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Youtube Technology

YouTube Disabled Comments On Livestreams Of A Congressional Hearing On White Nationalism Because They Were Too Hateful (buzzfeednews.com) 431

Tuesday's hearing was meant to examine the rise of white nationalism and white supremacy and the role social media plays in its spread. Then the comments got hijacked. From a report: YouTube moderators disabled comments on livestreams of the House Judiciary Committee's hearing about hate crimes the rise of white nationalism on Tuesday, deeming them too hateful for the platform. The comment sections quickly flooded with hate speech and white nationalist memes before the hearing had even started. The comments included derogatory remarks about women on camera, anti-Semitic slurs, far-right memes with references to "white genocide," and pro-Trump slogans. The channels' comments sections were deactivated within an hour. [...] YouTube's disabling of comments is ironic: House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat from New York, made special reference in his opening statement of the role social media platforms play in spreading hate speech and extremism in his opening statement.
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YouTube Disabled Comments On Livestreams Of A Congressional Hearing On White Nationalism Because They Were Too Hateful

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  • Why this one video (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @01:57PM (#58410960)

    I don't know if these "You Tube Moderators" have looked around much, but you can find hateful comments on pretty much any video. Why block comments on just this one?

    If YouTube wants to block "hateful comments" why do they allow comments anywhere?

    • by Freischutz ( 4776131 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:01PM (#58410974)

      I don't know if these "You Tube Moderators" have looked around much, but you can find hateful comments on pretty much any video. Why block comments on just this one?

      If YouTube wants to block "hateful comments" why do they allow comments anywhere?

      Because the quantity and hatefulness blew the scale?

      • by Crashmarik ( 635988 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:38PM (#58411248)

        Oh that's hilarious. Truly hateful speech invalidates itself. It's why conservatives love it when totalitarians of all stripes open up their mouths.
        I would guess it's more a case of far too many accurate comments and questions.

        Examples:
        How do you raise the minimum wage to 15/hr while simultaneously allowing an endless flood of people in that will work for $5/hr ?
        If sexual preference is biologically determined, just how is gender a social construct ?
        Or the simple If it's OK for the U.S. to interfere in Russian elections, why wouldn't you expect them to return the favor ?

        • by XXongo ( 3986865 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:45PM (#58411302) Homepage
          I don't see any of those examples being removed from the comment section of Youtube.

          The removed comments are a lot more disturbing, stuff like Heil Hitler posts & death threats.

          • But I don't see anyone banning Che Guevara shirts.

            • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

              by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              Probably because comparing Che Guevara to Hitler is ridiculous, and because we don't have a problem with Marxist revolutionary terrorism right now.

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Freischutz ( 4776131 )

          Examples: How do you raise the minimum wage to 15/hr while simultaneously allowing an endless flood of people in that will work for $5/hr ?

          The federal minimum wage is already $7.25/hr so if you are right this is already a problem. The only thing that changes when raising the minimum wage to $15/hr is that a ton of people will actually get paid $15/hr since there is plenty of businesses that respect the law.

          If sexual preference is biologically determined, just how is gender a social construct ?

          I have no idea, I have been a heterosexual all my life and I have never doubted my gender or my sexual orientation for a second. The philosophy of gender ambiguity is a topic I'm quite content to leave to others and I am certainly not going

          • US support of a very unpopular Yeltsin and his neo liberal "shock therapy" ideas that left Russia even worse off economically.

            http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-meddling-in-1996-russian-elections-in-support-of-boris-yeltsin/5568288/amp

            Let us consider some of the consequences of Yeltsin's electoral win:

            -In the first years of the Chubais-Yeltsin privatization scheme, the life expectancy of a Russian male fell from 65 years to 57.5 years. Female life expectancy in Russia dropped from 74.5 years in 1989 to 72

        • Or the simple If it's OK for the U.S. to interfere in Russian elections, why wouldn't you expect them to return the favor ?

