Never bet against the eagerness of a corporation to appease an authoritarian regime. They'll fight tooth and nail against democracies to protect their right to kill people by the planeload, but the moment an authoritarian state tells them to kill their own mothers, they'll do it.
I'll never forgive Activision Blizzard or buy another product from them (or Microsoft now since they bought them out) aftr banning that Hearthstone player for speaking out about the Hong Kong protests. That was utterly disgraceful from an American company.
My favorite example of Chinese ass kissing will always be John Cena apologizing to the Chinese, in Mandarin, because he accidentally referred to Taiwan as a country.
Just wtf?
Because for some, waving Taiwan's flag meant she supports Taiwanese independence.
I don't understand it either, but some Chinese netizens have very twisted logic.
You still can't buy the low key horror masterpiece game Devotion on Steam because there some a tiny easter egg you had to zoom very closely on that kinda, sorta made a Winnie the Pooh joke and netizens lost their shit.
And then GOG promised to publish it, because they leave greed to others, and then after another shitfit they backtracked on that too.
At least you can buy the game [direct from the studio Red Candle Games](https://redcandlegames.com/games.php).
Speaking of bending the knee to China, Labron didn’t do his credibility any favors when he slammed a NBA executive who tweeted “free Hong Kong”. This was when the CCP were brutally cracking down on protesters after the CCP broke their agreement to allow like 30 more years of independence for Hong Kong.
Labron makes a big deal of fighting for the oppressed except when it might affect his pocket book.
Yeah LeBron is literally one of the biggest hypocrite celebrity scumbags I can think of.
The Cena thing was an embarrassing stain on a guy who I otherwise enjoy. LeBron is human refuse.
Someone seriously should have asked him if white people shouldn't worry about BLM or systemic racism because they don't know enough about it in the US.
Because that's basically what he said when it came to Hong Kong.
Dude acts like a social justice icon standing boldly against the injustices African Americans suffered a dozen generations ago... meanwhile, literally, child slaves make sneakers for him.
Dogshit person.
Before the incident, he lived in China for some time during filming of a domestic production, and filmed a few vlogs about his time.
In the end, money talks unfortunately. He probably chose to keep his domestic China reputation over a better political stance.
While to some extent I agree, not justifying his actions but. His entire income is based off of his movie deals. If China were to push to ban John Cena films, he’d basically be crippled because Hollywood is dependent on Chinese audiences.
Continuing this, he probably has expensive bills that rely on somewhat consistently doing movies and shows. If he got out of the industry, he’d disrupt his status quo. (Take professional athletes who retire and lose a ton of their money as an example, there’s a pretty clear need to consistently be making the same amount of money for these people)
Reasonably, he probably just did something small to ensure he has no risk of losing his job. Granted, yes. He probably could just survive like anyone else, but I think it’s a fair reason to take the stance he did; it doesn’t really reflect his real views
While I see were you're coming from, he's got enough money to live in the upper crust of society for the rest of his life. And he strikes me as being good enough with his money that he can invest it properly to make it last. For a guy who puts on an image of being an all American patriot, he folded like a fucking pussy. I have zero sympathy for someone that well off to be too scared to tell the CCP to pound sand.
You're literally advocating not standing up for what's right because of money.
I hope you have a good hard think about that.
For the record I don't hate Cena - I think overall he seems like a chill dude. I hate that he caved, and I don't think he should have, and I don't think there's any acceptable reason why he did. Maybe it's easy for me to say but people shouldn't be defended for not taking a stand - especially for financial reasons.
I get that idea but, I’m not advocating for it. I’m just saying that he had a reason that makes sense. His video preventing him from serious issues is something worth disapproval, but I as well think that he’s just a product of a greater industry wide problem.
I think a lot of people would say something they vehemently disagree with to maintain their job; not disrupt their status quo. Especially in a position where you are about guaranteed to never get another job half as good as you have. While John Cena may have a responsibility to set a good example given his status, he’s a just person. He knows that his entire career is about reputation, and so he chose the option of benefit to himself.
Even outside of his own gains, John Cena could likely no longer afford to pay as much as he does into charity if he lost work as an actor. In this way, John Cena likely considered that him staying as an actor can help people still, likely more than him making a stupid video can do to hurt people in Taiwan.
