Folks, this is an indicted war criminal, who is committing an internationally recognized genocide. And Vercel CEO is shaking his hand and supporting him.
You can be an incredible entrepreneur(or anything really) and a terrible human being. Please remember this before idolising people outright solely because of their achievements.
"The International Jew" - Henry Ford, BFF with Adolf Hitler.
Musk "Roman Salutes" more-or-less prove he wasn't able to overcome South Africa's apartheid hate ideology.
Hans Reiser - convicted murderer
Kip Macy & Nicole Macy - landlords from hell
Martin Shkreli - (no introduction necessary)
Impact and moral reputation/integrity are mostly orthogonal properties. It's the responsibility of decent people to rightly boycott crooks, warmongers, pedophiles, and ethno-nationalist suprematists. When this corrective moderation breaks-down, society is in deep shit.
I am confused about how this photo exists. If I were a CEO, regardless of my politics, the last thing I would do would be to post a photo with somebody that controversial. It's a situation that one can only lose from: one side might feel mildly positive about it, the other side will hate your guts. And the side that hates this guy is surely a much larger portion of Vercel's customer base. It doesn't take a genius to gauge public perception of a world figure in your key market (US & other western countries).
The headline is "Israel's not a dictatorship, but it's headed toward becoming one"
So, currently not a dictatorship and wasn't one. They may or may not be in the future based on the headline which is still an opinion. If you may become a thief, should we put you in jail right now? No because you are not a thief.
Meanwhile Hamas' leaders are dictator. There hasn't been any fair election for a very long time, and everyone including you would say a lot of Palestinians don't agree with Hamas' actions toward Israel (e.g. Oct 7) but are afraid to speak up. That's a dictatorship.
AI will help people harden and rationalize their cognitive dissonance to ignore millions of civilians being deliberately starved mere miles away on purpose by sweeping it under the rug to instead discuss the weather and random technology flavor-of-the-day. It's so tonedeaf that clanging pots and pans in front of their faces has no effect.
I was looking for more reasons not to use the piece of flaming garbage that Next has become since Vercel made it great again. I didn't expect actively supporting + making a selfie with war criminal and genocider Netanyahu would be my extra reason not to use Next, but here we are.
It's been a thing for a while, he just gradually became louder and more brave about it as it became more and more accepted to be public about it (see DHH, Garry Tan, Palantir, etc). A lot of smart people inside Vercel saw the writing on the wall and left.
I was so confused, I thought vercel had an outage.
This makes more sense now.
I got 3 different calls from some people today about Vercel and switching off of it, couldn't figure out why - they were spending upwards of 5k-10k/mo.
This analysis demonstrates that Hacker News's (Y Combinator) official "no politics" policy actually constitutes a political choice that selectively structures which geopolitical topics can be discussed from a technological angle.
---
## 1. HN's Official Policy
### Stated Rules
- Most political, crime, or celebrity-related topics are considered "off-topic"
- Exception: if they constitute "evidence of a new interesting phenomenon"
- Declared focus: "what satisfies intellectual curiosity" in tech and startups
- In 2016: organized a "political detox week" explicitly recognizing that "political conflicts cause harm here"
### Justification
Avoid flamewars and maintain a constructive discussion space centered on technology.
---
## 2. Selective Application: Ukraine vs Gaza Case
### Ukraine (2022-2025): Significant Coverage
*Accepted and widely discussed topics:*
- Ukraine's call to the hacker community (March 2022): major post, numerous comments
- Cyberattacks and Russia-Ukraine cyber warfare
- Hacktivism (Anonymous, etc.)
- Technological infrastructure
- Cybersecurity operations
*Implicit justification:* Clear and direct tech angle
### Gaza (2023-2025): Minimal Coverage
*Topics nearly absent despite obvious tech angle:*
- Destruction of internet infrastructure in Gaza (rarely mentioned)
- Military AI systems (see next section)
- Impact on Palestinian tech workers
- Vercel/Netanyahu controversy (tech CEO + Netanyahu)
*Result:* Even with obvious technical angles, low visibility or moderation
---
## 3. The Revealing Case: AI in Gaza
### Documented Israeli AI Systems
#### *"Lavender"*
- *Function:* AI system listing tens of thousands of Palestinian men algorithmically identified as linked to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad
- *Scale:* Approximately 37,000 Palestinians marked as suspected militants
- *Use:* Target recommendations for strikes
#### *"The Gospel" (Habsora)*
- *Function:* Rapid identification of combatants and equipment
- *Official claim:* Reduces civilian casualties
- *Use:* Target selection and prioritization
#### *"Where's Daddy?"*
- *Function:* Determines when a target is at a specific location
- *Documented use:* Target individuals when they are at home at night with their families
### Tech Relevance for HN
These systems check *all the boxes* of popular HN topics:
- Cutting-edge artificial intelligence
- Machine learning and automated decision systems
- AI ethics (recurring HN topic)
- Mass surveillance and data science
- Questions about war automation
- Algorithmic transparency
- AI system bias and errors
### Actual Presence on HN
- *Yes, there have been posts* (notably on Lavender in April 2024)
- *But:* Limited visibility, restricted discussions
- *Contrast:* Equivalent AI ethics topics elsewhere are widely debated
---
## 4. Other Examples of Selective Moderation
### Vercel Case (September 30, 2025)
*The facts:*
- Vercel CEO (Guillermo Rauch) posts selfie with Benjamin Netanyahu
- Private meeting on AI in New York
- Consequences: employee resignations, client contract cancellations ($5,000-10,000/month)
*HN Relevance:*
- Major company in dev ecosystem (Next.js, hosting)
- Direct business impact on community
- Questions about political engagement of tech CEOs
- Documented economic consequences
*Result:* Limited or moderated discussions on HN
---
## 5. The Political Paradox of "No Politics"
### The Thesis
*"No politics" is itself a political position* that:
1. *Normalizes certain conflicts* (Ukraine = legitimate to discuss from tech angle)
2. *Marginalizes other conflicts* (Gaza = not legitimate even with obvious tech angle)
3. *Determines which violence is "tech"* and which is not
4. *Structures the field of the thinkable* in the tech community
35 comments
[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 53.3 ms ] threadI feel like I'm losing my mind here.
