[dathinab]

My guess is that someone pro CCP sneaked the keywords which trigger the deletion into a list of Chinese insults (i.e. on a list of purely offensive words).

At lest one of the words found first can indeed be seen as denouncing descriptions of communism. I can't judge if it's just that or quite insulting.

If this is true then the interesting question is how they sneaked it in there. From outside by social enginering? From inside by affiliated devs? Through an consultant company hired to create a list of Chinese insults?

The most ironic think is that if my guess is true then it might literally have sneaked in without anyone intention by just using a list of insults from somewhere else without cross validating it.

[sdenton4]

My guess is that it's the CCP abusing the flagging system to trick the existing anti-abuse systems into doing the dirty work for them... An infiltrator would be harder to get in place and much easier to find and deal with (if they did something as crass as manipulate a word list).

Great! Let's fix it! Suppose you just throw the words on a whitelist? Well, now there are a couple magic words you can put in unrelated spam comments to ensure that they don't get deleted.

Honestly, all the people knotting their underwear about this don't seem like they've ever seriously thought about abuse on large platforms. It's an inherently adversarial environment, and you have to game out second- and third-order consequences for pretty much everything. And even then there will be unintended consequences. A 'real' fix that doesn't break lots of other things takes time.

[free_rms]

The "communist bandits" thing is a Taiwan vs PRC thing -- Mao was basically a bandit for like 10 years while fighting the ROC government. Or the revolutionary vanguard expropriating wealth for the people's liberation, if you'd prefer.

Seems roughly equivalent to calling someone "you syrian terrorist" to me? Not sure where to calibrate it.

[catalogia]

'Communist' is an ideological alignment. 'Syrian' is not.

[free_rms]

In this context it's very clearly about the PRC, referencing specific history, not some generic hypothetical communist.

Nobody calls berkeley student marxists 'bandits'.

[catalogia]

That context doesn't change my comment. Affiliation with the CCP, past or present, is an ideological affiliation. 'Syrian' is not. Comparable to 'Syrian bandit' would be 'Chinese bandit'. If you want a Syrian analogue to 'communist bandit', you might try 'ba'athist bandit'.

'Communist' and 'ba'athist' are ideological affiliations, as are affiliations with the Chinese Communist Party or the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party specifically.

'Syrian' and 'Chinese' are not ideological affiliations.

[free_rms]

You're aware it's a 1-party state, right? That's an awfully fine hair to split.

The people making that comment are talking about the government and the nation, not an ideology (which is barely even followed in practice, anyways).

[catalogia]

Despite what the CCP would like you to believe, being ethnically Chinese is not synonymous with supporting the CCP, anymore than being ethnically Syrian makes you a supporter of Syria's Ba'athist Party. This is not a "fine hair to split."

Whether these political organizations adhere to their own professed principles is completely irrelevant; neither do. Whether these political organizations tolerate opposition is completely irrelevant; neither do.