last one linked directly to the video
        
       | it wrote:
       | Have a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube_suspensions.
       | If you search for "right", there are multiple matches. If you
       | search for "left", there are none.
        
         | pavel_lishin wrote:
         | What point are you trying to make?
        
           | elastolin wrote:
           | That YouTube doesn't support freedom of expresion, and it's
           | extremely biased towards one end of the political spectrum.
        
           | it wrote:
           | YouTube is left biased and you can easily verify it.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | robbyking wrote:
         | [Deleted]
        
           | stirfish wrote:
           | Copyright, but not copyleft. This confirms YouTube's bias
           | towards proprietary software.
        
         | swang wrote:
         | lol did you count "human rights activist" in that?
         | 
         | wow why are more right wing people being suspended. its like
         | they promote really shitty things like white supremacy
         | conspiracy theories
         | 
         | there have been tons of minorities who have had their channels
         | taken down, they just don't reach wikipedia level of notoriety
        
         | fionnohGoDeo wrote:
         | Things would look different if human left activism and copyleft
         | infringements existed though.
        
           | it wrote:
           | My comment is still true without those.
        
         | femiagbabiaka wrote:
         | Be more specific. Are you saying there are left-wing YouTubers
         | who should be suspended who aren't? If so that's a decent
         | conversation to have, misapplication of policy to suit
         | political ends. But looking at that list, I'm not seeing the
         | injustice here.
        
           | AlphaOne1 wrote:
           | I think left wing thinkers are not censored as much because
           | they are not as successful on YouTube. My pet theory on why
           | right leaning channels are more successful in terms of
           | viewers on YouTube than left leaning is similar to what
           | happened with talk radio. Currently, most conventional news
           | media has a distinctly left leaning flavor to it. Left
           | leaning thinkers (not liberal per se but what is currently
           | the trendy left leaning thinking) has to compete with these
           | conventional news organizations. There is a demand for
           | alternative voices on the right which is why I think you see
           | many more right wing thinkers on YouTube who are successful.
           | My point is that if left wing thinkers were successful on
           | YouTube to the extent of Crowder et al they would likely be
           | censored as well as they would conflict with the narrative of
           | traditional media. Not sure if this is correct but a glance
           | at top YouTube channels include Tim Pool, Ben Shapiro, and
           | Steven Crowder.
        
       | grawprog wrote:
       | As utterly brazen, shameless and just completely and utterly
       | unself-aware as this is, look on the bright side. A quick glance
       | at the like/dislike ratio and comments shows, most people are not
       | impressed with that kind of bullshit.
       | 
       | People aren't buying it and overwhelmingly seem to recognize what
       | shitty hypocritical utterly bullshit behaviour youtube engages
       | in.
        
         | ihsw wrote:
         | Dislikes will not be possible in the future:
         | https://nypost.com/2021/03/31/youtube-is-testing-removal-of-...
         | 
         | Also, somewhat interestingly:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-disliked_YouTube_...
        
           | grawprog wrote:
           | I'm honestly surprised the comments have been allowed to
           | remain on for this video. At this point, they're kinda damned
           | if they do, damned if they don't. Turning off dislikes and
           | comments on the video would prove their hypocrisy, but
           | leaving it on shows just how much people hate it.
           | 
           | I've never seen that list before...apparently people really
           | hate cocomelon nursery rhymes...it shows up 11 times in that
           | list.
        
             | eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 wrote:
             | > apparently people really hate cocomelon nursery
             | rhymes...it shows up 11 times in that list.
             | 
             | There's a really plausible explanation for huge dislike
             | ratios on videos for children:
             | 
             | Very young children don't understand the UI, they just
             | randomly mash buttons.
             | 
             | So a 50/50 like/dislike ratio would represent that
             | randomness.
        
           | compiler-guy wrote:
           | "may not be possible."
        