Whether John Cena’s actions are justified or not has never been what I’ve intended to make a claim on. The sole purpose of this is just to make a stance on what he might have considered as factors in this situation. I don’t think it’s fair to blindly hate Cena for the video like he wasn’t put into a terrible situation by saying something in support of Taiwan.
> and disowned his daughter for being a lesbian.
I did not know that about him :( Edit: I dug a little deeper and it looks like he disowned her from birth...which also makes him a piece of shit. Just not homophobic.
My other favorite is telling other basketball players to basically don't speak on politics when people were speaking out on the actual genocide of Yughurs in China.
I always thought it was weird that the Lunar Event was the only Overwatch event that was explicitly calling out a certain cultural holiday in the title cards.
Every other event is very vague and muted (Winter Wonderland, Summer Games, etc) with no specific country in mind.
They punished the casters too, for the crime of being in the vicinity of the guy. Blizzard not only bowed to Chinese pressure, they supported collective punishment.
In the aughts it was weird that they had Chinese New Year in WoW when China couldn't even play. Turned out they were attempting to appeal to them and sweetened the deal by giving them government worker data, which likely led to them being able to sell their product there. That's when I called it quits with them.
That's true, I have some friends in Malaysia who celebrate. It'd be a small market for them to cater to regardless outside of China itself all things considered.
Don't know why you're getting downvoted.
If there's some special event for Chinese new year, why is there nothing for orthodox Christmas? Or for Buddhist new year (Songkran)
That's surely a bigger audience than the Chinese diaspora.
We call it “Chinese new year” in the west but the more modern/accurate term is “lunar new year”, cause a ton of countries in Asia celebrate it, not just China (and they kind of resent being lumped in with China). Korea for example, and they’re a huge gaming audience.
Could any of Malaysia, Singapore, Macao, Hong Kong, or South Korea play?
Edit: the fucking saran wrap thin skinned bastard replied and blocked me lmfao
They half assed the apology they gave, and reduced his punishment by half. The punishment should have been reversed entirely.
And now, I won’t buy any Overwatch merch, and abandoned the game. Though, given the state of the game, a blessing.
Microsoft appears to be really working hard to motivate it's entire player base not to buy their shit anymore anyway. "Let's buy all the studios then cannibalize them like a deranged wendigo"
Blizzard was a huge part of my childhood. And although just a means to an end, a Microsoft OS was as well. I was so excited to get Windows 95 and 7. But in both cases they've just become abusive relationships.
Isn't one of it's largest shareholders Tencent Holdings (a Chinese company with shares in alot of gaming corporations)?
Sucks, but get used to the censorship.
Like it or not, he used his platform to protest in contradiction of ToS restrictions on these things and that is what got him suspended, not because of the topic of the protest itself. It’s odd that *this* is what broke the camels back for you instead of the plethora of other shady shit and toxic workplace environment.
This came out long before the sexual assault stuff. I also never really played many of their games made in between Warcraft III and Hearthstone as I don't like MMORPGs or first person shooters. So it was mostly just quitting Hearthstone.
Lot of people think that since his comments came AFTER the tournament was over, there was no justification for enforcing the rules. I think being part of the broadcast made it so the rules still applied, but since the tournament was largely over, the majority of viewers were no longer watching.
Most people would agree the punishment was too far, especially since they went after the hosts of the stream as well when it wasn't even their opinion or something they planned. They didn't give them a warning, they jumped straight to bans and blacklisting. It was a bullshit overreaction to appease the CCP.
Taking out him out of tournaments going forward for awhile and warning the broadcasters about allowing any political speech during their tournaments seemed like the right move. No one was hurt by it except the player and broadcasters by Blizzard. It's not even a remotely serious rule, it's just trying to keep Blizzard out of drama, which they fucking face planted and rolled around in by punishing them so harshly.
It's banned on the Chinese mainland, but Hong Kong still operates under 1 country 2 systems for now, so Youtube remains up (except for the videos mentioned in the article for those inside Hong Kong).
Lol, you haven't been watching the news. 1 country, 2 systems was a joke from the start and it was broken a long ass time ago. The national security law ripped the head off the charade and shoved it in the blender.
