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Ask HN: What submissions are censored from discussion on HN?

2 points by type0 5y ago

I made this submission https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27748173 and it appears to have been censored and shadow-banned by HN edit: changed from subjects to submissions

elmerfud 5y ago
Asking about this kind of stuff is.
- type0 5y ago
  I've seen claims that HN doesn't use shadow banning but it doesn't actually seems to be the truth, I had much better opinion about this site before today.
  - leephillips 5y ago
    It seems that they censor submissions from some low-quality sites (I suspect this is part of the reasoning) content from which is likely to lead to flamewar-type discussions. This not subject matter censorship, but it is a good form of censorship that helps keep this site high-quality. These practices are part of the reason discussion on this site is so much better than the norm on the internet, and should be a reason for you to want to stay.
    - type0 5y ago
      I don't think there is good and bad censorship. Downplaying visibility for political outrage websites is one thing, banning submissions is completely different beast.
type0 5y ago
The submitted URL was https://dailycaller.com/2021/06/22/iran-press-tv-websites-blocked-disinformation/ https://dailycaller.com/2021/06/22/iran-press-tv-websites-bl... The domain doesn't appear to be censored https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=dailycaller.com https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=dailycaller.com so is it that it mentions that certain country?
- _Microft 5y ago
  Submissions from this domain are automatically killed. Do you have "showdead" enabled in your profile settings? Because this is what the from-list looks like for me using showdead=yes: [dead] US Seizes Several Iran-Linked Domains in Fight Against Alleged Disinformation (dailycaller.com) [dead] Washington Post Edits 15-Month-Old Headline (dailycaller.com) CNN Loses Nearly 70% of Its Viewers Since Trump Left Office (dailycaller.com) Man Who Brutally Beat 65-Year-Old Asian Woman Is Convicted Murderer on Parole (dailycaller.com) [dead] Georgia SOS and Washington Post Lied (dailycaller.com) [dead] Did Coronavirus Come from a Lab? Ten Key Takeaways from a Shocking New Report (dailycaller.com) ‘Smoking Gun’ Biden Email 100% Authentic, Forensic Analysis Concludes (dailycaller.com) [flagged] [dead] NY Post’s ‘Smoking Gun’ Hunter Biden Email 100% Authentic by Forensic Analysis (dailycaller.com) [dead] Apple Developing Search Engine as Google Comes Under Antitrust Scrutiny: Report (dailycaller.com) [dead] The Green New Deal Can't Break the Laws of Physics (dailycaller.com) [dead] Facebook’s Cyber Security Team Blows Whistle, Says They’re Victims of Automation (dailycaller.com) [dead] Ex-FDA Chief Scott Gottlieb on How Beijing Misled the World About Coronavirus (dailycaller.com) [dead] School District Implements Busing, Chinese Immigrants See Communism (dailycaller.com) [dead] America’s Federal Budget on ‘Unsustainable Path,’ Warns Fed Chair Jerome Powell (dailycaller.com) [dead] Google Working on a Secret Project to Collect Personal Health Data on Americans (dailycaller.com)
  - type0 5y ago
    > Do you have "showdead" enabled in your profile settings? No
    - _Microft 5y ago
      I find it them interesting. Quite often these comments and submissions are (in my opinion) rightfully flagged or downvoted but there is the occasional gem among them (that I then might rescue by vouching for it).
      - type0 5y ago
leephillips 5y ago
I doubt this is a case of censoring subject matter. I think it is more likely to have been flagged because it duplicates other submissions, and possibly because of the nature of the publication you link to, which describes itself as politically motivated.
- type0 5y ago
  But there is no mention that it has been flagged, or you mean it was submitted previously and flagged before so it's censored now? It is still censorship.
  - leephillips 5y ago
    Sorry, I said “flagged” but all I saw was the “dead” mark. I’m really not up on this HN minutiae; I don’t know the difference.
    - _Microft 5y ago
      "Dead" is when a submission was killed automatically because e.g. the domain is blacklisted. It is shown as "flagged" when too many users manually flagged it. Users can still "vouch" for dead submissions to recover them from this fate. This might be unavailable to new users or to people below a karma-threshold.
      - type0 5y ago
        Is there a list of domains that are blacklisted here?