         | elliekelly wrote:
         | I have nothing nice to say about any Google-owned company but
         | is this really all that different from $city's Best $business
         | or literally any other corporate "award" that's nothing more
         | than thinly-veiled advertising? At least YouTube had the good
         | sense to cut out the marketing middle man and just award it to
         | themselves.
        
           | grawprog wrote:
           | Usually when that kind of corporate feelgood bullshit happens
           | though, it's not publicized and isn't done in such an in your
           | face, 'lol fuck you everybody' kind of way.
           | 
           | Like literally describes while receiving the award how
           | censorship and pandering to corporate advertisers is free
           | speech.
           | 
           | Also, typically, most of the time, the thousands of people
           | directly negatively affected by the reason for the award
           | aren't able to publicly display their disgust.
        
       | junippor wrote:
       | https://i.stack.imgur.com/VX6iE.jpg
        
       | nfrankel wrote:
       | Colin Powell, Mr "weapons of mass destruction" himself side-by-
       | side with Jimmy Lai of Hong-Kong fame.
       | 
       | I don't know whether to laugh or to cry.
        
       | varispeed wrote:
       | That's the spirit. Yesterday I won the man of the living room
       | award sponsored by myself.
        
       | kobieyc wrote:
       | This is real pravda stuff
        
       | StandardFuture wrote:
       | This is one of those moments in history that future humans look
       | back on and wonder how people were "so much more ignorant,
       | stupid, gullible, corrupt, etc. than we are today".
       | 
       | Praising yourself for things that you did not actually do is
       | analogous to how some ancient kings praised themselves for
       | winning a battle that historians later realized they did not
       | actually win. Like how did those kings really expect their people
       | to just believe that? Because the king's fact checkers verified
       | it, of course.
       | 
       | The many self-generated mythologies of the Kim dynasty of North
       | Korea is a great example of this phenomenon.
        
       | proc0 wrote:
       | So they're afraid people will think YT has no freedom of
       | expression, I guess.
       | 
       | Don't they realize this is just them broadcasting an insecurity?
       | Nobody who is really XYZ goes around saying "hey everyone, I'm
       | XYZ :D", it instantly reduces your cred.
       | 
       | *:just to clarify, I neither agree nor disagree with the award, I
       | think it's between really, some areas of YT have nice features,
       | others need work.
        
         | gryn wrote:
         | next step: youtube to be renamed 'YouTube: The free democratic
         | republic of the internet'
        
       | young_unixer wrote:
       | """ Wojcicki said that the Google-owned video streaming platform
       | would be "removing information that is problematic".
       | 
       | "Anything that would go against World Health Organization
       | recommendations would be a violation of our policy." """
       | 
       | April 2020.
       | 
       | https://www.verdict.co.uk/youtube-coronavirus-ban-who/
        
         | justnotworthit wrote:
         | No need to link to past censorship: She celebrated and promoted
         | youtube's content restriction in her acceptance speach.
         | 
         | Youtube unironically, whole-heartedly believes that "Censorship
         | is Expression". Now the award makes sense. Add it to the "War
         | is Peace" list.
        
         | hn8788 wrote:
         | Considering that last year the WHO said that healthy people
         | don't need to wear masks, that seems ike a pretty stupid policy
         | for YouTube to keep.
        
           | thelean12 wrote:
           | Why in the world are you still throwing that line out like it
           | means anything?
           | 
           | 1. The world was _desperately_ trying to get normal folks to
           | stop buying up all the masks to save them for healthcare
           | professionals.
           | 
           | 2. Society didn't figure out the homemade mask trend for a
           | while, nor did we figure out whether or not homemade masks
           | would even work against covid for a while given all the
           | factors, including people touching their face with the mask
           | or feeling more empowered to interact with people with masks
           | on.
           | 
           | 3. At the time, it wasn't known how widespread covid was for
           | the general public. Healthcare providers were _massively_
           | more at risk and were reusing N95s for months.
           | 
           | Could the orgs have done better with their messaging? Sure.
           | But fuck off with this line. It's straight up disinformation
           | to suggest that this is a reason not to trust the CDC or WHO
           | or whatever.
        