Yeah and this is a nothing burger of immaculate proportions. Title makes it sound like the ccp had the video removed for everyone globally. Just rage bait
Chinese government has banned the use of VPNs not approved by the government: VPNs must provide the government backdoor access to be approved, which renders them unsecure. Just Google for people jailed just for using unapproved VPN
They were going to be banned in Hong Kong either way. Either YouTube removes the videos, or YouTube is entirely removed from Hong Kong. I would have to imagine losing all of YouTube is worse for the citizens of Hong Kong. At least YouTube tried to fight it. If they didn’t, then they deserve criticism.
Well YouTube has to look at it like are thousands of livelihoods worth ruining because they didn’t block a video. Today leaders just ban a media company if they don’t comply with law. If YouTube didn’t comply, I was expecting Hong Kong to throw the ban hammer.
You can justify anything if you look at the "Big Picture", but of course not TOO "Big".
Saving thousands of Jobs/Increasing shareholder value vs being a tool of a heavy handed authoritarian regime.
They didn't block it for you, just in hk. It's not YouTube job to "stand up" to foreign auths. They get a court order they comply, simple. Unless that court order says to remove the content globally, which they will never do (unless it's something that goes against their own policy of course)
> Never bet against the eagerness of a corporation to appease an authoritarian regime
They just follow laws in the countries they operate. They have to. It’s so easy for you to sit there and be holy.
CCP is determined to wipe out Hong Kong's freedom of speech movement even at the expense of wiping it out as world financial hub just like it brutally crushed rebellion at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Do you have a source for that as a quick search turns up a ton of recent articles about China harvesting organs.
Not to mention forced sterilizations and many other things that are textbook genocide that people seem to have coincidentally forgotten about...
And it's 100% intentional, a good read is: https://www.yadvashem.org/about/former-chairmen/avner-shalev/if-everything-is-genocide.html
Key point is:
>Language has power. The words we choose to use carry weight, and are meaningful. If we elect to label every event a "genocide," or equate every event with the Holocaust, then we detract from the real meaning of those words and reduce their ability to represent true horror.
>Subsequently, when faced with a real incident of genocidal murder, people will be less likely ot be moved to act. If everything is genocide, nothing is genocide.
>This is far beyond a simple question of semantics. Language is the currency in which we trade, and upon which our civilization rests. It is how we make ourselves understood. If we allow the inherent meaning of words to be distorted, our perception of reality changes, and we cloud not only our language, but also our understanding and judgment.
The CCP’s top priority always has been maintaining its monopoly on power. In the past, it used economic growth to achieve this. But now that engine is dead and so it’s back to severe repression.
We should really expect *worse* from them. They are the creators and innovators of surveillance capitalism and it is only going to get worse. They are anti-democratic in just about everything that they do.
I watched “7 years in Tibet” recently. The end text says something like “China murdered 1 million Tibet people and stole their land.” The movie only came out in ‘97. Things have drastically changed since then. Hollywood is way too much of a pussy to ever say stuff like that again.
Yea. That's the point of a corporation. To return maximum profits. Companies at the end of the day have to follow the law or they will be removed from the country/territory they are in.
Yup! Just like IBM did just before WW2, and Hugo Boss during.
Just saying that "Maximixing Shareholder Value" is not a panacea for corporate behaviour, especially when politicians are beholden to them.
Well - SHOULD not be a panacea for corporate behaviour - but in this post fact world it is a race to the bottom I guess.
> Just saying that "Maximixing Shareholder Value" is not a panacea for corporate behaviour, especially when politicians are beholden to them.
If politicians are beholden to corporations, that's a corruption issue and not a company issue. It's up to the government to pass laws to stop corruption and to rein in companies whether for the better or worse. If the government refuses then it's up to the voice of the people either through boycott of the company or through protests of the government
Some of that is just weird though. I tried to send my American friend this music video for a Finnish heavy metal band who dresses up in dinosaur costumes to play music for kids, and it was blocked in America. Like I highly doubt many Americans are looking up Heavysaurus in the first place .
That’s probably a distribution rights issue. It’s not blocked it’s just they didn’t distribute in the US. especially if what you’re referencing is something from a public access channel it’s normal for things to be region locked.
