YouTube Pressured To Ban Chinese State Media Ads That Spread Misinformation About Protesters 29
YouTube is being pressured to remove ads from China Central Television, a state media channel that's allegedly spreading misinformation about protesters in Hong Kong. The Verge reports: Users on Twitter and Reddit have posted a number of screenshots of the ads, many of which paint the Hong Kong protests as an illegitimate product of foreign influence. The users accuse YouTube and parent company Google of enabling an "infestation of ads" that "tries to sow political discord." As a result, many supporters of the protests are demanding that Google stop CCTV from running ads on YouTube. "Google, why are you helping China [government] to undermine freedom of [Hong Kong citizens] with your platform," Chu Ka-cheong, an engineer based in Hong Kong, tweeted.
YouTube hasn't addressed the advertisements on its own platform yet. Google's ad policies don't directly address state media branches like CCTV, although Google has rules for political advertisements and prohibits content that misrepresents the product or organization an advertisement is talking about. Still, it's unclear whether CCTV's ads violate Google's policies. A representative for YouTube did not respond to The Verge's request for comment by the time of publish. CCTV's main YouTube channel has just over 560,000 subscribers. After being criticized for running promoted tweets by China's largest state agency, Twitter announced it will no longer accept advertising from state media operations, like China Central Television.
Although Facebook did not announce any policy changes following the discovery of several accounts and pages spreading misinformation about the protesters, the company is "committed to continually improving to stay ahead," according to Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy.
YouTube hasn't addressed the advertisements on its own platform yet. Google's ad policies don't directly address state media branches like CCTV, although Google has rules for political advertisements and prohibits content that misrepresents the product or organization an advertisement is talking about. Still, it's unclear whether CCTV's ads violate Google's policies. A representative for YouTube did not respond to The Verge's request for comment by the time of publish. CCTV's main YouTube channel has just over 560,000 subscribers. After being criticized for running promoted tweets by China's largest state agency, Twitter announced it will no longer accept advertising from state media operations, like China Central Television.
Although Facebook did not announce any policy changes following the discovery of several accounts and pages spreading misinformation about the protesters, the company is "committed to continually improving to stay ahead," according to Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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On their phones and smart TVs.
DNS blocking doesn't work with YouTube. On Android you can side-load a hacked client (if you trust it), but not on iOS. On smart TVs you are usually SOL.
Re: this is shocking and disappointing (Score:2)
Adblock plus on iPhone Safari works.
what did ya expect from google (Score:2)
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They have to maintain some positive relationship with China in order to keep selling Android there. You'll find that Apple is even more friendly with them. Twitter on the other hand, has nothing to lose.
US Communists are ready to help (Score:1)
To protect the result of the revolution.
Big tech hope for big contracts in China after Hong Kong returns to normal under full Communist gov control?
How many in big tech are ready to support a Communist gov due to their own politics?
China, the approved "state media" under a US big tech CoC?
Projects to help China control the internet. No using the flag of Taiwan.
No support for freedom in Hong Kong.
No support for Taiwan and it's freedom?
CCTV: Closed-Circuit Television (Score:2)
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Big US tech will side with the media and publishing regulations of Communist China.
Like they never noticed PRISM for the US gov. Thanks to this generations of big tech brands we will never get to see a 1989 Tiananmen Square in Hong Kong.
No links, comments, words, terms, results not approved by Communist China.
No sinful images from Hong Kong.
The people of Hong Kong returned to work one morning.
The more people of Hong Kong wave US flags the more big US tech wil
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Are US and UK governments agents active in the protest, of course they are, hence saturation coverage from corporate main stream media and considering ALL the other times corporate main stream media attacks protesters or ignores them all across the planet, except at targeted locations, locations being targeted by corrupt US and UK intelligence agencies. How many protests are ignored except where countries are targeted for regime change, ALL OF THEM.
The big problem in this case. The government of China is p
This is what you get with Indian managment team (Score:2)
How many of the senior management in Google/Alphabet are anti-American? All they want is to abuse our system and flood the the country with 1.2bil of their cousins from India. F' google.
Happens here too (Score:3)
In the United States, we also have state-sponsored media that spreads misinformation about protesters.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/... [thedailybeast.com]
https://www.realclearpolitics.... [realclearpolitics.com]
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In the United States, we also have state-sponsored media that spreads misinformation about protesters.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/... [thedailybeast.com]
https://www.realclearpolitics.... [realclearpolitics.com]
In the US, we have lots of wide-ranging media. Only a very small portion of these media are government sponsored, funded, or controlled. We have CSPAN and various government agencies that purchase ads, but it's mostly difficult to come across such media. The only government ads or programs I have seen in the last few years are military recruitment ads.
We do have plenty of government officials that intentionally spread lies and misinformation and lots of media that either originate or propagate lies. How
Showing the other side of the story (Score:1)
Isn't that what American media supposedly always do? Show both sides of the story?
Over the past two months, these "protests" were often broadcasted live in TV in HK. Anyone who had watched them can tell you, these "protesters" were very violent. They came masked, armed and armored, well prepared for violence, and did commit numerous crimes, including vandalism and beating up people who dared to openly disagree with them, or anyone who dared taking pictures of them. Using high-powered lasers (100-1000mW)
Re: Showing the other side of the story (Score:1)
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Any time there's a public protest, there is a risk that violent shitters will show up to have their own brand of fun at everyone's expense. However, that peaceful protest on Saturday was proof that the protest movement is real, rational, and widespread.
Your FUD won't work here.
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Yeah, about that...we saw the giant peaceful protest on Saturday. That was impressive.
Any time there's a public protest, there is a risk that violent shitters will show up to have their own brand of fun at everyone's expense. However, that peaceful protest on Saturday was proof that the protest movement is real, rational, and widespread.
Actually, that proved exactly the opposite of what you are trying to paint.
That peaceful protest last Saturday, did you see any police action to arrest or harass people? No? You know why? Because that protest was really peaceful. One singular rare case in the past 2+ months. And guess what, that actually proved HK police would do nothing to peaceful protester.
The only reason there were police action in those other so-called "protests" were because those "protesters" did violence.
Your FUD won't work here.
Saying what everyone ca
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Communist police want people to relax in front of as many cameras as possible.
So the images collected by the police are useful later.
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Right.
So if the police did nothing, they were bad. If the police did anything, they were bad.
Heads I win, tail you lose. What an epitome of convincing logic there.
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Finally some freedom in Communist China.
Re: Showing the other side of the story (Score:2)
truth is a three edged sword (Score:2)
your truth, my truth and the real truth. both sides are spreading misinformation in order to try to sway public opinion. the real truth is somewhere in the middle.
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Maybe. .... and the propaganda that one government wants to spread about the people in its own territory that oppose it.
But sometimes there's the objective, verifiable truth, told by multiple third parties...
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It is so easy to censor in a good cause... (Score:2)
Sure, I would love to censor totalitarian propaganda. Censoring in a good cause is so easy to justify. Of course, the next case is less clear cut, and the one after that even less so. If you look at the US (I’m in Europe), you see the progs who would love to shut down the deplorables – they’re all for censorship of anything they disagree with.
The only way to win is not to play. Twitter, Youtube, & Co. are big enough that they are effectively public spaces. They should be regulated in e