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

'What is the X-Ray feature on Amazon Prime Video?': How to find and view bonus material about TV shows and movies

* X-Ray is an exclusive feature on Amazon Prime Video that displays bonus material about a show or movie, similar to the bonus features on a DVD. * X-Ray can show you information about the actors in a scene, the musical soundtrack, trivia, and more. * To activate X-Ray, you generally only need to click or tap within a video that's currently playing.   * Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories. Amazon Prime Video's X-Ray feature is, at least for now, not available on any other video streaming service. X-Ray works like the bonus features you find on a DVD or Blu-ray. With just a few clicks or taps, you can get additional information about many of the TV shows and movies on Prime Video. When you activate X-Ray, Prime displays an overlay on top of your show, offering additional information.  Check out the products mentioned in this article: Amazon Prime Video ($8.99 a month at Amazon) Roku (from $49.99 at Roku) There are several kinds of info...
Read more

Why an early exec quit unicorn food delivery startup Deliveroo to launch a food business in the middle of a pandemic

* A former Deliveroo exec has launched a market food hall startup in the middle of COVID-19. * Dan Warne was managing director of the unicorn startup until 2019, but has now launched Sessions Market as a community food hall concept to rejuvenate UK towns after the pandemic. * Warne says he hopes to bring his experience from Deliveroo, particularly about customer behavior, to the analogue world of food halls. * The first venue, Shelter Hall on Brighton seafront, launches July 4. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. On Saturday, the UK's bars, restaurants, and cinemas will fling their doors open to customers for the first time since a strict lockdown commenced in late March. Given continued public health concerns around the coronavirus pandemic, it might be unwise to open a new food business right now. But Dan Warne, a former high-level executive at British unicorn startup Deliveroo, has launched Sessions Market, a series of community-orientated food hal...
Read more

The 11 most important details we already know about the PlayStation 5, Sony's next-generation video game console set to arrive this year

* The PlayStation 5, Sony's next-generation game console that's deep in production, is scheduled to launch during the 2020 holiday season. * As you might expect, the PlayStation 5 is promised to be more powerful than the existing PlayStation 4 — and we've slowly been learning more about the next-gen console's new features since it was first revealed. * So far, Sony has offered a first glimpse at the new console via its new DualSense gamepad, and a tech demo highlighted the technical prowess of the new machine. * Here's everything we know so far about Sony's next-generation PlayStation console. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The PlayStation 5 is almost here. Sony's next-generation PlayStation game console is scheduled to arrive this holiday season, but we already know plenty of details about it right now: how powerful it is, its main features, and we've even gotten a good look at its new gamepad.  Here everything we kno...
Read more