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I’ve always thought it was ridiculous that when YouTube (well technically google) et al throw up their hands and go “you can’t possibly expect us to vet all the
by Forgeties79 4y ago
I’ve always thought it was ridiculous that when YouTube (well technically google) et al throw up their hands and go “you can’t possibly expect us to vet all the content that we serve,” everyone just goes “ok sure that makes sense!” But if you used that excuse in, say, broadcast television, the FCC would just fine you twice as hard.
Imagine if that Miami building collapse happened under the ownership of somebody who owned 10 million properties worldwide, their response was “I manage so many properties you can’t expect me to adhere to every standard and regulation in all cases - it’s unreasonable,” and the US/FL governments just shrugged along and said “yeah I guess you’re right!” Wouldn’t that be absolutely absurd?
Yet here we are. Google, Facebook, etc. just wring their hands and say “trust our algorithms they can handle the scale,” the algorithms also are full of holes and create other problems, then they go “well shucks.” It’s baffling.
- dbreunig 4y agoPeople don't generally die because of a YouTube video. And if that were a risk, you could report it and Google would take it down.
- kevingadd 4y agohttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/dec/06/rohingya-sue-facebook-myanmar-genocide-us-uk-legal-action-social-media-violence https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/dec/06/rohingya-... https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/whatsapp-destroyed-village-lynchings-rainpada-india https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/whatsapp-de... > Five days after the event, the police had rounded up most of the suspects. Each admitted to attacking the five men — all nomads passing through Rainpada, a tribal hamlet 200 miles northeast of Mumbai — and each said they’d done so after watching shocking videos on WhatsApp warning of outsiders abducting children. Turns out that in the recent past content including videos (not on YouTube, but shared on other social media services via group chats etc) has in fact resulted in deaths!
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- jefftk 4y agoIt sounds like you want a YouTube where every video is reviewed before it goes live: do you also want a Hacker News where every comment is reviewed before it goes live?
- prawn 4y agoLegal suicide for the host, I suspect.
- Forgeties79 4y agoThis isn’t the only way to accomplish the goal and frankly I suggested nothing of the sort. A little annoyed you just assumed that’s what I’m calling for but I’ll just assume it was in good faith anyway. For starters, anyone can just make infinite YouTube channels/accounts/etc. right now. There are no roadblocks, there is no vetting, nothing. All of their solutions are reactive and often too late. I’m not even saying that a desirable or good solution is to vet creators. But for them to throw up their hands and say “we have no way of controlling the faucet“ is completely dishonest. We need to stop just letting that be something we all implicitly accept. They are making such insane piles of money off a system they fully control that is creating social issues, but we just let them abandon responsibility for it.
- jefftk 4y agoDid you know anyone can make an HN account? With no vetting at all!
- Forgeties79 4y agoThis discussion no longer feels productive. If you’re just going to be tongue in cheek/sarcastic with me the whole time instead of having a discussion then feel free to move on.
- jefftk 4y agoHumor aside, my point is that YouTube and HN are pretty similar in their reliance on user-generated content. They both have no technical barriers to anyone signing up and posting anything they want: both have reactive post-publication moderation but not pre-publication vetting. I think this is on balance a good and valuable thing about both sites. I was trying to show how your proposed solutions would, if applied here, make HN worse, as a way of illustrating why I don't think they're good solutions for YouTube. (What made me think you were calling for pre-publication review was your "you can’t possibly expect us to vet all the content that we serve". Similarly, you objected to YouTube's approaches here as "reactive".)
- standardUser 4y agoThe era of network TV was tightly controlled and ideologically narrow. It's not a mediascape anyone should want to return to.
- TomSwirly 4y ago> ideologically narrow Translation: "Had a much more limited tolerance for pure bullshit."
- standardUser 4y agoNo, it was racially segregated, sexually repressive, diligently anti-communist, mindlessly nationalist and controlled by a tiny group of corporations and the federal government. What history are you pretending exists?
- Forgeties79 4y agoIt was both. I’m not sure why you’re framing this as an either/or situation.