             | baobabKoodaa wrote:
             | Let me get this straight: you support Youtube's decision to
             | censor accurate criticism of WHO guidelines, because you
             | think spreading lies and disinformation served a useful
             | purpose? That's despicable.
        
               | thelean12 wrote:
               | What are you even saying?
               | 
               | Are you saying that YouTube should be the arbiter of
               | whether or not a video is a fair criticism of WHO
               | guidelines?
               | 
               | Or are you saying that YouTube should allow complete
               | bullshit, lies, and misinformation mixed in with the few
               | bits of fair criticism?
               | 
               | Both options are completely absurd.
        
           | young_unixer wrote:
           | Not to mention the contradiction between the CDC and the WHO
           | regarding asymptomatic spread.
        
           | 988747 wrote:
           | That recommendation turns out to be pretty good advice:
           | 
           | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-
           | facema...
        
             | thelean12 wrote:
             | Do you just look for headlines that confirm what you want
             | to be true?
             | 
             | "The findings are consistent with previous research. Health
             | experts have long said a mask provides only limited
             | protection for the person wearing it, but can dramatically
             | reduce the risk to others if the wearer is infected, even
             | when showing no symptoms."
             | 
             | Whether or not someone is "healthy" is completely
             | irrelevant when you count that last part, "even when
             | showing no symptoms".
             | 
             | It's not good advice.
        
       | f430 wrote:
       | you cannot make this up
        
       | turminal wrote:
       | Reminds me of https://xkcd.com/250/ in a way.
        
         | vq wrote:
         | http://www.viruscomix.com/page482.html popped into my mind.
        
         | ttt0 wrote:
         | Snopes? ok lol
         | 
         | https://archive.md/Wy4GT
         | 
         | https://archive.md/wrEXO
         | 
         | https://archive.is/AqkNf
         | 
         | http://archive.is/HNgc9
        
       | BitwiseFool wrote:
       | What a bizarre, two faced world we live in. On one level, the
       | fact that an organization exists to give a "freedom of
       | expression" award is peculiar in-and-of-itself. But that same
       | organization which claims to champion freedom of expression
       | doesn't actually do anything to advance the cause of free speech
       | on platforms. In fact, it is awarding a CEO of a platform that
       | expressly forbids the discussion of anything related to
       | _possible_ fraud or lack of integrity in the 2020 election. You
       | can 't even talk about it. So on the one hand, they believe
       | YouTube "protect freedoms "in all possible ways" while also
       | "noted that there must be certain limits". How can a
       | contradiction be so blatant?
       | 
       | Ultimately, what is the point of this? Is it some kind of
       | Potemkin award meant to normalize censorship _as_ free
       | expression? Is it some silly thing apologists of YouTube can
       | point to when YouTube is criticized as restricting free speech?
       | 
       | Edit: Even if you despise the people who think the election was
       | stolen, preventing those people from discussing it on your
       | platform directly contradicts the principle of free expression.
        
       | lrvick wrote:
       | Am I the only one that finds it particularly scummy she selected
       | a famous blind woman to introduce her sham award?
       | 
       | This feels begging for fan and sympathy likes, though it does not
       | appear to be working.
        
         | itronitron wrote:
         | Maybe subconsciously she knows that she should be embarrassed
         | at receiving the award and doesn't want to be seen receiving
         | it.
        
       | devmor wrote:
       | I have decided to award myself with the Best At Irony Award.
        
       | williesleg wrote:
       | I just gave her the shithead of the year award, she can put that
       | on her CV
        
       | nix23 wrote:
       | >His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji
       | Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE, Lord of All the Beasts of
       | the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British
       | Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular
        
       | libeclipse wrote:
       | https://twitter.com/GordonDimmack/status/1384067464368033800
        
       | the-dude wrote:
       | At 22:45CET this submission dropped from #1 to #26.
        
