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by smoothjazz 858 days ago
That’s a real shame. This is about a meme, I’d think it would be relevant. Even Paul Graham is speaking out against the genocide. It’s weird that we can’t discuss even tech stories about it here.
2 comments

There was interesting news about AI tech the IDF uses to decide their bombing targets. This was also flagged out multiple times immediately.

If the HN audience universally thinks something is reprehensible, it's an acceptable topic. If there's a core group that supports the reprehensible thing, it's now controversial and disallowed here.

Paul Graham I think is now retired from YC. The current YC CEO is pro-Israel, pro-Zionism.

Unfortunately tech sector genocide complicity has a long history, stretching from the time of electromechanical relays and punched cards:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust

If any lessons were learned from IBM role in WWII, it seems they were mostly forgotten in the past 70 years.

The topic has had huge threads on HN, including 3 of the 10 largest threads in the last 3 months.

ICJ orders Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza, stops short of ordering ceasefire - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39143043 - Jan 2024 (1401 comments)

Israeli group claims it’s using back channels to censor “inflammatory” content - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38941719 - Jan 2024 (348 comments)

Meta censors pro-Palestinian views on a global scale, report claims - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38745673 - Dec 2023 (751 comments)

'Like we were lesser humans': Gaza boys, men recall Israeli arrest, torture - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38616550 - Dec 2023 (1308 comments)

The pro-Israel information war - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38572675 - Dec 2023 (1675 comments)

The topic isn't banned. The issue is how often to have a thread about it (which often involves turning off user flags) and by what principles to decide this. HN has had clear moderation principles about this kind of thing for many years. If you, or anyone, wants to understand what they are, take a look at the links in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39435024 and you'll find further links to plenty of past explanations. If, after reading those, you or anyone else has a question that I haven't already answered, I'd be happy to hear what it is.