Then there’s taking a selfie with Netanyahu.
Then there’s posting said selfie for the world to know.
What the f man.
Examples:
"The International Jew" - Henry Ford, BFF with Adolf Hitler.
Musk "Roman Salutes" more-or-less prove he wasn't able to overcome South Africa's apartheid hate ideology.
Hans Reiser - convicted murderer
Kip Macy & Nicole Macy - landlords from hell
Martin Shkreli - (no introduction necessary)
Impact and moral reputation/integrity are mostly orthogonal properties. It's the responsibility of decent people to rightly boycott crooks, warmongers, pedophiles, and ethno-nationalist suprematists. When this corrective moderation breaks-down, society is in deep shit.
They need a publicist, bad, to control this guy.
So, currently not a dictatorship and wasn't one. They may or may not be in the future based on the headline which is still an opinion. If you may become a thief, should we put you in jail right now? No because you are not a thief.
Meanwhile Hamas' leaders are dictator. There hasn't been any fair election for a very long time, and everyone including you would say a lot of Palestinians don't agree with Hamas' actions toward Israel (e.g. Oct 7) but are afraid to speak up. That's a dictatorship.
https://nitter.net/rauchg/status/1972669025525158031
Make it make sense.
Do these people really think they will get away unscathed at this point in a few years?
"Hey remember that time you met with that guy that was running a genocide?"
People are trying to distance themselves from Epstein, saying they didn't know what he did. It ain't working and this is way worse.
But was it worth it? To burn all good will any upside to generating controversy?
I got 3 different calls from some people today about Vercel and switching off of it, couldn't figure out why - they were spending upwards of 5k-10k/mo.
[0] https://x.com/amasad/status/1972805067771355518
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-30/vercel-no...
## Executive Summary
This analysis demonstrates that Hacker News's (Y Combinator) official "no politics" policy actually constitutes a political choice that selectively structures which geopolitical topics can be discussed from a technological angle.
---
## 1. HN's Official Policy
### Stated Rules - Most political, crime, or celebrity-related topics are considered "off-topic" - Exception: if they constitute "evidence of a new interesting phenomenon" - Declared focus: "what satisfies intellectual curiosity" in tech and startups - In 2016: organized a "political detox week" explicitly recognizing that "political conflicts cause harm here"
### Justification Avoid flamewars and maintain a constructive discussion space centered on technology.
---
## 2. Selective Application: Ukraine vs Gaza Case
### Ukraine (2022-2025): Significant Coverage
*Accepted and widely discussed topics:* - Ukraine's call to the hacker community (March 2022): major post, numerous comments - Cyberattacks and Russia-Ukraine cyber warfare - Hacktivism (Anonymous, etc.) - Technological infrastructure - Cybersecurity operations
*Implicit justification:* Clear and direct tech angle
### Gaza (2023-2025): Minimal Coverage
*Topics nearly absent despite obvious tech angle:* - Destruction of internet infrastructure in Gaza (rarely mentioned) - Military AI systems (see next section) - Impact on Palestinian tech workers - Vercel/Netanyahu controversy (tech CEO + Netanyahu)
*Result:* Even with obvious technical angles, low visibility or moderation
---
## 3. The Revealing Case: AI in Gaza
### Documented Israeli AI Systems
#### *"Lavender"* - *Function:* AI system listing tens of thousands of Palestinian men algorithmically identified as linked to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad - *Scale:* Approximately 37,000 Palestinians marked as suspected militants - *Use:* Target recommendations for strikes
#### *"The Gospel" (Habsora)* - *Function:* Rapid identification of combatants and equipment - *Official claim:* Reduces civilian casualties - *Use:* Target selection and prioritization
#### *"Where's Daddy?"* - *Function:* Determines when a target is at a specific location - *Documented use:* Target individuals when they are at home at night with their families
### Tech Relevance for HN
These systems check *all the boxes* of popular HN topics: - Cutting-edge artificial intelligence - Machine learning and automated decision systems - AI ethics (recurring HN topic) - Mass surveillance and data science - Questions about war automation - Algorithmic transparency - AI system bias and errors
### Actual Presence on HN
- *Yes, there have been posts* (notably on Lavender in April 2024) - *But:* Limited visibility, restricted discussions - *Contrast:* Equivalent AI ethics topics elsewhere are widely debated
---
## 4. Other Examples of Selective Moderation
### Vercel Case (September 30, 2025)
*The facts:* - Vercel CEO (Guillermo Rauch) posts selfie with Benjamin Netanyahu - Private meeting on AI in New York - Consequences: employee resignations, client contract cancellations ($5,000-10,000/month)
*HN Relevance:* - Major company in dev ecosystem (Next.js, hosting) - Direct business impact on community - Questions about political engagement of tech CEOs - Documented economic consequences
*Result:* Limited or moderated discussions on HN
---
## 5. The Political Paradox of "No Politics"
### The Thesis
*"No politics" is itself a political position* that:
1. *Normalizes certain conflicts* (Ukraine = legitimate to discuss from tech angle) 2. *Marginalizes other conflicts* (Gaza = not legitimate even with obvious tech angle) 3. *Determines which violence is "tech"* and which is not 4. *Structures the field of the thinkable* in the tech community
### The Consequences
*What is made visible:* - Nation-state cyber ...