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YouTube CEO receives freedom of expression award sponsored by YouTube itself
- okprod 6y agoAlmost like airtags to find airtags
- throwaway1959 6y agoAs 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.
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- samstave 6y agoCame to say the same thing!
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- libeclipse 6y agoFreedom of expression includes the right to supress the views of others! /s
- judge2020 6y agoThe right to not be forced to spread the views of others :)
- kobieyc 6y agoI 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.
- anm89 6y agoRight. This is actually how it works. Many of us support this.
- melff 6y agoonly 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.
- throwaway122378 6y agoWorse than her censorship is our (me included) refusal to collectively stand up to this behavior
- fossuser 6y agoYou'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-free-speech.html 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.
- ardit33 6y ago"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 6y ago> 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.
- jgalt212 6y agoAlmost 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-blythe-masters-withdraws-from-cftc-advisory-committee https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-02-07/jpmorgans...
- modeitsch 6y agoThis is how the entire world of big tech works
- hintymad 6y agoI 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?
- linuxftw 6y agoThey 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 6y agoThat's a rather cynical view. In my experience, people who make false statements with confidence often believe their own bullshit.
- zarkov99 6y agoI 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.
- andrewstuart 6y agoThe sense of entitlement is sadly so expected these days.
- athrowaway3z 6y agoMy current theory is ' tragedy of the commons ' applied to debt.
- Y_Y 6y agoPlease explain that. And please explain what's going on with those quotes.
- athrowaway3z 6y agoThe 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 6y agoI don't see how any of these things are connected
- spamizbad 6y agoThe 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!
- MattGaiser 6y agoThe award website. https://www.freeexpressionawards.org/ https://www.freeexpressionawards.org/
- the-dude 6y agoFeaturing : 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 6y agoI assume that she just got a regular award.
- himinlomax 6y agoLying to the UN security council is protected speech!
- mudil 6y agoWe 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 6y agoThis appeared earlier on HN but got squelched: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26875971 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26875971
- colpabar 6y agomore discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26875971 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.
- it 6y agoHave a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube_suspensions 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 6y agoWhat point are you trying to make?
- elastolin 6y agoThat YouTube doesn't support freedom of expresion, and it's extremely biased towards one end of the political spectrum.
- it 6y agoYouTube is left biased and you can easily verify it.
- pavel_lishin 6y agoAn alternative interpretation is that right-wing folks on YouTube are more likely to commit bannable offenses.
- manigandham 6y agoWould you apply this same reasoning to police arrest demographics? Why or why not?
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- robbyking 6y ago[Deleted]
- nfrankel 6y agoColin 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.
- turminal 6y agoReminds me of https://xkcd.com/250/ https://xkcd.com/250/ in a way.
- vq 6y agohttp://www.viruscomix.com/page482.html http://www.viruscomix.com/page482.html popped into my mind.
- ttt0 6y agoSnopes? ok lol https://archive.md/Wy4GT https://archive.md/Wy4GT https://archive.md/wrEXO https://archive.md/wrEXO https://archive.is/AqkNf https://archive.is/AqkNf http://archive.is/HNgc9 http://archive.is/HNgc9
- devmor 6y agoI have decided to award myself with the Best At Irony Award.
- duxup 6y agoYouTube 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.
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- mdeck_ 6y agohttps://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/510/176/e33.jpg https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/510/176/e33...
- toptal 6y agoThis must be some sort of objective measure of society entering into a new era.
- Y_Y 6y agoThe Cretinaceous.
- not2personal 6y agoClown world man, it's just clowns all the way down.
- fullshark 6y agoThe post shame era
- melff 6y ago> YouTube CEO > freedom of expression is that a joke? this gotta be some kind of prank right?
- karmasimida 6y agoThis is ridiculous in too many ways. Don't know where to start.
- xbar 6y agoCongratulations!
- grawprog 6y agoAs 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 6y agoDislikes will not be possible in the future: https://nypost.com/2021/03/31/youtube-is-testing-removal-of-the-dislike-counter-on-videos/ https://nypost.com/2021/03/31/youtube-is-testing-removal-of-... Also, somewhat interestingly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-disliked_YouTube_videos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-disliked_YouTube_...