          I seriously doubt the US interfered much with the Russian elections. Most of the interference came from within Russia; the Putin supporters usually make sure he (or his preferred candidate) wins. Nothing to see here - move on.

      • I don't know if these "You Tube Moderators" have looked around much, but you can find hateful comments on pretty much any video. Why block comments on just this one?

        If YouTube wants to block "hateful comments" why do they allow comments anywhere?

        Because the quantity and hatefulness blew the scale?

        Are these people new to the Internet?

    • Oh hey you can see where this is going. Congrats

    • by BringsApples ( 3418089 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:12PM (#58411056)

      Seems proper to me. Here they are, the big-wigs meeting about the role that social media plays in fueling hate. YouTube, a social media platform would be super stupid to NOT turn off the hate in such a situation.

  • And? (Score:5, Funny)

    by the_skywise ( 189793 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:03PM (#58410990)
    So it looked like the typical slashdot post comments then?
  • by Penguinisto ( 415985 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:06PM (#58411006) Journal

    I understand what a "white supremacist" is. I understand what a "French Nationalist", or a "Argentinian Nationalist" would be. However, the term "White Nationalist" is semantically and massively wrong (but then, so would "Black Nationalist" or "Asian Nationalist"...) After all, what nation is titled as "White"?

    I get that stamping out racism is a good thing, but seriously, folks - at least don't mangle the language while you do it.

    • by mcmonkey ( 96054 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:11PM (#58411040) Homepage

      However, the term "White Nationalist" is semantically and massively wrong (but then, so would "Black Nationalist" or "Asian Nationalist"...) After all, what nation is titled as "White"?

      If someone was a nationalist, and thought their nation should be solely or dominantly one race, would it not be semantically and massively correctly to refer to them as a "[Race] Nationalist"?

      (Race being not a biological category, as humans are a single species, but a reference to skin color, geographical ancestry, or religion.)

      • However, the term "White Nationalist" is semantically and massively wrong (but then, so would "Black Nationalist" or "Asian Nationalist"...) After all, what nation is titled as "White"?

        If someone was a nationalist, and thought their nation should be solely or dominantly one race, would it not be semantically and massively correctly to refer to them as a "[Race] Nationalist"?

        (Race being not a biological category, as humans are a single species, but a reference to skin color, geographical ancestry, or religion.)

        Humans are so lacking in genetic diversity that the closest we get to 'race' is 'trivial regional variations'.

        • by Anonymous Coward

          Upwards of 4% of European DNA is Neanderthal DNA; black Africans have zero Neanderthal DNA.

          The point is not that one group is "better" than another, but this idea that all humans are clones of each other, and that race is a social construct, makes no sense; it makes no sense in the raw numbers, and it makes no sense in everyday life.

          People know it's bullshit.

          Now, look into average IQ measurements. Come on; you can do it. Stare into that deep abyss, and know reality for what it is.

        • The entire field of genetics would disagree with you. Perhaps you haven't thought about it, but the whole reason there are so many biologists is specifically because there is a buttload of genetic variation within the human species, and figuring out how that affects us is pretty tricky. Throwing around numbers like 2% or 4% is popular when you don't understand that those 2% may be the switches that turn on or off or mutate the remaining 98%.

          For example, did you know that the difference between friendly, har

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by slinches ( 1540051 )

        It also works semantically if someone is a nationalist, who happens to be white. Which provides a convenient way to conflate nationalism with racism.

    • White Nationalist is someone who believes there should be a White ethnostate. No immigration except from "correct" countries and definitely no importing or mixing of cultures.

      You are correct that there is such country, but these people want to MAKE such a country. In recognition that there is no unclaimed land in the world currently, the only remaining option to make such a country is to remove any non white person.

      The only country that could really pull this off is... Russia.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by sycodon ( 149926 )

      The problem is that when you say you are a Nationalist, as Trump did, the Left automatically adds, "White" to the beginning.

      • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @11:44PM (#58413592)
        The Problem is that when you cut programs [nbcnews.com] for fighting domestic terror in a country where white supremacists [qz.com] account for a disproportionate amount of attacks and then say both sides are bad when literal Nazis [thedailybeast.com] are rallying, well...

        There just comes a time to call a Spade a Spade. I don't care of Trump really drinks the Kool-Aid or is just doing it for the votes or even the lulz. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and hiel Hitler's like a duck, it's a White Nationalist. Sooner we stop living in denial the better. This will not end well for us otherwise. Ignoring reality never does...
    • Mangling the language is one of the most important tools of the professional liars. Basic ontology of lies:

      Level 0: Self-contradiction. Something is obviously wrong. Only amusing variation is when both halves are false.

      Level 1: Counterfactual. As the famous saying says, any fool can check the facts.

      Level 2: Partial truth. Two basic variations. One is to omit parts so as to deny actually lying, but the higher form involves actively creating a false perception of reality based on the gaps.

      Level 3: Reframing.

    • However, the term "White Nationalist" is semantically and massively wrong (but then, so would "Black Nationalist" or "Asian Nationalist"...) After all, what nation is titled as "White"?

      I get that stamping out racism is a good thing, but seriously, folks - at least don't mangle the language while you do it.

      I've been musing on this lately, as accusations of being a "White Nationalist" have become extremely bizarre. For example, claiming "White Nationalists" love anime [quora.com] or that multi-racial groups like the Proud Boys [atlantablackstar.com] are "White Nationalists".

      I think there are two main points with this:

      • Racist has become so watered down that it has lost all of its emotional punch. It's not enough that someone is Racist; now they're a White Nationalist despite not being white nor advocating for a white-only nation.
      • Polarizatio
    • someone who wants to form a whites only ethno-state. This is a thing that exists and is growing and therefore needs a name. What else would you call that? And how is it mangling the language?

      It reminds me of one of my mainframe buds who couldn't wrap his head around the concept of metadata. "It's just data!". Well, no, it's not. It's data about data. "But that's just data". Yes, but it's a kind of data, and it became increasingly common and important to discuss so we made a term for it so that we could
  • by Lucas123 ( 935744 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:06PM (#58411010) Homepage
    I'm no babe in the woods (I completed my 100th trip around the block last week), but I've seen some comment threads on news sites that would convince you Neanderthals didn't go extinct; they're alive and well. You just hope the comments are more troll/bombastic in nature and not what people truly believe (OK, maybe I am still a bit naive).
    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Bobrick ( 5220289 )
      Mod parent naive.
  • by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:17PM (#58411090) Journal

    Seriously .... it's amazingly bad, how often online conversations or comments on social media devolve into utter garbage. I imagine in this instance, it was egged on because of the political topic of discussion. Furthermore? I'm fairly confident the vast majority of "white supremacist" comments were made by teenagers trying to get a rise out of people.

    I mean, sure -- you really DO have these racist hate groups around. But they're generally rather disorganized or lack enough membership to do anything significant. You have FAR more people who are just angry and like to talk trash than you do people who are truly committed to promoting neo-nazis or some kind of white supremacy movement.

    • Seriously .... it's amazingly bad, how often online conversations or comments on social media devolve into utter garbage.

      YEP.EVERY.FUCKING.TIME

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      Agreed. Just look at 4chan, the guys who tried to get "hitler did nothing wrong" voted as a new Mountain Dew flavor. The do it to get a rise out of people, or in their own words, do it for the lulz. There certainly are real neo nazis, stormfront wouldn't exist otherwise, but that site has always been tiny. I think it more closely represents the true size of such groups. And they aren't all that big or threatening.

      What we do have is a polarization problem right now. It feels like people are generally more d

      • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:45PM (#58411304)

        Um, actually, if you march carrying torches at night shouting Nazi slogans, then yes, you are a Nazi. Mike Godwin himself, author of that law, came out and publicly said "Go right ahead and call them Nazis, because they are!" AC

      • by mcmonkey ( 96054 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:49PM (#58411336) Homepage

        Guys, nobody is a Nazi.

