[HNthrow22]

Why are discussions surrounding Chinese Politics permitted but no other political discussions? Seems like a double standard. Just quickly looking at the removals here's a 4 hour old Mueller report thread instantly removed - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19712217.

[abc-xyz]

Why does every thread about China have to mention USA as well? The Mueller report was on the frontpage for quite a while, here's a thread with 310 points and 150 comments (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19691512), and, surprise surprise, not a single mention of China.

Chinese articles get flagged/removed from the frontpage all the time as well, and you'll see articles critical of the US and other governments/countries on the frontpage every day. There's no greater conspiracy, the only difference is that almost all Chinese articles mention USA, whereas almost no US/European articles mention China..

[danso]

It’s not just Chinese politics, but the implementation of a social media ban. This article about Sri Lanka shutting down social media in the wake of the Easter bombings is also on the HN front page: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19713481

[pmlnr]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19704347

Mueller report vs copyright filters - this was on for a while.

[ufmace]

This is more about how politics affects the tech world, not politics for its own sake. Mueller investigation drama doesn't really have anything to do with tech.

[stonogo]

That's a weird take, since huge sections of the report deal with Wikileaks, email server administration, and social media manipulation.

[ufmace]

Do you think a thread like the one linked above would have a rational discussion of those tech-related topics that are kind of connected, or rapidly devolve into a OrangeManGood/OrangeManBad flamewar and moderation nightmare?

[techntoke]

I recall seeing probably 3 to 5 frontpage stories on Assange after his arrest and Wikileaks, but then the report that specifically talks about him and Wikileaks isn't allowed? Weird!

[AlexCoventry]

OTOH, this thread is also a shitshow by HN's explicit standards.

[techntoke]

Agreed, you have a great point. However, most of the content on Hacker News is controlled by a small group of people who have specific agendas. I wish they would be fair like you mention, but you have to be part of that small group.

[JasonGenova25]

could you elaborate? I have heard of these invite-only HN groups, but I have a hard time believing people would care so much about some online forum.

[techntoke]

After being here long enough, you'll just notice that certain companies and agendas get pushed pretty hard, when in reality they are using a lot of accounts to manipulate the discussion and emotion once you start looking at the comment history. It is no different than Reddit or Twitter.

[nercht12]

It's a POPULAR online forum, which is why people care. If tomorrow no one gave a crap about HN but HN mods still wanted people, they'd have to welcome more discussion like all the other nobody forums.

[Nullabillity]

From the guidelines:

> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

So even that take doesn't make much sense.

[dang]

Plenty of political discussions appear on HN. It's a complex question, which I wrote about some in an earlier thread today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19720659. Strong political feelings lead people to rush to generalizations about HN, but you need to resist that pull if you want to assess the situation fairly.

As for Mueller, the report itself is off topic here on the grounds of (a) would they cover it on TV news? yes (see https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html), and (b) there is no intellectual curiosity left in any such discussions. But articles tangential to it have continued to appear and not been moderated. (Example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19704347.)

[steve19]

Facebook USA politics are discussed all the time.

[jccalhoun]

I would guess because this has a social media and business aspect to it rather than just pure politics.

[malwarebytess]

Filters didn't catch it, though eventually this will be removed as well?

[gerbilly]

> Why are discussions surrounding Chinese Politics permitted but no other political discussions?

Because it's easier to finger wag at the bad Chinese government than to have an honest discussion about the dysfunctional (and increasingly authoritarian) aspects of our own governments.