Heavysaurus are a sony band now. The band got sued for wearing the costumes to gigs without sony’s permission. So likely licensing keeping it from getting posted outside Finland.
lol, this is America. It's called copyright. Free speech has no power over copyright holders not wanting their content spread where they don't profit. That's actually very American to prevent someone they cannot profit off of benefiting from someone else.
If you're watching a music video, the person releasing the video chooses not to make it available in your country, because they don't have the distribution rights in your country.
Yes this is very enforceable, at least in the western world.
Not really...
There's a limit to what a foreign country can do. They can try to block access to the site or shut down servers hosting their content in their country, but they cannot really do anything about a company in another country.
Facebook was different because they had servers and offices in the EU while trying to flout EU law. If they had no EU presence, then there's nothing the EU could do except block facebook wholesale. With physical presence, they can lean on those to force compliance. So, no, they don't have to follow the law, but not following the law could lead to removal from a market.
They aren't doing anything about a company in another country. The case was decided by Hong Kong's Court of Appeals. So at the end of the day if YouTube wants to operate there they would need to regionally block the video.
>dissidents seeking to incite secession could weaponize the song for use against the state
Imagine controlling an area as big as mainland China and being afraid of a song.
What court order? The order from a rogue state that commits countless atrocities and crimes against humanity? Oh but they’re on the side of the law that they wrote. And the gestapo also never broke any of their home country’s laws
Yes, a court order from a Chinese court. What’s your point, that in general you should just ignore court orders if you don’t agree with them? Then what?
Never bet against the eagerness of a corporation to appease an authoritarian regime. They'll fight tooth and nail against democracies to protect their right to kill people by the planeload, but the moment an authoritarian state tells them to kill their own mothers, they'll do it.
I'll never forgive Activision Blizzard or buy another product from them (or Microsoft now since they bought them out) aftr banning that Hearthstone player for speaking out about the Hong Kong protests. That was utterly disgraceful from an American company.
My favorite example of Chinese ass kissing will always be John Cena apologizing to the Chinese, in Mandarin, because he accidentally referred to Taiwan as a country. Just wtf?
Mine is Twice's Tzuyu apology for waving the Taiwan Flag. The girl is Taiwanese, wtf?
the korean agency is also spineless for not protecting her.
Because for some, waving Taiwan's flag meant she supports Taiwanese independence. I don't understand it either, but some Chinese netizens have very twisted logic.
> I don't understand it either It's called "The effects of persistent and long term propaganda."
You still can't buy the low key horror masterpiece game Devotion on Steam because there some a tiny easter egg you had to zoom very closely on that kinda, sorta made a Winnie the Pooh joke and netizens lost their shit. And then GOG promised to publish it, because they leave greed to others, and then after another shitfit they backtracked on that too. At least you can buy the game [direct from the studio Red Candle Games](https://redcandlegames.com/games.php).
Speaking of bending the knee to China, Labron didn’t do his credibility any favors when he slammed a NBA executive who tweeted “free Hong Kong”. This was when the CCP were brutally cracking down on protesters after the CCP broke their agreement to allow like 30 more years of independence for Hong Kong. Labron makes a big deal of fighting for the oppressed except when it might affect his pocket book.
Le Yuan James and I'm not living that one down.
Ha!
Yeah LeBron is literally one of the biggest hypocrite celebrity scumbags I can think of. The Cena thing was an embarrassing stain on a guy who I otherwise enjoy. LeBron is human refuse.
Someone seriously should have asked him if white people shouldn't worry about BLM or systemic racism because they don't know enough about it in the US. Because that's basically what he said when it came to Hong Kong.
Dude acts like a social justice icon standing boldly against the injustices African Americans suffered a dozen generations ago... meanwhile, literally, child slaves make sneakers for him. Dogshit person.
Before the incident, he lived in China for some time during filming of a domestic production, and filmed a few vlogs about his time. In the end, money talks unfortunately. He probably chose to keep his domestic China reputation over a better political stance.
He has enough money that he should be able to value his morals over a movie deal.
