[HN Gopher] Google removes over 5M reviews from Play Store to im...
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       Google removes over 5M reviews from Play Store to improve TikTok
       rating
        
       Author : sdan
       Score  : 42 points
       Date   : 2020-05-25 21:15 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.indiatoday.in)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.indiatoday.in)
        
       | Barrin92 wrote:
       | > _" Another reason was the enraged fans of famous Indian
       | YouTuber Carry Minati flooding PlayStore with 1-star reviews.
       | 
       | Carry Minati had created a video titled YouTube Vs TikTok, part
       | of an ongoing feud between YouTube and TikTok users. His video
       | went viral and was taken down for violating YouTube's terms of
       | service. This happended because many TikTok users reported the
       | video saying it was bullying in nature."_
       | 
       | Seems reasonable enough to remove those because this is just
       | brigarding and has nothing to do with authentic users of the app.
        
         | frequentnapper wrote:
         | I happened to watch the video, which was a response to a Tiktok
         | user badmouthing Youtube creators. I didn't really see any
         | bullying, just funny retorts. I guess when it comes to Youtube,
         | they just censor anything as long as enough people complain.
        
       | cscurmudgeon wrote:
       | People are discussing this as a China vs India thing.
       | 
       | It is not.
       | 
       | People recently found that TikTok is extremely lax in dealing
       | with content that promotes violence.
       | 
       | https://www.newsweek.com/india-tik-tok-faizal-siddiqui-acid-...
        
         | dkdk8283 wrote:
         | Or Youtube takes an extreme viewpoint banning anything remotely
         | close to content with weapons.
        
       | MintelIE wrote:
       | Were they real reviews, or Indian review-bombs generated as part
       | of a nationalistic campaign to get back at China?
       | 
       | Review sections were weaponized long ago, first by companies, and
       | now, increasingly, by nations.
        
         | KukicAdnan wrote:
         | Indian review-bombs.
        
         | katktv wrote:
         | Indian review-bombs, but for the other reasons entirely. The
         | dumb ones as well.
        
       | chipperyman573 wrote:
       | This really hits on a lot of nerves of the general HN crowd
       | (especially when these things are combined):
       | 
       | - Google
       | 
       | - "Censorship" (loosely defined)
       | 
       | - China (vs India vs a US company, which could really be its own
       | point)
       | 
       | But if you read the article it seems to be a logical decision.
       | Google (likely) did something similar for zoom:
       | https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/03/24/zooms-android-app-r...
       | 
       | Assuming there's nothing left out by the author, I don't really
       | think there's anything newsworthy here, just something that
       | google did that aligns with its past actions (not to say it
       | doesn't belong on HN)
        
         | frequentnapper wrote:
         | there was no China Vs India. Just Tiktok vs Youtube - really
         | Indian Youtube and Tiktok content creators dissing each
         | other...
        
           | chipperyman573 wrote:
           | I just meant that Tiktok is a chinese owned company (and
           | therefore state-owned). China has forced companies to do
           | similar things before.
        
         | plerpin wrote:
         | I swear you could generate a 100% realistic comment thread from
         | a Markov chain of those broad topics.
        
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       (page generated 2020-05-25 23:00 UTC)