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Google censors the world, together with Microsoft. Well - it is time that the rest of the world censors these two corporation. I don't want them to restrict in
by shevy-java 11mo ago
Google censors the world, together with Microsoft.
Well - it is time that the rest of the world censors these two corporation. I don't want them to restrict information.
People will find workarounds by the way. This is now a Streisand effect - as people see that Google and Microsoft try to hide information from them, they will now look at this much more closely than before, with more attention.
(Having said that, my bypass strategy is to not use Windows 11 altogether. I don't depend on it, having used Linux since 21 years now, but my machine to the left is actually using Win10, for various reasons, such as that I can fix problems of elderly relatives still using Windows. But I won't use Win11 ever with its recall-spy software. I also don't care that it can be disabled - any corporation that tries to sniff-invade on me, is evil and must be banned.)
Edit: Ok so the video was restored. That was good, but still, we need an alternative here. Google holds WAY too much power via youtube.
- tacker2000 11mo agoAlso Visa/Mastercard are big silencers…
- hammock 11mo agoWhat do you mean?
- worthless-trash 11mo agoPossibly referring to them pressuring companies from selling adult contact they dont like by threatening to cut off payment capability.
- dns_snek 11mo agoPayments providers engage in censorship and moral policing, e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/29/mastercard-visa-backlash-adult-games-removed-online-stores-steam-itchio-ntwnfb https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/29/mastercard-vis...
- tacker2000 11mo agoThe first instance that I remember was when they stopped Wikileaks from taking donations back then. Nowadays they censor by putting pressure (by denying payment capabilities) on sites that offer content that they dont agree with.
- stevenjgarner 11mo agoI realize crypto has become dominated by the investment community, but money is not just a store of value. As a medium of exchange, fiat currencies use money to implement monetary policy and control. Electronic exchange of fiat currency is a permission based activity, and significant transactions are simply disallowed and users often debanked. You don't have to wait for a monetary system to collapse before crypto has meaningful value. That value can come from simply not being subject to corrupt monetary policies and control.
- Aurornis 11mo ago> This is now a Streisand effect - as people see that Google and Microsoft try to hide information from them This comment section is wild. The videos are up. Microsoft and Google weren't meeting in secret backrooms to censor this one channel. The most likely explanation is that a competing channel was trying to move their own videos up in the rankings by mass-reporting other videos on the topic. It's a growing problem on social media platforms: Cutthroat channels or influencers will use alt accounts or even paid services to report their competition. They know that with enough reports in a short period of time they can get the content removed for a while, which creates a window for their own content to get more views. The clue is the "risk of physical harm". People who abuse the report function know that the report options involving physical harm, violence, or suicide are the quickest way to get content taken down.
- bithead 11mo agoEither that or microsoft and/or google will send someone to my house to Raymond Reddington my ass if I install W11 with only a local account.
- silisili 11mo agoA tale as old as time. A long time ago I worked in DDoS prevention and the bulk of our first customers were competing gambling sites and online eyeglass retailers. Why? Because they were all paying people to DDoS each other. Kinda silly, but good for business.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- neuvarius 11mo ago[flagged]
- worthless-trash 11mo agoAs I have limited dealings with eyeglass retailers, why ?
- portaouflop 11mo agoThe reality is most people don’t care about this. And if they do care they will find workarounds as you said. Nothing will change, the frog has been sitting in boiling water for more than a generation now and the newbloods never experienced the computational freedom you hold dear; they will happily use whatever corporate surveillance technology is being forced upon them. They will even defend it to the bone if you try to take it away
- WorldPeas 11mo agoand what phone do you use? There's no way out from that perspective (apple included), privacy and interoperability should not be mutually exclusive.
- immibis 11mo agoAt this point I'm pretty sure my next phone will be GrapheneOS, on whichever hardware they support at the time I want to buy a new phone. As a bonus it'll probably be really annoying to use because of the security, which will make me use it less. I'll just have to remember to never visit Spain, lest I get arrested for drug trafficking because of my phone.