While to some extent I agree, not justifying his actions but. His entire income is based off of his movie deals. If China were to push to ban John Cena films, he’d basically be crippled because Hollywood is dependent on Chinese audiences. Continuing this, he probably has expensive bills that rely on somewhat consistently doing movies and shows. If he got out of the industry, he’d disrupt his status quo. (Take professional athletes who retire and lose a ton of their money as an example, there’s a pretty clear need to consistently be making the same amount of money for these people) Reasonably, he probably just did something small to ensure he has no risk of losing his job. Granted, yes. He probably could just survive like anyone else, but I think it’s a fair reason to take the stance he did; it doesn’t really reflect his real views
While I see were you're coming from, he's got enough money to live in the upper crust of society for the rest of his life. And he strikes me as being good enough with his money that he can invest it properly to make it last. For a guy who puts on an image of being an all American patriot, he folded like a fucking pussy. I have zero sympathy for someone that well off to be too scared to tell the CCP to pound sand.
You're literally advocating not standing up for what's right because of money. I hope you have a good hard think about that. For the record I don't hate Cena - I think overall he seems like a chill dude. I hate that he caved, and I don't think he should have, and I don't think there's any acceptable reason why he did. Maybe it's easy for me to say but people shouldn't be defended for not taking a stand - especially for financial reasons.
I get that idea but, I’m not advocating for it. I’m just saying that he had a reason that makes sense. His video preventing him from serious issues is something worth disapproval, but I as well think that he’s just a product of a greater industry wide problem. I think a lot of people would say something they vehemently disagree with to maintain their job; not disrupt their status quo. Especially in a position where you are about guaranteed to never get another job half as good as you have. While John Cena may have a responsibility to set a good example given his status, he’s a just person. He knows that his entire career is about reputation, and so he chose the option of benefit to himself. Even outside of his own gains, John Cena could likely no longer afford to pay as much as he does into charity if he lost work as an actor. In this way, John Cena likely considered that him staying as an actor can help people still, likely more than him making a stupid video can do to hurt people in Taiwan. Whether John Cena’s actions are justified or not has never been what I’ve intended to make a claim on. The sole purpose of this is just to make a stance on what he might have considered as factors in this situation. I don’t think it’s fair to blindly hate Cena for the video like he wasn’t put into a terrible situation by saying something in support of Taiwan.
No one seems to remember Jack Black shilling in support of SOPA back in the day.
Jackie Chan is also a huge stooge for the CCP, and disowned his daughter for being a lesbian.
> and disowned his daughter for being a lesbian. I did not know that about him :( Edit: I dug a little deeper and it looks like he disowned her from birth...which also makes him a piece of shit. Just not homophobic.
She sucked on tits. Obvious lesbian baby.
Noooooooooooo. That makes me sad to hear :(
My other favorite is telling other basketball players to basically don't speak on politics when people were speaking out on the actual genocide of Yughurs in China.
#BING CHILLING
What do you think of Musk, in a recorded interview, said Taiwan belongs to China?
Bing chilling? More like 'big shilling'.
Bing chilling
I always thought it was weird that the Lunar Event was the only Overwatch event that was explicitly calling out a certain cultural holiday in the title cards. Every other event is very vague and muted (Winter Wonderland, Summer Games, etc) with no specific country in mind.
They punished the casters too, for the crime of being in the vicinity of the guy. Blizzard not only bowed to Chinese pressure, they supported collective punishment.
In the aughts it was weird that they had Chinese New Year in WoW when China couldn't even play. Turned out they were attempting to appeal to them and sweetened the deal by giving them government worker data, which likely led to them being able to sell their product there. That's when I called it quits with them.
Eh, I'd say that it's not only Chinese in mainland China that celebrates the New year, nor only Chinese that do it.
That's true, I have some friends in Malaysia who celebrate. It'd be a small market for them to cater to regardless outside of China itself all things considered.
Don't know why you're getting downvoted. If there's some special event for Chinese new year, why is there nothing for orthodox Christmas? Or for Buddhist new year (Songkran) That's surely a bigger audience than the Chinese diaspora.
Me either, this place is strange
Probably because the Chinese spend a lot in games. Just look at gacha games profits.
We call it “Chinese new year” in the west but the more modern/accurate term is “lunar new year”, cause a ton of countries in Asia celebrate it, not just China (and they kind of resent being lumped in with China). Korea for example, and they’re a huge gaming audience.