       | teddyh wrote:
       | In the other thread about this topic here on HN1, more than one
       | commenter said that they didn't comment or downvote this on
       | YouTube since it they were afraid it could affect their Google
       | account. I commented this on one of them:
       | 
       | This right here. Many people say things like "Google would
       | never...", and they might be right. But that's not what matters,
       | what matters is people's _beliefs_ about what Google would do.
       | And _this_ is why Google should have absolutely _no_ influence
       | over your web browser, your programming language, etc. Again,
       | that's _perceived_ influence, not actual influence. The fear
       | exists regardless.
       | 
       | 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26875971
        
       | calebm wrote:
       | "Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and
       | not your own lips." (Proverbs 27:2)
        
       | throwawaysea wrote:
       | From Reclaim The Net's article on this award
       | (https://reclaimthenet.org/youtube-ceo-freedom-of-
       | expression-...):
       | 
       | > One week before receiving this award, Wojcicki appeared at the
       | World Economic Forum's Global Technology Governance Summit 2021
       | to discuss how YouTube has ramped up its censorship and called
       | for global coalitions to address content that's "legal but could
       | be harmful."
       | 
       | Some recent examples of YouTube's support for free expression:
       | 
       | 1. YouTube's policies block ad targeting on Black Lives Matter
       | videos https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/04/youtubes-
       | policie...
       | 
       | 2. Scientists From Oxford, Harvard, and Princeton Talked COVID
       | With DeSantis. YouTube Deleted It https://pjmedia.com/news-and-
       | politics/tyler-o-neil/2021/04/1...
       | 
       | 3. YouTube Is Wiping Trump's CPAC Speech -- Unless The Videos
       | Discredit It https://thefederalist.com/2021/03/05/youtube-is-
       | wiping-trump...
       | 
       | 3b. Bonus round: misleading/gaslighting fact check trying to
       | claim that YouTube was not censoring CPAC speeches:
       | https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-did-youtube-ban-all-copi...
       | 
       | She definitely seems deserving of recognition for defending the
       | freedom of expression /s
        
       | duxup wrote:
       | YouTube certainly allows for a heck of a lot of expression that
       | could reach a lot of people...
       | 
       | As for industry awards I worked at a company that were members of
       | a number of industry award groups. When we were acquired by
       | another company maybe half a floor of people were left in what
       | was a five floor building.
       | 
       | I and some others gathered up all the awards scattered across the
       | building (there were a lot) and decorated our desks with them. To
       | their credit when the acquiring company's CEO showed up, he
       | thought it was pretty hilarious.
       | 
       | For the record, as long as I worked there I held the record for
       | the most "President's Club" awards held by any given employee...
       | at least if you count the trophies at my desk.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | Zealotux wrote:
       | This is Galvin Belson level of narcissism.
        
       | the-dude wrote:
       | At 23:07CET, this submission dropped to #31, and off the
       | frontpage. Finally!
        
       | okprod wrote:
       | Almost like airtags to find airtags
        
       | femiagbabiaka wrote:
       | The lack of self-awareness from tech elites is somehow still
       | astonishing.
        
       | rickspencer3 wrote:
       | I remember about 20 years ago, I was working at Microsoft, and
       | Visual Source Safe won the best code Source Code Repository from
       | Visual Source Safe Magazine. Quite the surprising outcome.
        
       | Krisjohn wrote:
       | The First Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding
       | Achievement in the Field of Excellence was comedy, not a
       | suggestion.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | mdeck_ wrote:
       | https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/510/176/e33...
        
       | toptal wrote:
       | This must be some sort of objective measure of society entering
       | into a new era.
        
         | Y_Y wrote:
         | The Cretinaceous.
        