- jacquesm 11mo agoIt wouldn't be the first time that something gets posted on HN and then miraculously is resolved.
- abdullahkhalids 11mo agoElderly relatives are the best candidate for switching to linux. They need to do what? Browser, zoom, email client. They are never going to install anything. All of these have great options on linux, and they work just as well. Just put them on Debian stable and be done with it.
- thunky 11mo agoChromebook.
- XorNot 11mo agoA locked in Google platform while Google is helping Microsoft implement mass data collection...
- aeroevan 11mo agoMost of them can be turned into a vanilla linux laptop fairly easily, and even support custom coreboot firmware: https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/ https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/ That being said, it's also pretty easy to get a full linux shell and even install gui apps via flatpak or whatever.
- more_corn 11mo agoChromebook is absolute garbage
- fsflover 11mo agoSo that all your chat history with the relative goes straight to train Google ads? No, thanks.
- rjdj377dhabsn 11mo agoYep. While my mom was working she needed too many Windows-only applications. But once she retired, I set her up with a Linux desktop and it's been smooth sailing.
- more_corn 11mo ago
- pndy 11mo agoMaybe not totally related but I remember a comment from few years which lets say, was "dismissed" at the time by votes where user said that Google doesn't innovate when it comes to web standards but pushes own agenda by planted people at W3C. To ensure their browser will work for them and not for the user. Microsoft on the other hand seems to be reheating the old Palladium/Trusted Computing concept enhanced now by Copilot. This idea was already criticized over 20 years ago as a dangerous attempt of turning desktop machines to uncontrollable appliances which would run only approved software and serve, access approved safe content rigged with DRM. And frankly, with all this play with chat control, age verification it's hard to not see some similarities. Maybe that's where this is all going.
- nalekberov 11mo agoMicrosoft is just a video game company to me, I can live without its products and be happier. With Google though, things are bit different, they have Google Maps and YouTube, which I use nearly on daily basis. I can probably replace Google Maps with something else, even though that will probable be a downgrade in terms of user experience, however replacing YouTube is impossible, so many unique content in it. (a big) But YouTube has grown to be such a monopoly, that they now dictate what we are going to be able to watch on the web. This is sadly so hard to change, so many creators are now literally working "for" YouTube, and there are so many quality videos there.
- kelvinjps10 11mo agoYou can replace the frontent yt-dlp invidious mpv etc
- ranger_danger 11mo agoI think it's only a matter of time before youtube starts injecting ads directly into the video stream, and only allow streaming it at the actual playback speed. They might even put the ads in different places for different users to throw off things like Sponsorblock.
- mapontosevenths 11mo agoIts wild to me that you watch enough YouTube to care, but won't pay for it. Its a service, either pay or put up with the ads.
- Marsymars 11mo agoThe problem for me is that "enough to care" is like a video every couple months. $8/video is poor value.
- mapontosevenths 11mo agoFair enough. Thats why there is an ad supported version. I consider my time to be valuable, and really hate ads though so removing even a few minutes of ads are worth the $8 to me.
- squarefoot 11mo agoThe video was restored because of the noise the takedown created. Small creators have no voice and for every big channel that can ignite a PR backlash there are potentially thousands that would disappear without trace or chances to be restored. YouTube has been unreliable for years, but AI just makes it even more so; how could one base their business on such an unprofessional and unstable partner that appears managed by kids with too much power in their hands? An alternative is badly needed asap.
- ranger_danger 11mo ago> The video was restored because of the noise the takedown created. Source:
- themaninthedark 11mo ago> Rich appealed both immediately. The first appeal was denied in 45 minutes. The second in just five. > The platform claimed its "initial actions" (could be either the first takedown or appeal denial, or both) were not the result of automation. If they claim that a non automated review occurred but then still took down/denied appeal, what caused them to change course? What is your source that the restoration of the video was not because of the noise?