- grawprog 6y agoI'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 6y ago> 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.
- grawprog 6y agoFair enough, that does make sense, still, they seem to show up in particular. I'm guessing there's many channels for children's music.
- junippor 6y agohttps://i.stack.imgur.com/VX6iE.jpg https://i.stack.imgur.com/VX6iE.jpg
- proc0 6y agoSo 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 6y agonext step: youtube to be renamed 'YouTube: The free democratic republic of the internet'
- young_unixer 6y ago""" 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/ https://www.verdict.co.uk/youtube-coronavirus-ban-who/
- hn8788 6y agoConsidering 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.
- young_unixer 6y agoNot to mention the contradiction between the CDC and the WHO regarding asymptomatic spread.
- thelean12 6y agoWhy 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 6y agoLet 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.
- BitwiseFool 6y agoWhat 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.
- williesleg 6y agoI just gave her the shithead of the year award, she can put that on her CV
- libeclipse 6y agohttps://twitter.com/GordonDimmack/status/1384067464368033800 https://twitter.com/GordonDimmack/status/1384067464368033800
- calebm 6y ago"Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips." (Proverbs 27:2)
- throwawaysea 6y agoFrom Reclaim The Net's article on this award (https://reclaimthenet.org/youtube-ceo-freedom-of-expression-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-policies-are-blocking-ads-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/2021/04/10/youtube-memory-holes-desantis-covid-19-roundtable-with-medical-experts-n1438954 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-trumps-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-copies-donald-trumps-cpac-speech-1574133 https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-did-youtube-ban-all-copi... She definitely seems deserving of recognition for defending the freedom of expression /s
- femiagbabiaka 6y agoThe lack of self-awareness from tech elites is somehow still astonishing.
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- mikaeluman 6y agoThis 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 6y agoYeah, 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 6y agoThe 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 6y agoThe 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...
- rajacombinator 6y agoGiving yourself awards is kinda awesome. We need more of this. Silicon Valley has been a bit boring lately.
- CoastalCoder 6y agoI'd be curious to see how Musk or Jobs executed on that idea.
- smegger001 6y agoMusk would do it as a joke and get crucified in the media for it. Jobs would somehow convince people he deserved it
- ofou 6y ago15 likes vs 15.000 DISLIKE, the ratio speak by itself. https://youtu.be/xDcvPf78g1k https://youtu.be/xDcvPf78g1k
- cosmodisk 6y agoWe 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!'.
- varispeed 6y agoThat's the spirit. Yesterday I won the man of the living room award sponsored by myself.
- kobieyc 6y agoThis is real pravda stuff
- f430 6y agoyou cannot make this up
- lrvick 6y agoAm 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 6y agoMaybe subconsciously she knows that she should be embarrassed at receiving the award and doesn't want to be seen receiving it.
- nix23 6y ago>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
- the-dude 6y agoAt 22:45CET this submission dropped from #1 to #26.
- teddyh 6y agoIn 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 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26875971
- Zealotux 6y agoThis is Galvin Belson level of narcissism.
- rickspencer3 6y agoI 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.
- culturthrowaway 6y agoNorth 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 6y agohttps://old.reddit.com/search?q=youtube+shadowban https://old.reddit.com/search?q=youtube+shadowban https://old.reddit.com/search?q=youtube+ban 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 forbidden 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.
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- the-dude 6y agoAt 23:07CET, this submission dropped to #31, and off the frontpage. Finally!
- StandardFuture 6y agoThis 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.
- Krisjohn 6y agoThe First Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence was comedy, not a suggestion.
- beaknit 6y agoThe English in this article reads like it came from a GAN
- beaknit 6y agoThe English in this article reads like it was written by a GAN
- throwaway19937 6y agoTo quote Sam Kinison, "It's like Christians against Christ."
- ykevinator3 6y agoIsn't this sergei brins wife?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- notdang 6y agoex-wife's sister.