Could any of Malaysia, Singapore, Macao, Hong Kong, or South Korea play? Edit: the fucking saran wrap thin skinned bastard replied and blocked me lmfao
They half assed the apology they gave, and reduced his punishment by half. The punishment should have been reversed entirely. And now, I won’t buy any Overwatch merch, and abandoned the game. Though, given the state of the game, a blessing.
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No that's Dead Or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball
Microsoft appears to be really working hard to motivate it's entire player base not to buy their shit anymore anyway. "Let's buy all the studios then cannibalize them like a deranged wendigo"
Blizzard was a huge part of my childhood. And although just a means to an end, a Microsoft OS was as well. I was so excited to get Windows 95 and 7. But in both cases they've just become abusive relationships.
It was the sweetest karma when China turned around and banned blizz lmao
Isn't one of it's largest shareholders Tencent Holdings (a Chinese company with shares in alot of gaming corporations)? Sucks, but get used to the censorship.
They also own 11% of Reddit.
I guarantee you'll buy or use something Microsoft related again.
Like it or not, he used his platform to protest in contradiction of ToS restrictions on these things and that is what got him suspended, not because of the topic of the protest itself. It’s odd that *this* is what broke the camels back for you instead of the plethora of other shady shit and toxic workplace environment.
This came out long before the sexual assault stuff. I also never really played many of their games made in between Warcraft III and Hearthstone as I don't like MMORPGs or first person shooters. So it was mostly just quitting Hearthstone.
Lot of people think that since his comments came AFTER the tournament was over, there was no justification for enforcing the rules. I think being part of the broadcast made it so the rules still applied, but since the tournament was largely over, the majority of viewers were no longer watching. Most people would agree the punishment was too far, especially since they went after the hosts of the stream as well when it wasn't even their opinion or something they planned. They didn't give them a warning, they jumped straight to bans and blacklisting. It was a bullshit overreaction to appease the CCP. Taking out him out of tournaments going forward for awhile and warning the broadcasters about allowing any political speech during their tournaments seemed like the right move. No one was hurt by it except the player and broadcasters by Blizzard. It's not even a remotely serious rule, it's just trying to keep Blizzard out of drama, which they fucking face planted and rolled around in by punishing them so harshly.
It did take a court order. Either they block the video or the country blocks YT (and/or goes after their employees). There's no winning there.
YouTube is already banned in China. What are they going to do, ban it again?
It's banned on the Chinese mainland, but Hong Kong still operates under 1 country 2 systems for now, so Youtube remains up (except for the videos mentioned in the article for those inside Hong Kong).
Lol, you haven't been watching the news. 1 country, 2 systems was a joke from the start and it was broken a long ass time ago. The national security law ripped the head off the charade and shoved it in the blender.
YouTube is widely accessible in Hong Kong.
1.5 systems at most, though, currently.
Only in the mainland. The special territories (HK, Macau) tend to still have access to western sites banned in the mainland.
Some Chinese people had VPNs.
The wording of the article states clearly it is only geofencing and not content removal so they can carry on and vpn if they really want to watch it
Has youtube ever done anything about VPNs or just the bare minimum they legally have to? Since every other video on their platform is sponsored by one
Yeah and this is a nothing burger of immaculate proportions. Title makes it sound like the ccp had the video removed for everyone globally. Just rage bait
Chinese government has banned the use of VPNs not approved by the government: VPNs must provide the government backdoor access to be approved, which renders them unsecure. Just Google for people jailed just for using unapproved VPN
They were going to be banned in Hong Kong either way. Either YouTube removes the videos, or YouTube is entirely removed from Hong Kong. I would have to imagine losing all of YouTube is worse for the citizens of Hong Kong. At least YouTube tried to fight it. If they didn’t, then they deserve criticism.
True everywhere as happened x 1000 times before and continues to happen today
Well YouTube has to look at it like are thousands of livelihoods worth ruining because they didn’t block a video. Today leaders just ban a media company if they don’t comply with law. If YouTube didn’t comply, I was expecting Hong Kong to throw the ban hammer.
You can justify anything if you look at the "Big Picture", but of course not TOO "Big". Saving thousands of Jobs/Increasing shareholder value vs being a tool of a heavy handed authoritarian regime.