           | tgragnato wrote:
           | We got a movie about that! Idiocracy (2006)... I'm a huge fan
        
             | kobieyc wrote:
             | This film wins my prize for "most accurate prediction of
             | the future".
        
             | asdff wrote:
             | The older I get the more horrified I am about how well this
             | movie is starting to parallel life.
        
         | fullshark wrote:
         | The post shame era
        
         | not2personal wrote:
         | Clown world man, it's just clowns all the way down.
        
       | culturthrowaway wrote:
       | North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been granted the title of
       | marshal, state media reported Wednesday, cementing his status as
       | the authoritarian nation's top military official as he makes key
       | changes to the million-man force.
       | 
       | The decision to award Kim, who already serves as supreme
       | commander of the Korean People's Army, was made Tuesday by the
       | nation's top military, government and political officials, state
       | media said in a special bulletin.
       | 
       | The formal move to bestow the title of marshal to Kim comes seven
       | months into his rule and follows several days of reshuffling at
       | the highest levels of the military.
        
         | culturthrowaway wrote:
         | https://old.reddit.com/search?q=youtube+shadowban
         | 
         | https://old.reddit.com/search?q=youtube+ban
         | 
         | Far from exhaustive, I'm sure this happens quietly to many more
         | small creators who've crossed the wrong invisible line, asked
         | the wrong good-faith question, or gotten too close to a banned
         | subject even while covering something else entirely.
         | 
         | But it should be clear even from what little's made it to be
         | documented that what YouTube will suppress has already quietly
         | dipped pretty deep into your personal overton window, if you
         | ever even pretended to care about real free expression.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | mikaeluman wrote:
       | This award would have made sense when YouTube really took off.
       | 
       | Lately YouTube has engaged in unpersoning - deleting people from
       | the social consciousness. Stefan Molyneux and Alex Jones come to
       | mind. Others have their accounts and videos merely suspended or
       | demonetized for inane reasons, e.g Louder with Crowder.
       | 
       | Even doctors merely expressing opinions contrary to WHO
       | officialdom get taken off.
       | 
       | This process has happened very quickly over the past few years
       | and is the reason why alternatives are set to prosper.
       | 
       | Awarding this CEO merely means the award is not to be taken
       | seriously.
        
         | elmomle wrote:
         | Yeah, the underlying concern is about the propagation of
         | "alternative stories", which tend to spread because of well-
         | documented behavioral feedback loops with such stories in
         | social media ("controversial" takes get more engagement,
         | incentivizing more sharing!).
         | 
         | The actual solution is to legislatively neuter the algorithms
         | that power social media. It's harder to do so we're doing the
         | awful, dangerous, strategically-unwise thing (censoring)
         | instead.
        
           | zarkov99 wrote:
           | The problem is that they get it wrong, all the time, and
           | always in the same direction. I think the solution is complex
           | and includes at least 3 things: 1)treat it as a public health
           | problem, that is have campaigns, just like we did for
           | cigarettes, explaining how toxic online content can be 2)
           | mandate that platforms cannot censor content that is not
           | illegal, but also must provide tools so that users can
           | protect themselves, if they wish, from content they are
           | offended by. 3) and most importantly, start the hard work of
           | building trustworthy institutions. We would not be in this
           | predicament it it was not plainly obvious that our
           | institutions especially media, have rotted beyond redemption.
        
         | joering2 wrote:
         | The biggest problem with starting YouTube competitor is
         | bandwidth you have to pay for. Even Google has physical servers
         | located inside ISPs all around the world with the newest
         | version of their videos to save on transfer. But so does
         | Netflix!
         | 
         | I am surprised we haven't seen NetFlix take on video social
         | network. A YouFlix if you will...
        
         | butt_hugger wrote:
         | > Lately YouTube has engaged in unpersoning - deleting people
         | from the social consciousness. Stefan Molyneux and Alex Jones
         | come to mind. Others have their accounts and videos merely
         | suspended or demonetized for inane reasons, e.g Louder with
         | Crowder.
         | 
         | Is it a coincidence that the two people you cited are Nazis?
        
