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posted by Fnord666 on Friday August 14 2020, @04:28PM   Printer-friendly
from the who-picks-what-gets-banned? dept.

YouTube bans videos containing hacked information that could interfere with the election:

As Democrats and Republicans prepare to hold their national conventions starting next week, YouTube on Thursday announced updates to its policies on deceptive videos and other content designed to interfere with the election.

The world's largest video platform, with more than 2 billion users a month, will ban videos containing information that was obtained through hacking and could meddle with elections or censuses. That would include material like hacked campaign emails with details about a candidate. The update follows the announcement of a similar rule that Google, which owns YouTube, unveiled earlier this month banning ads that contain hacked information. Google will start enforcing that policy Sept. 1.

YouTube also said it will take down videos that encourage people to interfere with voting and other democratic processes. For example, videos telling people to create long lines at polling places in order to stifle the vote won't be allowed.

[...] YouTube has also tried to secure its platform from foreign actors. Last week, the company said it banned almost 2,600 channels linked to China as part of investigations into "coordinated influence operations" on the site. YouTube also took down dozens of channels linked to Russia and Iran that had apparent ties to influence campaigns.


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  • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday August 14 2020, @04:44PM (8 children)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Friday August 14 2020, @04:44PM (#1036597) Journal

    When Americans do it legally it's called "participating" in the election.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday August 14 2020, @04:47PM (7 children)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Friday August 14 2020, @04:47PM (#1036599) Journal

    To be fair, foreigners who do so legally are also allowed to participate. E.g. a Canadian commenting here about it while NOT on the payroll of a foreign national or government.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Unixnut on Friday August 14 2020, @05:09PM (3 children)

      by Unixnut (5779) on Friday August 14 2020, @05:09PM (#1036606)

      The problem is how do you prove someone is "paid by a foreign national /government"?

      Quite often I have seen on the web (and even on this site), people with opinions contrary to the forum majority be accused of being some kind of "paid foreign agent", which automatically dismisses their opinions as nothing worth considering.

      You can't ask people to prove they are not in the pay of a foreign national/government, nor can you prove it even if you demanded their entire bank statement history. There are just so many ways to conceal it, that it is impossible to prove one way or another.

      > E.g. a Canadian commenting here about it while NOT on the payroll of a foreign national or government.

      This is too broad. Case in point: if a Canadian comments while working for a Canadian company, they are technically on the payroll of a "foreign national", and may well have some vested interest in some outcome to the US that would be beneficial to Canada. Even a US employee working for a non US company would qualify under that definition.

      "Troll armies" have been bounded about as thing, and there are many countries that have dedicated units (some military) whose job is to go online and sway opinions (to my knowledge, the UK, Israel and Russia have such dedicated units), so it is a thing, and you can never be sure that you are just not arguing with people whose entire career involves posting comments on youtube or any other forum in order to sway opinion, the truth be damned..

      Personally, I think it is better to just accept everyone has vested interests in opinions they give (otherwise they would not give them) and what they do, and just concentrate on convincing others that your vested interests are better for them. In essence that is what debates are all about. There are few universal truths out there (outside of Mathematics).

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 14 2020, @05:19PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 14 2020, @05:19PM (#1036614)

        Yeah just like those US units google, facebook, ...

        .. oft times just the regular army goes in post election tho.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 14 2020, @10:25PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 14 2020, @10:25PM (#1036797)

        "Personally, I think it is better to just accept everyone has vested interests in opinions they give (otherwise they would not give them) and what they do, and just concentrate on convincing others that your vested interests are better for them."

        It is in your beset interests that we impose data caps, along with lower bandwidth offering at higher prices.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2020, @12:01AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 15 2020, @12:01AM (#1036832)

        The problem is how do you prove someone is "paid by a foreign national /government"?

        You find their relation to one of:

        * United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office [archive.org] ("UK FCO")

        * Russia [archive.is]

        * Saudi Arabia [mideast-times.com]

        * Qatar [wnd.com]

        * Iran [iranpoliticsclub.net]

    • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday August 14 2020, @05:43PM (1 child)

      by fustakrakich (6150) on Friday August 14 2020, @05:43PM (#1036630) Journal

      foreigners schmoreigners! The president is sabotaging the election, not Russia, or China. Let's get off that bullshit. Concentrate your fire on the enemy closest to you

      --
      La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
    • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 14 2020, @05:47PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 14 2020, @05:47PM (#1036634)

      You can do it on the payroll of a foreign nation too, as long as that nation rhymes with "misrael".