YouTube drops mask, Mass Demonetizes right wing content

[Vassenor]

«YouTube censors political speech and doesn’t allow opinions it doesn’t like on its platform. Watch this YouTube video critical of YouTube which explains it all.”

Also private businesses need to be punished for controlling their privately operated platforms because reasons.

[-Ocelot-]

Proving that the algorithm isn't perfect and more work is needed to avoid false positives. I don't see how this is relevant to fascists being demonetized from the platform.

If you put on your thinking cap it's pretty easy to figure out how this is relevant. Simply put, the rate of non-relevant demonetization and channel/video deletions seems to be disproportionately stacked towards these "false positives." For every Varg they get they seem to hit 2-3 random history music video channels. Either Google/Youtube is too incompetent to do what they are claiming without massive collateral (which is directly relevant to the thread), or they're operating under definitions so broad and nebulous that they are ultimately meaningless (which is directly related to the thread). Further complicating this is that most actual fascists have long since abandoned youtube for alternative platforms such as bitchute, gab, etc, and get funded primarily through direct donation (because to people in this sphere, actions like this have been expected for quite some time).

Also, the perception that only the "fascists" or "white supremacists" were affected by such policies has been p. common ITT.

It's not easy to manage a website where millions of hours of content are being uploaded on a daily basis. Doesn't mean Google wants to make random people angry by demonetizing their perfectly fine content.

[Alvecia]

If you put on your thinking cap it's pretty easy to figure out how this is relevant. Simply put, the rate of non-relevant demonetization and channel/video deletions seems to be disproportionately stacked towards these "false positives." For every Varg they get they seem to hit 2-3 random history music video channels. Either Google/Youtube is too incompetent to do what they are claiming without massive collateral (which is directly relevant to the thread), or they're operating under definitions so broad and nebulous that they are ultimately meaningless (which is directly related to the thread). Further complicating this is that most actual fascists have long since abandoned youtube for alternative platforms such as bitchute, gab, etc, and get funded primarily through direct donation (because to people in this sphere, actions like this have been expected for quite some time).

Also, the perception that only the "fascists" or "white supremacists" were affected by such policies has been p. common ITT.

It's not easy to manage a website where millions of hours of content are being uploaded on a daily basis. Doesn't mean Google wants to make random people angry by demonetizing their perfectly fine content.

There’s a difference between “wanting to make random people angry” and “not caring if random people get angry”. YouTube doesn’t care about its creators, it cares about its corporate sponsors. They rather let some random people on the internet get angry than let the companies that pay them to advertise get angry.

[Licana]

It's not easy to manage a website where millions of hours of content are being uploaded on a daily basis. Doesn't mean Google wants to make random people angry by demonetizing their perfectly fine content.

I...never said that was their intention. Regardless of their intentions, making random people angry via questionable demonetization seems to have been the primary result of their actions.

[Page]

This myth that YouTube is targeting right wing and conservative content has to stop. It is not about conservative politics, it is a universal overkill response to purge anything remotely controversial, it's been happening to everyone which you right-wingers with this myth of persecution would know about if you ever stepped outside your own bubble.

Secular Talk - Political show hosted by Kyle Kulinski, a progressive and Bernie Sanders supporter. Every single one of his videos were demonetized with the adpocalypse and he reports now only earning a quarter of what he used. Algorithm changes resulted in a huge drop in expected new subscribers.

Jimmy Dore - Another progressive who has had almost everything demonetized, algorithm hid his channel from new subs too.

Telltale - Atheist youtuber who talks about Jehovah's Witnesses and other cults, most videos demonetized from the start.

Psyched Substance - A youtuber who talks about psychedelic drugs, harm reduction, and past trip experiences. Not only entirely demonetized but had to delete over half his videos so his channel wouldn't be banned.

It's gotten so ridiculous now you barely even come across a video where you hear the word 'fuck' instead of a bleep sound, because even the word 'fuck' means automatic demonetization. It is not about your politics, it is just a mass sanitization campaign. And yes, it's total bullshit but don't think the leftist side of youtube and apolitical youtubers aren't experiencing the same shit.

[Alvecia]

This myth that YouTube is targeting right wing and conservative content has to stop. It is not about conservative politics, it is a universal overkill response to purge anything remotely controversial, it's been happening to everyone which you right-wingers with this myth of persecution would know about if you ever stepped outside your own bubble.

Secular Talk - Political show hosted by Kyle Kulinski, a progressive and Bernie Sanders supporter. Every single one of his videos were demonetized with the adpocalypse and he reports now only earning a quarter of what he used. Algorithm changes resulted in a huge drop in expected new subscribers.

Jimmy Dore - Another progressive who has had almost everything demonetized, algorithm hid his channel from new subs too.

Telltale - Atheist youtuber who talks about Jehovah's Witnesses and other cults, most videos demonetized from the start.

Psyched Substance - A youtuber who talks about psychedelic drugs, harm reduction, and past trip experiences. Not only entirely demonetized but had to delete over half his videos so his channel wouldn't be banned.