       | throwaway1959 wrote:
       | As a CEO of youtube, she is free to express her views freely on
       | youtube, by censoring opinions of other people that she does not
       | agree with.
        
         | jgalt212 wrote:
         | Almost as good as when Blythe Masters tried to be a regulator
         | and a perpetrator (or manager thereof) at the same time.
         | 
         | On Second Thought, JPMorgan Executive Won't Advise Commodities
         | Regulator
         | 
         | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-02-07/jpmorgans...
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | libeclipse wrote:
         | Freedom of expression includes the right to supress the views
         | of others! /s
        
           | anm89 wrote:
           | Right. This is actually how it works. Many of us support
           | this.
        
           | melff wrote:
           | only if the wiews of others are HaTEfuL!!1!11! we must censor
           | hAteFUl11!1!!1 content because members of ProTEcTeD gROupS
           | are not mentally fit to deal with other people's opinions
           | _cough_ I mean because this kind of content is violent and
           | harmful.
        
           | judge2020 wrote:
           | The right to not be forced to spread the views of others :)
        
             | kobieyc wrote:
             | I think there is more nuance to this. The problem is that
             | YouTube literally claim "Our mission is to give everyone a
             | voice and show them the world." not the selectively
             | suppress the views of certain groups. So I think it's
             | closer to false advertising.
        
         | modeitsch wrote:
         | This is how the entire world of big tech works
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | hintymad wrote:
         | I always wonder what makes YouTube/Twitter, in particular its
         | so-called reviewers or fact-checkers, think that they are on
         | the right side of the history? They are not necessarily better
         | informed, they are not necessarily better educated, and they
         | are not necessarily better at research, they are not
         | necessarily better at interpreting stats. In fact, I question
         | if many of them understand scientific research at all. Yet they
         | had no problem banning a person for citing a research from
         | Stanford that questions the effectiveness of masks. Yet they
         | had no problem declaring Florida's governor was spreading
         | misinformation in a round-table discussion. Yet they had no
         | problem shutting down anyone a year ago who supported wearing
         | mask or staying at home, and shutting down anyone now who
         | claims the opposite now.
         | 
         | In fact, YouTube, according to BBC, bans any coronavirus-
         | related content that directly contradicts World Health
         | Organization (WHO) advice. Yet isn't it true that WHO gave
         | really bad advice in the early days of Covid-19? Isn't true
         | that Taiwan ignored WHO's advice and implemented strict
         | containment policy to a great success? Isn't Thailand
         | representative harshly criticized WHO for their dubious
         | corroboration with Chinese government? What makes YouTube think
         | that they possess moral superiority over other people?
        
           | zarkov99 wrote:
           | I think the reviewers are mostly low on the tech totem pole
           | young people, as ignorant of history or anything outside of
           | their neighborhoods as they are certain about their virtue.
           | You know, as young people have always been. That they get to
           | police what everybody else can say is a serious problem.
        
           | linuxftw wrote:
           | They know they're frauds pushing a political agenda, and they
           | know if they and their conspirators repeat the same lies over
           | and over, the masses will believe them.
        
             | baobabKoodaa wrote:
             | That's a rather cynical view. In my experience, people who
             | make false statements with confidence often believe their
             | own bullshit.
        
         | samstave wrote:
         | Came to say the same thing!
        