- immibis 11mo agoPattern recognition, an innate skill in most humans. When most bogus takedowns are not reversed, but the more people you see talking about them, the more likely they are to get reversed, you can easily see the pattern.
- tombert 11mo ago> (Having said that, my bypass strategy is to not use Windows 11 altogether. I don't depend on it, having used Linux since 21 years now, I'm not quite that cool, but I have been using it full time since about 2009, so I'm not too far behind :) The only time that I have to use Windows is because I have to play tech support for my parents, because despite considerable effort on my end, I have been completely unsuccessful at convincing them to move to Linux or Mac. It's a little annoying, because when I bring up the subject they act like I should just "live and let live", but that's a really stupid argument when they're saying this while I am fixing their computer. Somehow this is lost on them. I have complained about this a bunch of times on here, but I'll say it again: If you work on Windows Update, then you should consider any career other than software engineer. Windows Update has made the world a worse place because it disincentivizes updating your computer, leading to an increase in open. Update software isn't allowed to suck.
- duskdozer 11mo agoObviously it depends on your relationship, but it's not really nice of them to insist on your tech support like this AND refuse to make it easier for you AND be ungrateful (?) for it. You could set a date after which you won't help anymore unless they switch to Linux or Mac.
- tombert 11mo agoTo be fair, they are always extremely thankful when I help them out with stuff. It didn’t bother me that much until a few months ago when an auto update to Windows 11 bricked my mom’s computer, and since Windows won’t support filesystem that didn’t coexist with dinosaurs and because System Restore doesn’t work, and because the automatic repair tools never work, I ended up having to walk them through flashing a drive with a fresh copy of Windows 11 to get it working. Oh, also, the diagnostic tools don’t appear to work, and they don’t really have “live USB” support for anything anymore, so I actually had to first walk my dad through flashing Ubuntu to a drive so I could tmate in, mount the NTFS drive and rsync all the files to my server. The only way to save Windows and NTFS is to use Linux, apparently: If they were running Linux, I would have them set up with automatic system snapshots with ZFS and since ZFS is actually a competently built filesystem the snapshots would actually work. I am ragging on filesystems but it’s not even inherent to filesystems. I run NixOS on my laptop and every time I do a rebuild it takes a snapshot, so if I break something I can just reboot and choose an older generation, and this works even on ext4. I think this is how Windows System Restore is supposed to work but it has the slight disadvantage of not actually working, or it is so limited so as to be useless (e.g. you apparently cannot restore a Windows 10 restore point from a Windows 11 install, a big problem if the auto update to Windows 11 was the actual problem). I have debated giving the ultimatum, and I haven’t ruled it out, but in order for it to work I need to be willing to stick to my guns if they call my bluff, and I don’t know that I am there yet. I have been trying to plant the seed though it has not been successful.
- tartoran 11mo agoWindows 10 is also the stop I'm getting off at. Windows 11 does not serve me and it does not suit my needs. Windows 10 was not too great either, debloated was somewhat manageable to run on one of my machines. It's inertia of all these years, my first windows installation was Win 95. But Windows 11 is a horror show I don't want take part in and warn anyone that could be tricked into using to stay away.
- stOneskull 11mo agokde is fun! so is xfce but i'm too old for tweaking so much
- jwrallie 11mo agoI love xfce. It is so stable and practical.
- hammock 11mo ago> Google censors the world It’s literally their mission: to organize the worlds information. We just didn’t understand it at the time.
- ccppurcell 11mo agoI'm a bit of an LLM skeptic but chatgpt could probably explain this kind of thing pretty well and a) it's interactive so you can ask if you don't understand a step b) there will be no filler to pad the content for ads (well not at the moment anyway)
- analog8374 11mo agoWhat if they censor you for a good reason. Is it ok then?
- itsthecourier 11mo agomost games run in Ubuntu with steam now, Google workspace replaced excel for the great majority of tasks online and I ubuntu improved a lot drivers support. I'm happy to work in Linux and see the great improvements they did thru decades