2 points by type0 5y ago

I made this submission https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27748173 and it appears to have been censored and shadow-banned by HN edit: changed from subjects to submissions

elmerfud 5y ago

Asking about this kind of stuff is.

type0 5y ago
I've seen claims that HN doesn't use shadow banning but it doesn't actually seems to be the truth, I had much better opinion about this site before today.
- leephillips 5y ago
  It seems that they censor submissions from some low-quality sites (I suspect this is part of the reasoning) content from which is likely to lead to flamewar-type discussions. This not subject matter censorship, but it is a good form of censorship that helps keep this site high-quality. These practices are part of the reason discussion on this site is so much better than the norm on the internet, and should be a reason for you to want to stay.
  - type0 5y ago
    I don't think there is good and bad censorship. Downplaying visibility for political outrage websites is one thing, banning submissions is completely different beast.

type0 5y ago

The submitted URL was https://dailycaller.com/2021/06/22/iran-press-tv-websites-blocked-disinformation/ https://dailycaller.com/2021/06/22/iran-press-tv-websites-bl... The domain doesn't appear to be censored https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=dailycaller.com https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=dailycaller.com so is it that it mentions that certain country?

_Microft 5y ago
Submissions from this domain are automatically killed. Do you have "showdead" enabled in your profile settings? Because this is what the from-list looks like for me using showdead=yes: [dead] US Seizes Several Iran-Linked Domains in Fight Against Alleged Disinformation (dailycaller.com) [dead] Washington Post Edits 15-Month-Old Headline (dailycaller.com) CNN Loses Nearly 70% of Its Viewers Since Trump Left Office (dailycaller.com) Man Who Brutally Beat 65-Year-Old Asian Woman Is Convicted Murderer on Parole (dailycaller.com) [dead] Georgia SOS and Washington Post Lied (dailycaller.com) [dead] Did Coronavirus Come from a Lab? Ten Key Takeaways from a Shocking New Report (dailycaller.com) ‘Smoking Gun’ Biden Email 100% Authentic, Forensic Analysis Concludes (dailycaller.com) [flagged] [dead] NY Post’s ‘Smoking Gun’ Hunter Biden Email 100% Authentic by Forensic Analysis (dailycaller.com) [dead] Apple Developing Search Engine as Google Comes Under Antitrust Scrutiny: Report (dailycaller.com) [dead] The Green New Deal Can't Break the Laws of Physics (dailycaller.com) [dead] Facebook’s Cyber Security Team Blows Whistle, Says They’re Victims of Automation (dailycaller.com) [dead] Ex-FDA Chief Scott Gottlieb on How Beijing Misled the World About Coronavirus (dailycaller.com) [dead] School District Implements Busing, Chinese Immigrants See Communism (dailycaller.com) [dead] America’s Federal Budget on ‘Unsustainable Path,’ Warns Fed Chair Jerome Powell (dailycaller.com) [dead] Google Working on a Secret Project to Collect Personal Health Data on Americans (dailycaller.com)
- type0 5y ago
  > Do you have "showdead" enabled in your profile settings? No
  - _Microft 5y ago
    I find it them interesting. Quite often these comments and submissions are (in my opinion) rightfully flagged or downvoted but there is the occasional gem among them (that I then might rescue by vouching for it).
    - type0 5y ago

leephillips 5y ago

I doubt this is a case of censoring subject matter. I think it is more likely to have been flagged because it duplicates other submissions, and possibly because of the nature of the publication you link to, which describes itself as politically motivated.

type0 5y ago
But there is no mention that it has been flagged, or you mean it was submitted previously and flagged before so it's censored now? It is still censorship.
- leephillips 5y ago
  Sorry, I said “flagged” but all I saw was the “dead” mark. I’m really not up on this HN minutiae; I don’t know the difference.
  - _Microft 5y ago
    "Dead" is when a submission was killed automatically because e.g. the domain is blacklisted. It is shown as "flagged" when too many users manually flagged it. Users can still "vouch" for dead submissions to recover them from this fate. This might be unavailable to new users or to people below a karma-threshold.
    - type0 5y ago
      Is there a list of domains that are blacklisted here?