         | throwaway122378 wrote:
         | Worse than her censorship is our (me included) refusal to
         | collectively stand up to this behavior
        
         | fossuser wrote:
         | You're being snarky, but this is essentially true (as I
         | understand it).
         | 
         | In the US, outside of a few legally protected characteristics,
         | a company is free to exercise its speech to choose not to
         | provide service to customers it does not wish to.
         | 
         | The government forcing companies to provide service would be a
         | violation of their speech rights.
         | 
         | Some companies go out of their way to try to be better than
         | that because they recognize the influence they have on public
         | access to platforms. (Zuckerberg cares a lot about this:
         | https://zalberico.com/essay/2020/06/16/mark-zuckerberg-
         | and-f...), but ultimately all of that is above and beyond what
         | the legal expectations are.
         | 
         | In FB's case it wasn't so much a policy change that lead to
         | them shutting down Trump's account, but that USG's position as
         | a rule of law nation was in question after 1/6 and it no longer
         | met their own policy requirements that give elected politicians
         | in rule of law democracies a special pass to violate their
         | moderation rules.
         | 
         | The irony is this is a variant of the same argument made in the
         | gay cake case, but with the political partisanship reversed.
         | The notable difference in that case is that sexual orientation
         | is a protected characteristic.
        
           | Spivak wrote:
           | It's basically an application of freedom vs liberty. You are
           | less free as a result of having to follow the rules of the
           | road but have greater liberty by being able to travel safely
           | and efficiently.
           | 
           | This balance is governance's equivalent of "three hard
           | problems."
           | 
           | When it comes to platform moderation it seems like HN at
           | large overwhelmingly holds the opinion that for speech
           | liberty is maximized with freedom. Which might be right but
           | for me personally I've experienced the reality not being able
           | myself on the internet because of all the hate I've received.
           | The solution has been for my whole life has boiled down to
           | "just pretend to be a straight white cis American man" to the
           | point of having to use a voice-changer to play videogames
           | online. Like it does work and solves the immediate problem.
           | But the truth is also that it has gotten a lot better in
           | recent years. We're finally out of the "there are no girls on
           | the internet" dark ages and I don't know if the ends justify
           | the means but something is working.
        
           | mellosouls wrote:
           | _The irony is this is a variant of the same argument made in
           | the gay cake case, but with the political partisanship
           | reversed. The notable difference in that case is that sexual
           | orientation is a protected characteristic._
           | 
           | The other far more notable difference is the baker didn't own
           | all the cake shops.
        
             | fossuser wrote:
             | Eh I don't buy this.
             | 
             | FB isn't the internet and there are a lot of social media
             | companies with social media apps.
             | 
             | The protected characteristic is the relevant bit.
        
             | t-writescode wrote:
             | And the "gay cake case" would also be closer to not just
             | providing cork board space for people to stick pins and
             | messages in; but also to require the engineers or CEO
             | herself to write down the words that they put on the
             | bulletin board, after they're orated to her.
        
           | ng12 wrote:
           | The debate is not whether there is a legal requirement for
           | YouTube to provide freedom of speech (categorically, there is
           | not) but whether that is harmful to society. The concept of
           | freedom of expression extends beyond the bound of US law.
        
             | waterhouse wrote:
             | Exactly. It makes me uneasy to see all these people who
             | seem to have no idea that freedom of speech is or could be
             | anything other than a particular law. (That there are
             | benefits to having an unrestricted exchange of ideas in
             | public, and that censoring some ideas is a slippery slope
             | to censoring others.) If that law didn't exist, would it
             | occur to them to create it?
        
           | zarkov99 wrote:
           | I don't think the analogy holds. A mom and pop shop should be
           | given more latitude on who they serve than a communication
           | platform monopoly.
        
           | ardit33 wrote:
           | "The government forcing companies to provide service would be
           | a violation of their speech rights."
           | 
           | -- True, but the government can institute a bill of rights
           | for digital platforms, and make it mandatory for companies
           | that want to have section 230 protection.
           | 
           | Youtube will be free to choose between following the bill of
           | rights, or becoming a regulated media like the TV, or being
           | prone to defamation lawsuits and be responsible for its
           | content.
           | 
           | What that bill of rights would look like? That's a different
           | story... but google, or any tech company, having the power to
           | just delete your gmail/email account, and erase all your
           | stored data at will it is kinda scary.
           | 
           | There should be a happy medium. We do this for evictions
           | already (i.e. there is a process for the eviction, we should
           | do something lightweight for the digital space as well). Eg,
           | if google has determined you have abused on your email, you
           | will have 30 days to retrieve your data, and contacts and
           | transfer them somewhere else. Losing access altogether is
           | very disruptive.
        
