Social-Media
YouTube delete videos with two words that mock the Communist Party of China.
YouTube will automatically delete comments containing certain Chinese-language phrases related to the criticism of the ruling Communist Party (CCP) of the country.
Comments left in videos or live streams containing the words “五毛” ('communist bandit') or “五毛” ('50-cent party') are automatically deleted in about 15 seconds, although their English translations and Pinyin equivalents are not.
The term “共匪” is an insult that dates back to the Chinese Nationalist Government, while the term “共匪” (or "wu mao") is a pejorative term for Internet users who have paid for direct online discussion away from the criticism of the CCP. The name derives from the assertion that such comments are paid 50 Chinese cents per post.
#YouTube "automatically" deletes a comment in Chinese, "Gongfei", which means "communist bandit", in 15 seconds.
— Jennifer Zeng 曾錚 (@jenniferatntd) May 13, 2020
This person tested 3 times, same result. #油管 15秒內自動刪除「共匪」留言，網友連試三次皆如此。
他們找了個比李飛飛更厲害的AI專家？ pic.twitter.com/MLCeko0SIY
It's not clear why these phrases are being removed, but it seems like they have been added to the message moderators designed to automatically block spam or inappropriate language. This is suggested by the fact that the comments are removed quickly (human moderation takes longer) and that they are deleted even if the prohibited phrases are used positively (e.g. "五毛 do a brilliant job").
Makes the situation more confusing is that YouTube is actually being banned in China, giving its parent company, Google, far less incentive to suppress critical remarks from the CCP or to implement filtering mechanisms in compliance with Chinese censorship rules. We've reached out to Google for comment and we're going to refresh this story when we hear more.
The automated deletion of these phrases was illustrated on Tuesday by the US technologist and former founder of Oculus, Palmer Luckey, on Twitter. Nonetheless, previous mentions of the problem date back to the middle of May, when human rights lawyer Jennifer Zeng was spotted.
Google has often been criticized for accommodating the wishes of the CCP by censoring content. Most notably, it created a search engine prototype known as Project Dragonfly that complied with Chinese state censorship. The project, which has never been deployed, is part of the company's long-standing struggle to enter the Chinese market.
When Dragonfly 's news leaked in The Intercept's 2018 report, Google was criticized by politicians and its own staff for selling out its principles. At a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee in June 2019 , the company stated that it had "terminated" the project and that it had "no plans to launch Search in China."
