5 ms·

No doubt that's true on the level of the average user like you and me. What we see for prominent conservatives, however, feels very unfair to me. Perhaps prom

No doubt that's true on the level of the average user like you and me. What we see for prominent conservatives, however, feels very unfair to me. Perhaps prominent members of other groups are targeted similarly--it wouldn't surprise me.

hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
To be honest, every single time I dig in to a conservative complaining "they are singling me out for my views!!" I do more research and find that it is 99% bullshit. Not 100% bullshit mind you, because it's that 1% that is nominally true so they can leave out the rest of the context. Here is a more complete discussion of Prager's charges of censorship, and in my opinion they are laughable: https://reason.com/2019/07/18/dennis-prager-who-boasts-1-billion-video-views-a-year-decries-youtube-censorship/ https://reason.com/2019/07/18/dennis-prager-who-boasts-1-bil...
- orf 6y ago
  > "Respectfully, senator, that's not right," replied Bhatia, explaining that those videos contained mature topics—murder, rape, etc. He reiterated that they are still visible to the "98.5 percent" of YouTube users who do not opt for restricted mode. Who would have thought that another conservative story about censorship would turn out to be bullshit. It’s not like the people parroting them have the impetuous to check though, it’s much easier and more comfortable to drone on about “YouTube blocking a video about the 10 commandments” over and over until it becomes your reality, where you’re persecuted.
wilsynet 6y ago
Are you referring to Donald Trump?
chandra381 6y ago
Multiple studies have shown that Facebook and twitter do not censor conservatives. This has been well established and anyone who argues otherwise is either ignorant or arguing from a position of bad faith. https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/10/two-new-studies-show-again-that-facebook-doesnt-censor-conservatives/ https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/10/two-new-studies-show-again... > What we see for prominent conservatives, however, feels very unfair to me I find this extremely ironic given that the slogan "facts don't care about your feelings" is attributed to conservatives in particular
- xpaqui 6y ago
  All the "conservatives/libertarians" I've followed on youtube have been both demonetized and had videos suspended. It's a small sample size but all?!, what a coincidence. From the "left leaning" channels I follow I've not seen the same complain. I don't follow anyone on facebook or twitter I can't vouch for those, maybe it's just youtube who does all the censoring.
  - phatfish 6y ago
    Maybe if you name/link them we can decide if it was reasonable or not.
    - xpaqui 6y ago
      On youtube Joe Rogan, Sargon of Akkad, Viva Frey, Academic Agent, Thunderf00t, 1791
  - antris 6y ago
    In general "conservatives" seem to have a harder time following TOS on hate speech, bullying, racism, sexism etc.
    - collyw 6y ago
      https://twitter.com/hashtag/VerifiedHate?src=hashtag_click https://twitter.com/hashtag/VerifiedHate?src=hashtag_click
- Chris2048 6y ago
  > Multiple studies have shown Are you talking about the two in this article, or alluding to more? The studies: 1) https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/26/censorship-conservatives-social-media-432643 https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/26/censorship-conserva... "The findings demonstrate how a small number of conservative users routinely outpace their liberal rivals and traditional news outlets in driving the online conversation — amplifying their impact a little more than a week before Election Day. They contradict the prevailing political rhetoric from some Republican lawmakers that conservative voices are censored online — indicating that instead, right-leaning talking points continue to shape the worldviews of millions of U.S. voters." 2) https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/new-study-finds-facebook-not-censoring-conservatives-despite-their-repeated-attacks https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/new-study-finds-facebo... "right-leaning pages consistently earned more average weekly interactions than either left-leaning or ideologically nonaligned pages" This doesn't seem to me to support that "Facebook and twitter do not censor conservatives"; The assumption seems to be that if conservatives are ultimately more influential, they mustn't have been censored. I'm also not sure how fine-grained the distinction of right/left leaning is. If all conservatives voices are censored except for a few far-right/extremist voices that are amplified, does this balance out? Add a few more dimensions and you might come up with a different conclusion. In any case, I'll need to see more before I agree it's "well established".
SamoyedFurFluff 6y ago
It’s weird to claim that YouTube has a bias against right wing media and then shrug and say well I have no idea if left wing media suffers equally arbitrary censorship or not. That makes no sense as a stance.

