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I'd be willing to wager money this is a cyber operation by a nation state weaponizing YT's automated systems.

ziml77 5y ago
That's what the first reddit post is saying. Which makes sense to me. If YouTube had an interest in blocking support of Ukraine, they wouldn't have replaced the COVID news section on the main page with one for the Ukraine invasion news. All of the US mainstream media (except for one) is taking a pro-Ukrainian sovereignty angle, and that's what shows in the news area. Seems like Google needs to disable autobans triggered by user reports until they have a solution to filter out the reports originating from Russian-operatred bots.
- djrogers 5y ago
  > All of the US mainstream media (except for one) is taking a pro-Ukrainian sovereignty angle Which one would that be? I haven’t seen a single US media outlet saying this is a good thing…
  - JadeNB 5y ago
    > Which one would that be? I haven’t seen a single US media outlet saying this is a good thing… Fox is taking a more strongly pro-Russian stance than most other networks.
    - graphpercolator 5y ago
    - xanaxagoras 5y ago
      I don't watch Fox News generally so I can't speak to that (though I doubt it). I do watch Tucker Carlson - easily their top rated program - and the notion that he is taking a pro-Russian stance is patently false.
      - selectodude 5y ago
        Russian state television does not agree with you. https://twitter.com/johnkruzel/status/1496905740203827205 https://twitter.com/johnkruzel/status/1496905740203827205
        yonaguska 5y ago
        So should poster trust his own experience with his own eyes or Russian state television? If an observation is also repurposed as a propaganda piece, does that negate the validity of said observation? I can't stand this bit of logical fallacy that's being used to stifle discussion. You asserted X, but so did some objectionable entity. Therefore, X is false, and you are just as bad as said objectionable entity.
        selectodude 5y ago
        The poster should maybe have some introspection that if he thinks that Tucker Carlson isn't disgustingly pro-Putin, and Russian state television disagrees so vigorously that they literally threw him up there with subtitles to show how pro-Putin he is, maybe he's, you know, wrong about his assertion.
        xanaxagoras 5y ago
        I saw this episode live and re-watched the clip you posted. This isn't Tucker being pro-Putin and pro-Russian, and it doesn't sway me at all if Russian state television snips a little bit out of context as propaganda - nor should it bother you, having just done so yourself. This was part of a larger point that there's no good reason for America to get involved. I for one would not feel proud of this country if my son dies fighting in a war 5000 miles from my home, lending his young hands to one side of a territorial war that does not effect him, me, or any of us in a direct way. I'd strongly prefer to let the despot and the figurehead of the sham democracy we installed sort it out for themselves. The rest of it is culture war stuff, and while I don't take it extremely seriously, I feel the same way about the things he brings up and I think he's fun. There are a lot of people who feel the same way as I do and you can't malign or name-call us out of our opinions.
  - selectodude 5y ago
    A decent amount of Fox News programming is ending up on Russian state television to show that the US supports the invasion into Ukraine.
    - leereeves 5y ago
      Can you cite any examples? Looking at Fox's coverage online [1], I don't see anything suggesting the US (or Fox) supports the invasion. 1: https://www.foxnews.com/category/world/conflicts/ukraine https://www.foxnews.com/category/world/conflicts/ukraine
      - selectodude 5y ago
        https://twitter.com/johnkruzel/status/1496905740203827205 https://twitter.com/johnkruzel/status/1496905740203827205
  - ziml77 5y ago
    I'm specifically not calling them out since their opinion may have shifted since the latest escalations of the conflict. I added that parenthetical because I expected without it that I might see an onslaught of comments from people saying that not all of the US mainstream media is in agreement that Russia is in the wrong here. But it's sounding like the parenthetical actually makes my statement wrong... I lost the coin flip I guess
sharken 5y ago
It's safe to say that Russian state-sponsored hacker groups have become more skilled since 2017 where NotPetya struck: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/russian-military-almost-certainly-responsible-destructive-2017-cyber-attack https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/russian-military-almost-certain... It's not farfetched to think they have something worse planned.
kube-system 5y ago
This is unquestionably the case. Manipulating the flow of information has been part of Warfare 101 for thousands of years. Russia's manipulation of social media is mature and well documented, during times of non-war. The idea that they would make use of those capabilities during wartime is not just plausible, it's just as plainly predictable as "the soldiers guns probably shoot bullets".
tootie 5y ago
I think there's multiple things going on. One is coordinated reporting spam from Russia, two is actual misinformation being posted (tons of Ukraine videos being shared are fake) and mix in the general churn of abusive user behavior (trolling) and YT's moderation algos just can't keep up. I sincerely doubt YT is actively suppressing relevant information on Ukraine. Especially at a company founded by Soviet emigres. It's a very hard thing to get right at scale and they just can't do it.

