Hacker News Reader

Comment by bigpumpkin | Hacker News Reader

The post by the Chinese embassy is not advocating for forced sterilization. Rather, it is disputing the claim that forced sterilization is happening and saying the decline in birth rate is due to choice by the Uyghur women.

Twitter's decision therefore takes a stand on what the "truth" is.

View on HN

Thank you for pointing out that the article explicitly states the Chinese position as "The changes were not caused by 'forced sterilization' of the Uygur population". While a tweet advocating forced sterilization might be violence, a tweet saying "We agree forced sterilization is bad, and we are not doing it" is not violence. The justification for removal must lie elsewhere.

The problem with the Chinese government is that it's illegal to investigate the truth behind any statement so there's no way to know if what they say is true.

> it's illegal to investigate the truth behind any statement so there's no way to know if what they say is true

The problem with Twitter is that it can ban information based on western media consensus. aka echo chamber.

It's the inevitable consequence of policing Trump's tweets. Either you police everything, or you're a hypocrite.

This is not intended to judge how true the original article by the way, for future downvoters.

But of course they won't police everything, just what doesn't put them in trouble if they do so. Good luck with deleting a tweet from Netanyahu praising how ethical is the Israeli army.

We know what the truth is in this case. This is a holocaust happening in front of us and no one is doing anything.

from what evidence? he said she said? because the data is showing no such thing. if you rather trust data than rhetoric.

Actual evidence: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-50511063

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-23/video-uyghurs-shaved-...

This is holocaust level work.

The BBC link shows a leak without context. And with some balant mistranslations

The ABC link shows a random video uploaded and verified as 'authentic' by someone who sits at his home watching Google maps. If that's the level of evidence required for Holocaust then it's a lost cause to reason with you.

also to add, there are 12 million uighur in china, if the claim of genocide on 3 million of uighur is true, that means 1 in 4 uighur are slaughtered. Xinjiang to this day is open for visits for foreigners, there are zero reports of refugees in neighboring countries. If the there is indeed a holocaust going on, then these evidence should be easy to find right? and you probably wouldn't need to rely on "leaks" and videos verified by a 22 year old "goolge map" expert.

Genocide doesn't necessarily mean slaughter - the primary method I've heard used is medically preventing women from having children, which then kills off future generations. Genocide also, by definition, relates to killing off a culture - which there's plenty of proof for regarding the CCP's "re-education" camps - where children taken from their parents. And honestly it'd not be hard to hide disposal of human remains, even en mass in systematic way. There are plenty of reports and claims if organ harvesting as well. That your asking these questions makes me think you've not done much research or watched any documentaries on the CCP.

Exactly, there are parallels between the news leaking and between what happened during the holocaust. Except now you're dealing with a more sophisticated enemy.

This is not true.

Twitter is not an arbiter of truth and never was. Their policies are clear.

Does twitter censor US policy-maker's tweets when they trumpet the power of western values to liberate muslim women?

Do you go to twitter when you need an opinion on your back surgery? Or how to fix a broken tool? Or if your symptoms are covid19 or not?

They are not an arbiter of truth or an authority.

OP and myself are making the case that, by dipping into politics and labelling certain opinions, rhetoric and/or factual claims as "unacceptable", they're making themselves exactly that.

Websites are moderated all the time - that doesn't make them arbiters of truth. I fail to see the actual argument.

That forced sterilization is happening is fact. Twitter isn't taking a "stand" on what the truth is (it is telling that you put truth in quotes). Twitter is simply deleting tweets that spread misinformation, whether the misinformation is about US election claims or pretending that there isn't a genocide happening in Xinjiang. Actions such as this that deter the spread of fake news on social media platforms are needed because bot accounts that rapidly repeat false statements are possible on the Internet.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com