
Russia: Google removes Putin critic's ads from YouTube - Mereruka
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45471519
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Spartan-S63
This seems to run counter to the idea that Google wants to promote democracy.
Hell or high water, if a country has stifling civil liberties, a company with
_real_ principles in cultivating discourse and democracy would stick to their
guns regardless of local laws.

In this case, it looks like a simple case of complying with local laws to
continue to growing their bottom line. It’s why we can’t believe Silicon
Valley when they say they want to cultivate discourse and democracy. They
don’t. They want to make money. When the two coincide with one another, that’s
great. When they don’t, profit is more important than freedom. That’s why we
can’t trust private enterprises to act in the best interests of society.

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moreira
You're advocating for breaking a country's laws. What makes Russia's laws
worth less than any other country's? Whether you agree or not with them, you
have to respect them. They are a sovereign country and have the right to
establish whatever laws they want within their territory.

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avmich
> Whether you agree or not with them, you have to respect them.

A trivial comparison: would you respect laws of Nazi Germany in 1930s if
Internet existed then?

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moreira
I would choose not to do business with Nazi Germany. If I'm running a business
and don't agree with their laws, I can choose not to do business there. If I'm
choosing to do business there, I'm choosing to respect their laws. It's that
simple - it's just like an individual immigrating to a country.

Doing business there, and breaking their laws, isn't right no matter what you
think of them.

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avmich
> Doing business there

Out of curiosity, how'd you define "doing business there" in a borderless
Internet? Surely Google servers remain in the USA? Would you rely on imperfect
client location determination?

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moreira
The article is about Google pulling down Russian ads, paid for by Russians. It
is clear that Google is doing business with people in Russia. This isn't about
visitors to a website, which I agree is an entirely different situation.

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mig39
Don't accuse me of being a Russian shill, I'm the opposite. But isn't this a
local law in many countries?

"The laws prohibit political campaigning within 24 hours of an official poll."

We have a similar law in most of Canada, I think. No advertising just before
Election Day. In some provinces, the blackout includes the day before an
election (Ontario, for example).

Interesting that for national elections, Canada doesn't allow advertising on
Election Day itself, but specifically exempts internet ads that were placed
before Election Day. So if you uploaded a video to youtube before the
blackout, you don't have to remove it.

The question here is whether Google also removed other Russian party ads from
YouTube as well.

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jessaustin
It seems that the _Citizens United_ ruling doesn't apply in Russia.