hn_throwaway_99 6y ago

To be honest, every single time I dig in to a conservative complaining "they are singling me out for my views!!" I do more research and find that it is 99% bullshit. Not 100% bullshit mind you, because it's that 1% that is nominally true so they can leave out the rest of the context. Here is a more complete discussion of Prager's charges of censorship, and in my opinion they are laughable: https://reason.com/2019/07/18/dennis-prager-who-boasts-1-billion-video-views-a-year-decries-youtube-censorship/ https://reason.com/2019/07/18/dennis-prager-who-boasts-1-bil...

orf 6y ago
> "Respectfully, senator, that's not right," replied Bhatia, explaining that those videos contained mature topics—murder, rape, etc. He reiterated that they are still visible to the "98.5 percent" of YouTube users who do not opt for restricted mode. Who would have thought that another conservative story about censorship would turn out to be bullshit. It’s not like the people parroting them have the impetuous to check though, it’s much easier and more comfortable to drone on about “YouTube blocking a video about the 10 commandments” over and over until it becomes your reality, where you’re persecuted.

wilsynet 6y ago

Are you referring to Donald Trump?

chandra381 6y ago

Multiple studies have shown that Facebook and twitter do not censor conservatives. This has been well established and anyone who argues otherwise is either ignorant or arguing from a position of bad faith. https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/10/two-new-studies-show-again-that-facebook-doesnt-censor-conservatives/ https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/10/two-new-studies-show-again... > What we see for prominent conservatives, however, feels very unfair to me I find this extremely ironic given that the slogan "facts don't care about your feelings" is attributed to conservatives in particular

xpaqui 6y ago
All the "conservatives/libertarians" I've followed on youtube have been both demonetized and had videos suspended. It's a small sample size but all?!, what a coincidence. From the "left leaning" channels I follow I've not seen the same complain. I don't follow anyone on facebook or twitter I can't vouch for those, maybe it's just youtube who does all the censoring.
- phatfish 6y ago
  Maybe if you name/link them we can decide if it was reasonable or not.
  - xpaqui 6y ago
    On youtube Joe Rogan, Sargon of Akkad, Viva Frey, Academic Agent, Thunderf00t, 1791
- antris 6y ago
  In general "conservatives" seem to have a harder time following TOS on hate speech, bullying, racism, sexism etc.
  - collyw 6y ago
    https://twitter.com/hashtag/VerifiedHate?src=hashtag_click https://twitter.com/hashtag/VerifiedHate?src=hashtag_click
Chris2048 6y ago
> Multiple studies have shown Are you talking about the two in this article, or alluding to more? The studies: 1) https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/26/censorship-conservatives-social-media-432643 https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/26/censorship-conserva... "The findings demonstrate how a small number of conservative users routinely outpace their liberal rivals and traditional news outlets in driving the online conversation — amplifying their impact a little more than a week before Election Day. They contradict the prevailing political rhetoric from some Republican lawmakers that conservative voices are censored online — indicating that instead, right-leaning talking points continue to shape the worldviews of millions of U.S. voters." 2) https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/new-study-finds-facebook-not-censoring-conservatives-despite-their-repeated-attacks https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/new-study-finds-facebo... "right-leaning pages consistently earned more average weekly interactions than either left-leaning or ideologically nonaligned pages" This doesn't seem to me to support that "Facebook and twitter do not censor conservatives"; The assumption seems to be that if conservatives are ultimately more influential, they mustn't have been censored. I'm also not sure how fine-grained the distinction of right/left leaning is. If all conservatives voices are censored except for a few far-right/extremist voices that are amplified, does this balance out? Add a few more dimensions and you might come up with a different conclusion. In any case, I'll need to see more before I agree it's "well established".

SamoyedFurFluff 6y ago

It’s weird to claim that YouTube has a bias against right wing media and then shrug and say well I have no idea if left wing media suffers equally arbitrary censorship or not. That makes no sense as a stance.