        You generally have a good point, but the people marching with torches chanting "the Jews will not replace us" are nazis.

        Not everyone who disagrees with me is a nazi. Nor is everyone more conservative than I am or everyone who believes negative stereotypes based on skin color or religion.

        But that does not mean there are no nazis.

      • You dance with the one that brung ya.

        If these 4chan types are aping racist sentiments just because it pisses the adults off, well, in my view, at best that makes them deluded pricks. But it's worse than that, because if nothing else they act as an unwitting online army for the really nasty guys. Racism is still racism, whether it's just some attempt at a bit self-masturbatory humor. Even if it's some sort of satire, there's a way to do satire of racists that doesn't involve basically behaving exactly like a

    • Absolutely, the amount of actual white nationalists on there was probably very small. Most people aren't racist. They might at worse grumble and hold some prejudice views, but wouldn't discriminate. A lot of trolls which... hey! Why not!

      I'm more worried about the left identitarian stuff. That has a bigger chance of actually implementing policy changes with far reaching consequences.

      • But there's a path from just being a "grumbler" to becoming an active supporter. Prior to the Nazi racial laws, general grumbling about Jews was pretty common. Talk to your average German in, say, the 1920s, and the idea that every Jew under German control would end up in concentration camps or being murdered on an industrial scale would have seemed ludicrous. Oh sure, they'd probably bring up some popular tropes of the day about the greedy Jew, and they had a cousin who had a friend who had been stiffed by

      • by jrumney ( 197329 )

        Most people aren't racist. They might at worse grumble and hold some prejudice views

        So...they're racist, you're saying.

        I'm more worried about the left identitarian stuff.

        I had to look that up. Apparently it is a far-right and white nationalist movement that originated in France.

    • by ruddk ( 5153113 )

      It seems that in most live streams with political topic, it is just spammy crap that isn't really worth your time. It's not even clever trolling, just noise really.

    • Hah. I hadn't played StarCraft II or any video games with some sort of general chat in a long while. A few weeks ago I opened it up and glanced at the chat room while setting up a game. Oh man... it gave me flashbacks to when I was a teenager and what I can assume were other idiot/asshole teenagers were flinging around verbal abuse and filth. I simply had forgotten that's what it was like.
  • by Robert Ng ( 4646923 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:19PM (#58411102)
    It's nearly the 10 year anniversary of John Gabriel's groundbreaking theory. https://www.penny-arcade.com/c... [penny-arcade.com]
    • Why is your comment nearly invisible? Yes, your Subject: line isn't greatly illuminating, but I don't see the basis for the current score of 1. Some kind of troll moderation effect?

      The comic you linked to is rather insightful. My favored solution approach would involve MEPR (Multidimensional Earned Public Reputation) so that people who have a track record of not acting like that would acquire additional visibility, while the trolls would be helped in rendering themselves less and less visible. Anonymity has

  • any place at all where speech is truly free is going to be flooded with hatred trying to drown out everything else.

    It's unfortunate, and I don't have a solution, but it is an incontrovertible fact of life.

    • /satire: The "solution" is just to ban all speech. Then no one can say anything that gets your panties in a knot since all speech is banned. "Problem solved!" /s

      Seriously though:

      Either you have 100% free speech (and allow "bad words") or you have censorship (and eventually block everything.) There is no middle ground by definition.

      People who are "hurt" by words need to grow the fuck up and stop trying to micro-manage everybody else from expressing an opinion.

      • People who are "hurt" by words need to grow the fuck up and stop trying to micro-manage everybody else from expressing an opinion.

        I tend toward agreement.

        Then I think about people like Joseph Goebbels and start to waver........