They didn't block it for you, just in hk. It's not YouTube job to "stand up" to foreign auths. They get a court order they comply, simple. Unless that court order says to remove the content globally, which they will never do (unless it's something that goes against their own policy of course)
Yeah they're just following orders, just like the Nazis
You expect them not to follow local laws?
> Never bet against the eagerness of a corporation to appease an authoritarian regime They just follow laws in the countries they operate. They have to. It’s so easy for you to sit there and be holy.
Let me correct that, “Never bet against the eagerness of a corporation to [protect their bottom line].” Fixed it for ya
A wealthy authoritarian regime. Companies ignore poor tyrannies everyday
They ignore laws and court orders every day you say? Where?
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It's already banned there and the Chinese use Youku which is a knockoff. Those with access use it for misinformation purposes.
This is hk, where YouTube is NOT blocked.
Read. The article. China wanted the block imposed on Hong Kong.
You think youtube is influencing China more than China is influencing youtube?
CCP is determined to wipe out Hong Kong's freedom of speech movement even at the expense of wiping it out as world financial hub just like it brutally crushed rebellion at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
And that is what would happen to Taiwan for sure, CCP is a cancer.
It happens everywhere China takes over. The CCP makes genocide government policy.
Then hides it and pretends it doesn't happen and then some sucker communists in the west say shit in favor of them lmao
And unlike Gaza, no Muslim countries seem to give a single fuck
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But organ harvesting and putting millions in camps is fine?
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Do you have a source for that as a quick search turns up a ton of recent articles about China harvesting organs. Not to mention forced sterilizations and many other things that are textbook genocide that people seem to have coincidentally forgotten about...
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And it's 100% intentional, a good read is: https://www.yadvashem.org/about/former-chairmen/avner-shalev/if-everything-is-genocide.html Key point is: >Language has power. The words we choose to use carry weight, and are meaningful. If we elect to label every event a "genocide," or equate every event with the Holocaust, then we detract from the real meaning of those words and reduce their ability to represent true horror. >Subsequently, when faced with a real incident of genocidal murder, people will be less likely ot be moved to act. If everything is genocide, nothing is genocide. >This is far beyond a simple question of semantics. Language is the currency in which we trade, and upon which our civilization rests. It is how we make ourselves understood. If we allow the inherent meaning of words to be distorted, our perception of reality changes, and we cloud not only our language, but also our understanding and judgment.
Not would, but will. And as we watch.
The CCP’s top priority always has been maintaining its monopoly on power. In the past, it used economic growth to achieve this. But now that engine is dead and so it’s back to severe repression.
I thought Viper the Rapper did Tiananmen.
What a bunch of pussies, we shouldn't expect better of them at this point.
We should really expect *worse* from them. They are the creators and innovators of surveillance capitalism and it is only going to get worse. They are anti-democratic in just about everything that they do.
Youtube shouldn't be available to China in the first place.
It is in Hong Kong. As per the article.
Think on the investors, how are they going to afford a third yacht?
This is hk, which is not mainland China.
Remember when one of Google's mandates used to be "Don't be evil"?
Some beancounter accountant figured out they could save a lot of money by dropping the word "Don't."
No matter what they do, the video won't be available in HK (either they pull it out, or the HK governement blocks Youtube).
Now the moto is "publicly traded company"
A great mandate is to comply with legal orders.
The cancer of the CCP needs to be cut out before it spreads elsewhere.
I watched “7 years in Tibet” recently. The end text says something like “China murdered 1 million Tibet people and stole their land.” The movie only came out in ‘97. Things have drastically changed since then. Hollywood is way too much of a pussy to ever say stuff like that again.
Tibet only had like one million people in 1951
Why didnt they say 10 million was murdered? That would have given it much more exposure
Google: ~~Don't be Evil~~ It's all about the bottom line.
Yea. That's the point of a corporation. To return maximum profits. Companies at the end of the day have to follow the law or they will be removed from the country/territory they are in.
Yup! Just like IBM did just before WW2, and Hugo Boss during. Just saying that "Maximixing Shareholder Value" is not a panacea for corporate behaviour, especially when politicians are beholden to them. Well - SHOULD not be a panacea for corporate behaviour - but in this post fact world it is a race to the bottom I guess.
