Hacker News Reader

HNHacker News

Top New Best Ask Show Jobs

Comment by 866-RON-0-FEZ | Hacker News Reader

Full thread

866-RON-0-FEZ·

Well there is a very contentious mayoral election going on in LA right now, and the fires are a central topic.

Concealing the fire damage could be used to influence or thwart campaign messaging.

Not that Google has been caught doing anything political before...

View on HN

Altadena is part of unincorporated LA County, they don't vote in the City of Los Angeles elections.

Palisades fire damage has also been removed from the mapping.

Must only be for US users. When I look at it from Australia the Palisades damage is still there. Altadena also shows mostly vacant and cleared lots.

> Well there is a very contentious mayoral election going on in LA right now, and the fires are a central topic.

> Concealing the fire damage could be used to influence or thwart campaign messaging.

I know nothing about that election, but what would be Google's angle in wanting to influence it?

Google likely doesn't have an angle, but the person who decided to make this change maybe does.

Google has two campuses in LA. They have at least some vested interest in local politics being friendly to them.

There’s plenty of evidence of the ineptitude and corruption of the Los Angeles government located in the actual city. I don’t think anybody in LA is hinging a vote on the rebuilding process in Alta Dena.

Is there any evidence of such an elaborate scheme? Are voters looking on Google Maps to validate claims about the fires, in some kind of mass trend that produces evidence?

Because it really sounds like a conspiracy theory draped over a pretty tangential fact. But I’d love to be wrong if there is evidence (“Google did something totally different but also bad” is not evidence).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com