YouTube has recently removed from their official website thousands of videos that allegedly advocate for activities that are not supported by their terms and conditions. This has affected many renowned media personalities who at any point violated any of the rules and regulations of YouTube. The move may have been received amid mixed feelings both by the affected people and the public in general. Some of the cited allegations by YouTube were segregation, exclusion, and those who posted videos denying the occurrence of certain incidents of violence. There is more.
When the announcement was first made, most YouTube users thought it was bluff, seeing that the posts on YouTube are too many to keep tabs on. The YouTube spokesperson specifically outlined that the website was out to clean itself of hate speech and extremism, as well as videos that advocated for white supremacy and neo-Nazism.
This whip will not leave without striking perpetrators of crime and violence cover-ups. For instance, vloggers, who did cover-up shots denying that there was a mass shooting in the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, will not be spared of this ban. YouTube was a bit indirect when making this statement, careful not to mention any names of people or companies. However, to affirm that they were not just empty threats, YouTube went ahead to carry out the ban and days later, numerous content creators came out with complains that their videos had been taken down and their ads removed from YouTube.
In response to the complains, YouTube spokespersons came out to state candidly that they were only carrying out their part in ensuring the users of the platform are protected from any form of harassment, hatred, trolling, violence, and discrimination.
The action by YouTube comes a few weeks after Facebook, another social media giant, took a considerable step to remove and ban completely, some renowned social media persons from their platform. Among those excluded from Facebook was the Infowars founder, Alex Jones. A few months ago, last year, the same person was barred from using Twitter, yet another social media platform.
According to expert observers, YouTube did exhaust the list of perpetrators it had or did it? One famous content creator who is accused of using slurry words and racial terms to insult a renowned journalist did not get his content taken down. The uproar was raised as it was evident that YouTube may have intentionally let some of the culprits sieve through their ban. When the perpetrator came out and claimed that his words were meant to be harmless, YouTube actually defended him and said he violated no terms and conditions. They claimed that he was just opinionated and not to the extent of violating their rules and regulations. After a big tug of war, YouTube finally came out and admitted that he had, indeed, and said they would suspend his account pending review.
To defend its uneven execution of the ban in regards to the case of the journalist, YouTube came out to say that it may have been an overlook from their part, seeing that they receive not less than five hundred hours of videos per minute on their website. It may be easy, as such, to overlook a mistake. On the lower side, this has resulted in disturbing videos and ads in children’s content as well as extremist groups making their ways to publish content on the website. Some of these pop-up ads have resulted in significant companies withdrawing their content from the social media marketing giant.
The next time you think of posting content on YouTube that implies any form of harassment, for instance saying that women are inferior to men, or that the white race is superior to another race, or even that the world is ruled by Jews, please think again. You will have your account either closed down or banned from ever selling any content again. But if you are very opinionated and hateful without violation of any of the terms and conditions, various forms of punishments will be administered on your account.
Apart from the punishment on accounts that violate the terms and conditions of YouTube, other news also had YouTube adjust a few aspects of its platform. For example, the automated recommended content was going to be adjusted to feature only relevant clients. The software responsible for showing viewers videos that are based on their frequent views is going to be tweaked to ensure users get the best out of it.
Critics came out to firmly state that other social media platforms should follow in the footsteps of YouTube to curb the growing hate and despise that is perpetrated on social media. Trolling, harassment, racism, and any form of segregation that is tolerated have severe impacts on the victims. Some of them end up committing suicide or going into depression as a result. To protect the victims, many speakers have called for a general audit of all the social media platforms, including Twitter and LinkedIn, to flush out these perpetrators.
According to YouTube, they are continually upgrading their system software in a bid to determine the kinds of videos or content that deserve to be banned, closed down completely, or go through any sort of punishment. As it is, the removal of key content creators might be a shortcoming on the side of YouTube, but only for a short while. It is worth every risk to minimize harmful content, and as much as possible invest in useful and non-abusive content.
It is practically no use having all the videos in the world on the website, when the larger percentage is illegal, abusive, racist, or discriminating in any way possible. To avoid cases where some people or firms may escape the hand of punishment, YouTube and other social media websites are coming up with software updates that will prohibit the uploading of such sensitive content in the first place.
The buck stops with me and you. Before posting the content you are about to on any platform, reverse the roles, and see if it would spread love or hate, then think again.