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Comment by danso | Hacker News Reader

> It's a pity that Google terminated those accounts - I don't know what scrutiny scares them.

Because they don't want to encourage people to gawk at the death spectacle? This includes all the times a suicidal killer leaves behind a manifesto that could serve to inspire copycat killers.

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The Elliot Rodgers videos are still up on YouTube, though. On the balance, it’s probably more helpful to allow people to understand what led up to these events rather than suppressing the shooter’s words for the sake of some theoretical safety benefit.

That's a good point. Apparently they were taken down temporarily before being reinstated: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/05/27/youtube-...

Also worth noting is that the shooter's family could have requested the takedown.

> On the balance, it’s probably more helpful []

Although this is negated by the strong positive correlation between media coverage of a shooting and an uptick in following shootings (which I'd suggest is more than "some theoretical safety benefit".)

cf http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2016/08/media-contagi...

I've heard it's the same for suicide, with even the same way of suicide used in the subsequent suicides.

Google can censor someone as effectively as any government. This is, in effect, the same as the government banning a book. It's not something I'm ever comfortable with, and I'm especially uncomfortable with it when it's an unaccountable company in charge.

> Google can censor someone as effectively as any government

How so?

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