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Comment by unpopularopp | Hacker News Reader

This is something I never get. I go to Youtube I can watch russian and chinese propaganda channels easily, RT, CGTN, Global Times etc. Why does this exist at all? Like why does an american company allow that? Do people in China and Russia can watch US propaganda easily? To me it's just doesn't make sense. ESPECIALLY that feels like Google takes more care about US stuff (see any republican, Trump etc. videos) but hey we don't care about chinese or russian propaganda. Let everyone have free access to those!

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You’re touching on a huge topic, and I can’t do it justice, but the simplified answer is that blocking voices “fairly” is nearly impossible.

If you choose to block some voices, you inevitably have to draw a line regarding what is allowable versus not. But voices don’t exist on a one-dimensional spectrum where you can simply block everything to one side. Someone has to decide what is allowable, but who gets to decide that? Who decides who gets to decide? Regardless of whoever ends up becoming the decision maker, reasonable people will disagree, creating more conflict.

On a similar line, we often hear about Russian, Chinese, NK and Iranian cyberattacks on US and EU infrastructure, on a regular basis. But it's very hard for to find information on what kind of attacks our actors are regularly carrying out against them.

We push commits on Friday afternoons and take down entire infrastructures.

A bit late replying but I audibly guffawed in a meeting and embarrassed myself.

You're right, when I go to Pyong-Yang, I cannot watch CNN.

I wonder why we are not doing like Pyong-Yang. And not just for TV !

All things considered NK isn’t doing that well as compared to the US

The person you're replying to mentioned China and Russia - Pyongyang is in North Korea. While neither China nor Russia are particularly free or open, North Korea is on an entirely different level.

> Do people in China and Russia can watch US propaganda easily?

Don't know about China, but it's not like people don't go to youtube, reddit, twitter or other social media patfroms.

> Why does this exist at all? Like why does an american company allow that?

Obviously, because the company operates in the said country (at least in Russia), makes money, and even installs their their own hardware in ISPs datacenters. Obviously, they will be forced to comply with local regulations.

Funny thing is that more confrontations between Russian government and these companys boil down to government pressuring them if they block some Russian media for violating some "internal rules", as if they are operating in American jurisdiction and feel like they have a right for "private discrimination".

Im betting google treds lightly on content violations by state sponsored stations for fear of being shut down.

Note also you can watch dw [1](German) and France 24 news [2](oddly both in in English). I think those are “state sponsored” though right now hardly propaganda. Dw was forced to close its Russia office.

[1] https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCknLrEdhRCp1aegoMqRaCZg

[2] https://youtube.com/c/FRANCE24English

> I think those are “state sponsored” though right now hardly propaganda

All news media is propaganda, the question is it true or not.

That’s why it’s important to try and find source material. Also look up company ownership and authors

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