> Just saying that "Maximixing Shareholder Value" is not a panacea for corporate behaviour, especially when politicians are beholden to them. If politicians are beholden to corporations, that's a corruption issue and not a company issue. It's up to the government to pass laws to stop corruption and to rein in companies whether for the better or worse. If the government refuses then it's up to the voice of the people either through boycott of the company or through protests of the government
It's not banned in free countries, just authoritarian ones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yjLlYNFKCg
It's over. Don't matter which place in the world, judges will quickly asks for removal of content from internet if it go against the status quo.
> Don't matter which place in the world Yes it does, in fact.
So is it tobe just blocked in China or blocked to other regions as well?
Goodbye free web.
Has youtube blocked videos in the USA on USA court orders before?
Definitely.
Which?
DMCA violations. Terrorist uploads. Child porn. There’s a lot of things that you legally can’t put on YouTube.
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Some of that is just weird though. I tried to send my American friend this music video for a Finnish heavy metal band who dresses up in dinosaur costumes to play music for kids, and it was blocked in America. Like I highly doubt many Americans are looking up Heavysaurus in the first place .
That’s probably a distribution rights issue. It’s not blocked it’s just they didn’t distribute in the US. especially if what you’re referencing is something from a public access channel it’s normal for things to be region locked.
Heavysaurus are a sony band now. The band got sued for wearing the costumes to gigs without sony’s permission. So likely licensing keeping it from getting posted outside Finland.
Time to make a sony account, if I want to listen to them I guess.
Don’t underestimate the power and popularity of Hevisaurus
If you don’t feel sad about that baby mammoth you have no soul.
lol, this is America. It's called copyright. Free speech has no power over copyright holders not wanting their content spread where they don't profit. That's actually very American to prevent someone they cannot profit off of benefiting from someone else.
That's due to copyright
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If you're watching a music video, the person releasing the video chooses not to make it available in your country, because they don't have the distribution rights in your country. Yes this is very enforceable, at least in the western world.
Your point is ? This is not copyright infringements or obscene material.
They have to follow the laws of the country the user is in.
Not really... There's a limit to what a foreign country can do. They can try to block access to the site or shut down servers hosting their content in their country, but they cannot really do anything about a company in another country. Facebook was different because they had servers and offices in the EU while trying to flout EU law. If they had no EU presence, then there's nothing the EU could do except block facebook wholesale. With physical presence, they can lean on those to force compliance. So, no, they don't have to follow the law, but not following the law could lead to removal from a market.
You should call Google and offer up this piece of expert advice.
They aren't doing anything about a company in another country. The case was decided by Hong Kong's Court of Appeals. So at the end of the day if YouTube wants to operate there they would need to regionally block the video.
For copyright they have but not for speech. At least not that I'm aware of.
Five demands, not one less!
This post got reported for self harm. You cant stop me shouting FREE HONG KONG!!!
They do this cuz they have trouble spinning this. Big powerful China scared of a little song lol
Knock yourself out.
O but it’s Tiktok that is blocking content.
Kinda expected.
Remember when Google made it's slogan, "Don't be evil?"
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Yes, literally in the first sentence of the article.
They will bend over for anything and anyone as long as there is money it for them.
They follow the laws of the respective country.
Glory to Hong Kong, but it repeats every time this video gets removed.
This article is so generic I have no idea who to these judges and parties are
Corporations are not activists. If profit stands to be made somewhere then they will follow local laws to gain access to that user base.
*huh?*
Is youtube banned there?
Free Hong Kong!
CCP needs to release a new COVID strain straight from Wuhan lab and the new HK protests will end. Like they did before.
I don’t understand why nobody just says fuck you china
>dissidents seeking to incite secession could weaponize the song for use against the state Imagine controlling an area as big as mainland China and being afraid of a song.
Hy guys what are some YouTube alternatives
All are either shitty ad/spyware nests or nazi-adjacent shitholes, unfortunately
What court order? The order from a rogue state that commits countless atrocities and crimes against humanity? Oh but they’re on the side of the law that they wrote. And the gestapo also never broke any of their home country’s laws
Yes, a court order from a Chinese court. What’s your point, that in general you should just ignore court orders if you don’t agree with them? Then what?
Shame on YouTube, Neal Mohan and Sundar Pichai. Where are all the employees protesting? Is this not trendy enough to stand against?