That's what the first reddit post is saying. Which makes sense to me. If YouTube had an interest in blocking support of Ukraine, they wouldn't have replaced the COVID news section on the main page with one for the Ukraine invasion news. All of the US mainstream media (except for one) is taking a pro-Ukrainian sovereignty angle, and that's what shows in the news area. Seems like Google needs to disable autobans triggered by user reports until they have a solution to filter out the reports originating from Russian-operatred bots.

djrogers 5y ago
> All of the US mainstream media (except for one) is taking a pro-Ukrainian sovereignty angle Which one would that be? I haven’t seen a single US media outlet saying this is a good thing…
- JadeNB 5y ago
  > Which one would that be? I haven’t seen a single US media outlet saying this is a good thing… Fox is taking a more strongly pro-Russian stance than most other networks.
  - graphpercolator 5y ago
  - xanaxagoras 5y ago
    I don't watch Fox News generally so I can't speak to that (though I doubt it). I do watch Tucker Carlson - easily their top rated program - and the notion that he is taking a pro-Russian stance is patently false.
    - selectodude 5y ago
      Russian state television does not agree with you. https://twitter.com/johnkruzel/status/1496905740203827205 https://twitter.com/johnkruzel/status/1496905740203827205
      - yonaguska 5y ago
        So should poster trust his own experience with his own eyes or Russian state television? If an observation is also repurposed as a propaganda piece, does that negate the validity of said observation? I can't stand this bit of logical fallacy that's being used to stifle discussion. You asserted X, but so did some objectionable entity. Therefore, X is false, and you are just as bad as said objectionable entity.
        selectodude 5y ago
        The poster should maybe have some introspection that if he thinks that Tucker Carlson isn't disgustingly pro-Putin, and Russian state television disagrees so vigorously that they literally threw him up there with subtitles to show how pro-Putin he is, maybe he's, you know, wrong about his assertion.
        xanaxagoras 5y ago
        I saw this episode live and re-watched the clip you posted. This isn't Tucker being pro-Putin and pro-Russian, and it doesn't sway me at all if Russian state television snips a little bit out of context as propaganda - nor should it bother you, having just done so yourself. This was part of a larger point that there's no good reason for America to get involved. I for one would not feel proud of this country if my son dies fighting in a war 5000 miles from my home, lending his young hands to one side of a territorial war that does not effect him, me, or any of us in a direct way. I'd strongly prefer to let the despot and the figurehead of the sham democracy we installed sort it out for themselves. The rest of it is culture war stuff, and while I don't take it extremely seriously, I feel the same way about the things he brings up and I think he's fun. There are a lot of people who feel the same way as I do and you can't malign or name-call us out of our opinions.
- selectodude 5y ago
  A decent amount of Fox News programming is ending up on Russian state television to show that the US supports the invasion into Ukraine.
  - leereeves 5y ago
    Can you cite any examples? Looking at Fox's coverage online [1], I don't see anything suggesting the US (or Fox) supports the invasion. 1: https://www.foxnews.com/category/world/conflicts/ukraine https://www.foxnews.com/category/world/conflicts/ukraine
    - selectodude 5y ago
      https://twitter.com/johnkruzel/status/1496905740203827205 https://twitter.com/johnkruzel/status/1496905740203827205
- ziml77 5y ago
  I'm specifically not calling them out since their opinion may have shifted since the latest escalations of the conflict. I added that parenthetical because I expected without it that I might see an onslaught of comments from people saying that not all of the US mainstream media is in agreement that Russia is in the wrong here. But it's sounding like the parenthetical actually makes my statement wrong... I lost the coin flip I guess

sharken 5y ago

It's safe to say that Russian state-sponsored hacker groups have become more skilled since 2017 where NotPetya struck: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/russian-military-almost-certainly-responsible-destructive-2017-cyber-attack https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/russian-military-almost-certain... It's not farfetched to think they have something worse planned.

kube-system 5y ago

This is unquestionably the case. Manipulating the flow of information has been part of Warfare 101 for thousands of years. Russia's manipulation of social media is mature and well documented, during times of non-war. The idea that they would make use of those capabilities during wartime is not just plausible, it's just as plainly predictable as "the soldiers guns probably shoot bullets".

tootie 5y ago

I think there's multiple things going on. One is coordinated reporting spam from Russia, two is actual misinformation being posted (tons of Ukraine videos being shared are fake) and mix in the general churn of abusive user behavior (trolling) and YT's moderation algos just can't keep up. I sincerely doubt YT is actively suppressing relevant information on Ukraine. Especially at a company founded by Soviet emigres. It's a very hard thing to get right at scale and they just can't do it.