      • by HiThere ( 15173 )

        The problem is noise level. And it's a problem intentionally caused by as least some of the posters. Their goal is to shout so loudly that no one else can be heard. They are often successful. One of the benefits of moderation systems is that they mitigate the problem, but they cannot solve it.

        If there is a solution, it's not obvious. Simple "solutions" tend to enclose everyone in an "echo chamber" where their pre-existing opinions and biases are reinforced without regard to their fit with reality.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by LordAba ( 5378725 )

      any place at all where speech is truly free is going to be flooded with hatred trying to drown out everything else.

      It's unfortunate, and I don't have a solution, but it is an incontrovertible fact of life.

      I totally disagree. Sunlight is a great disinfectant, and more speech is always better. The issue comes in echo chambers that are cut off from one another either voluntarily or by force. These allow extreme ideas and sentiment to exist. Some of the best research on getting rid of extremism states that two people talking will do more than nearly any amount of censorship.

      It's a lot harder to use the n-word when a friend will smack you in the back of the head. It's a lot harder to breed resentment when people

  • by drew_kime ( 303965 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:43PM (#58411288) Journal

    YouTube's disabling of comments is ironic

    If by "ironic" you mean "totally fucking predictable" then yeah, I suppose it was.

  • I'm wondering if it was all true haters, all astroturfing, all trolls, or a combination of all? We do know that both sides aren't above faking the opposition's tactics in order to make themselves look good or build a false narrative that supports their views.

    Hell, the trolls or the astroturfers (or both) could have been the first ones to do it and that encouraged the haters to start up, kind of like priming a pump. The sad part is we will never know for sure. My money is that most was true but there w
  • Interesting... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Big Boss ( 7354 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @03:18PM (#58411572)

    I find it amusing and interesting that the "conservatives" want businesses to have rights and religion when they are discriminating against gays, but freak out when some business decides they don't want said "conservatives" as a customer.

    It's a bit like the "tolerance" groups that only have tolerance for the groups/religions/etc. THEY like.

    Left/Right, D/R, doesn't matter. They are all stupid. :)

  • Where have you been? To the city hall meeting but couldn't get in Pussy Cat Pussy Cat Why was that? It was all about cats and their habitats But they only admitted dogs and rats
  • by nehumanuscrede ( 624750 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @09:44PM (#58413282)

    There is an awful lot of anger out there.

    Those of Caucasian decent have been told for years that they are racists simply because of their skin color.
    They can't be discriminated against because they aren't the right color.
    They have something called " White Privilege " that, apparently, is some sort of " I win " button available on tap.
    They get turned down for jobs and education slots because the Company or University has to have enough minorities lest they be called racists too.
    Standardized tests are all racist because, apparently, minorities have issues with them. So they just get rewritten to make the numbers look better.
    Slavery is still their fault apparently, irregardless of the fact the last " slaves " in America were freed ~150 years ago.
    ( The reparations movement, and all the politicians using it to further their political career, can just f*ck off. )
    Starting a #WhiteLivesMatter movement would instantly be classified as some White Nationalist Klan Nazi Terrorist Group and the media would just lose it.

    Given the above:

    Is there anyone out there who doesn't think a very small percentage of impacted folks might be just a tad bit angry about it all ?
    Is there anyone out there who doesn't think an even smaller percentage of that small percentage might even be REALLY angry about it ?

    And of that laughably tiny percentage, a few folks might actually do something rather radical ?

    This is shocking why ?

    Maybe they're just tired of being the " Bad Guy " for nothing more than their skin color.

    • No serious* person in the Progressive movement has said anything remotely like what you enumerated. It sounds like you're erecting straw-men, but I'll bite and address things individually.

      Those of Caucasian decent have been told for years that they are racists simply because of their skin color.

      No one (serious*) is saying that. There is a strong believe for progressives that the mainstream American society goes out of its way to avoid recognizing or admitting that the history of slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation in this country has done serious damage to the social mobility and opportunity available to people o

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