Skip to main content

Sen. Josh Hawley criticizes Google over deletion of certain comments critical toward China (GOOGL)

* Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) sent a letter to Google on Wednesday about the company's deletion of some comments critical of China.  * Comments using the phrases "communist bandit" or "50-cent party" in Chinese characters were deleted almost instantly from YouTube, though their English equivalents are not.  * Hawley called the deletions "censorship" and asked Google to explain how the problem came about and when it knew about the deletions.  * Google says the deletions are accidental and that it rolled out a fix to the problem.  * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Sen. Josh Hawley is demanding answers from Google about the company's deletion of certain comments critical of the Chinese government.  In a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday, Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, called the deletions "censorship at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party," though Google has said the actions are accidental and that it is working to fix the problem.  Comments using the phrases "communist bandit" or "50-cent party" in Chinese characters are removed almost instantly from YouTube, though their English equivalents are not.  In a statement to Business Insider about Hawley's letter, a YouTube spokesperson said, "We're always working to resolve issues on YouTube. Upon review by our teams, we have confirmed this was an error in our enforcement systems and have rolled out a fix." In the letter, Hawley asked Google to tell him when the company first became aware of the deletions and to explain any discussions about the specific terms. He also asked Pichai to "explain whether Google or its partners had any conversations with members, representatives, or proxies of the Chinese Communist Party about these terms."  Republican Sen. Ted Cruz also criticized the deletions, calling them "very disturbing."  "Why is Google/YouTube censoring Americans on behalf of the CCP? This is WRONG & Big Tech is drunk with power," he said in a tweet. "DOJ needs to stop this NOW."  The YouTube spokesperson said the deletions were not the result of a policy change, but rather an error in automated content moderation that failed to take proper context into account.  But, Hawley noted in the letter Google's history of censoring content to appease China; Google was widely criticized in 2018, including by its own employees, for a internal search engine project called Dragonfly that reportedly sought to censor the terms "human rights" and "student protest," as well as send data to Beijing.  While Dragonfly was set to launch in China, the comments at the center of Hawley's concern were deleted on YouTube, which is blocked in China.  Hawley is a staunch critic of both Beijing and big tech, and often scrutinizes actions by American tech companies like Google and Facebook, as well as Chinese companies like ByteDance, the owner of Tik Tok.  Hawley has previously gone after Google for other issues such as antitrust concerns and child privacy laws. Before his time in the US Senate, Hawley was the attorney general for Missouri, where he launched an antitrust probe against Google.  Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Here's what it's like to travel during the coronavirus outbreak
https://bit.ly/3c9Z8BS

Popular posts from this blog

The machines USPS is removing from distribution centers can sort more than 36,000 pieces of mail per hour. Here's how they work.

* The United States Postal Service has been deactivating mail-sorting machines around the US ahead of the surge expected from mail-in voting this fall, reports say. * Each machine can sort up to 36,000 pieces of mail per hour.  * The machines sort letters, postcards, and other mail by bar code.  * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Mail-sorting machines used by the United States Postal Service (USPS) have been dismantled and removed from distribution centers around the country, according to postal workers. They told Motherboard that at least 19 machines were removed without explanation. An internal USPS letter from June included a plan to remove hundreds of more mail-sorting machines this year. Postal Workers Union members and some Democratic politicians have expressed concerns about changes to the USPS under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major Trump donor who started his position this summer. President Trump has attacked the USPS and claimed that voting
Read more

How to enable the text-to-speech feature on your Kindle Fire device to hear text read aloud

* You can enable the text-to-speech feature on your Kindle Fire device to have written content read aloud. * Both Kindle content and your personal documents can utilize the text-to-speech feature. * Text-to-speech inputs are also available for languages other than English and can be downloaded via the progress bar within the book itself. * Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories. If you are vision-impaired or simply want to hear your book or document aloud rather than reading the text, Kindle Fire has a text-to-speech feature that will translate the written words to audio so you can listen aloud. Best of all, text-to-speech is not only available for Kindle books but also for many (though not all) personal text files. Turning on text-to-speech is easy and should only take a few seconds. Books in the Kindle store will even notify you if the capability is available before you purchase, though the feature must be turned on within the book or document itse
Read more