             | Aunche wrote:
             | > the government can institute a bill of rights for digital
             | platforms, and make it mandatory for companies that want to
             | have section 230 protection.
             | 
             | Social Media companies actually want this as well because
             | then they can just deflect all unpopular decisions to this
             | bill of rights. That's why Facebook spent $700 million to
             | create their own content moderation "supreme court."
             | 
             | Congress had every opportunity to explore this issue
             | further during the Congressional hearings about section
             | 230. Unfortunately, they were more interested in whining
             | about why this specific issue should be censored or why
             | this specific issue should not be censored.
        
           | throwawaysea wrote:
           | > Some companies go out of their way to try to be better than
           | that because they recognize the influence they have on public
           | access to platforms.
           | 
           | If they have that amount of public influence they should be
           | broken up, or heavily regulated as public utilities, so that
           | they uphold freedom of speech online in the new digital
           | public town square.
        
           | leereeves wrote:
           | > a company is free to exercise its speech
           | 
           | It wasn't always like that. We used to have rules like common
           | carrier restricting the phone company, the fairness doctrine
           | restricting television networks, and campaign finance rules
           | restricting other media.
           | 
           | We truly live in the golden age of corporate power.
        
             | bogwog wrote:
             | > the fairness doctrine restricting television networks
             | 
             | We seriously need that one back
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | andrewstuart wrote:
       | The sense of entitlement is sadly so expected these days.
        
         | athrowaway3z wrote:
         | My current theory is ' tragedy of the commons ' applied to
         | debt.
        
           | Y_Y wrote:
           | Please explain that.
           | 
           | And please explain what's going on with those quotes.
        
             | athrowaway3z wrote:
             | The quotes are just to indicate its the general concept of
             | tragedy of the commons.
             | 
             | The parent comment reads as if they are appalled by a
             | decline in virtue these days. And looking at America
             | through the lens of the internet I tend to agree that
             | things are not that great for the median person.
             | 
             | Mass consumer debt is a recent invention. I call it a
             | tragedy of the common because every lender wanted to get in
             | on it ( Its very profitable after all ). Having a saturated
             | pool drives lenders not to compete on price, but on their
             | ability to enlarge the pool of people to lend money to.
             | 
             | I don't believe people are naturally entitled, but (money)
             | stress shortcircuits the brain. It allows people to do
             | things that they know suck for other people. ( And it makes
             | them dumber overall, but that's another discussion entirely
             | )
             | 
             | And i know, one sentence isn't going to cover the infinity
             | complex situation. But i feel that push to normalize
             | consumer debt but the US on an inevitable path of
             | normalizing individual greed. That what andrewstuart
             | noticed.
        
               | fullshark wrote:
               | I don't see how any of these things are connected
        
         | spamizbad wrote:
         | The citizenry support this stance. The cult of personality
         | around people like Trump on the right, even center-left has a
         | catch phrase "<center/left politician> doesn't owe you
         | anything!" -- uh no, they do: they are public servants!
        
           | darig wrote:
           | Then why is it called the "Do Nothing Congress"?
        
       | rajacombinator wrote:
       | Giving yourself awards is kinda awesome. We need more of this.
       | Silicon Valley has been a bit boring lately.
        
         | CoastalCoder wrote:
         | I'd be curious to see how Musk or Jobs executed on that idea.
        
       | ofou wrote:
       | 15 likes vs 15.000 DISLIKE, the ratio speak by itself.
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/xDcvPf78g1k
        
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