It's gotten so ridiculous now you barely even come across a video where you hear the word 'fuck' instead of a bleep sound, because even the word 'fuck' means automatic demonetization. It is not about your politics, it is just a mass sanitization campaign. And yes, it's total bullshit but don't think the leftist side of youtube and apolitical youtubers aren't experiencing the same shit.

I follow a guy who does fighting games, and every Mortal Kombat video gets demonetised as excessive gore or some shit.
His trick has been to invert the colour pallet in editing during fatalities and the like.

[Ors Might]

A social media platform is preventing homophobes, racists, white supremacists, literal Nazis, etc. from earning money for spreading said homophobia, racism, white supremacism, literal Nazis, etc. on said social media platform?

Somebody stop the motherfucking presses because this... is somehow bad?

Along with the LGBT community. Which a lot of posters are suddenly okay with.

[Vassenor]

This myth that YouTube is targeting right wing and conservative content has to stop. It is not about conservative politics, it is a universal overkill response to purge anything remotely controversial, it's been happening to everyone which you right-wingers with this myth of persecution would know about if you ever stepped outside your own bubble.

Secular Talk - Political show hosted by Kyle Kulinski, a progressive and Bernie Sanders supporter. Every single one of his videos were demonetized with the adpocalypse and he reports now only earning a quarter of what he used. Algorithm changes resulted in a huge drop in expected new subscribers.

Jimmy Dore - Another progressive who has had almost everything demonetized, algorithm hid his channel from new subs too.

Telltale - Atheist youtuber who talks about Jehovah's Witnesses and other cults, most videos demonetized from the start.

Psyched Substance - A youtuber who talks about psychedelic drugs, harm reduction, and past trip experiences. Not only entirely demonetized but had to delete over half his videos so his channel wouldn't be banned.

It's gotten so ridiculous now you barely even come across a video where you hear the word 'fuck' instead of a bleep sound, because even the word 'fuck' means automatic demonetization. It is not about your politics, it is just a mass sanitization campaign. And yes, it's total bullshit but don't think the leftist side of youtube and apolitical youtubers aren't experiencing the same shit.

I follow a guy who does fighting games, and every Mortal Kombat video gets demonetised as excessive gore or some shit.
His trick has been to invert the colour pallet in editing during fatalities and the like.

One YouTuber I follow replaces every swear in the first X minutes of their videos with an awkward text-to-speech "YouTube".

[Rojava Free State]

They're doing this because corporations that advertise on youtube are afraid of their ads being played on videos like that of paul Joseph watson or sargon of akkad. They know the minute one of the SJW drones see that ad, they'll be like "I think we should protest." Unfortunately there's so many identity politic warriors alive today that businesses genuinely fear earning their wrath.

this is what happens when you label everything to the right of mao as fascism. Whether you disagree with sargon or not, I think it's crazy calling him a racist or a fascist when the man advocates ASSIMILATION INTO BRITISH CULTURE, something which was not controversial until like 10 years ago. Cause nothing is more racist apparently than advocating that people learn the language of the culture they're moving into, pick up some of the local customs and identify with the country they now reside in. God forbid, what a bigot! Thankfully YouTube is censoring them so they can just go underground, I mean mysteriously disappear cause thats what happens when someone is banned from one website, an I right fellow freedom fighters? nah, of course not, and neither are you. YouTube needs to let people make almost any video on there that isn't actually footage of graphic violence and needs to get their nose out of the political arena. Dang, even our government itself needs to get its hands out of these pointless debates. I'm tired of two political parties debating which group has been more messed with when our roads and bridges are collapsing, we may be getting involved in another war in the middle east, the suicide rate is now at 40,000 a year, and the gap between the rich and poor is widening. Let the public alone have these debates.

[Risottia]

A fascist is trying to convince me that he thinks banning dissent is a bad thing.

Private companies banning hate speech from their service isn't punishing people for thought crimes.

Private companies banning speech is a problem when those companies have more power over public discourse than the government. We shouldn't leave our fundamental rights up to the whims of tech robber barons.

Last time I checked, YT isn't preventing anyone to set up their own streaming service and posting whatever Nazi shit they want.

[Vassenor]

They're doing this because corporations that advertise on youtube are afraid of their ads being played on videos like that of paul Joseph watson or sargon of akkad. They know the minute one of the SJW drones see that ad, they'll be like "I think we should protest." Unfortunately there's so many identity politic warriors alive today that businesses genuinely fear earning their wrath.

this is what happens when you label everything to the right of mao as fascism. Whether you disagree with sargon or not, I think it's crazy calling him a racist or a fascist when the man advocates ASSIMILATION INTO BRITISH CULTURE, something which was not controversial until like 10 years ago. Cause nothing is more racist apparently than advocating that people learn the language of the culture they're moving into, pick up some of the local customs and identify with the country they now reside in. God forbid, what a bigot! Thankfully YouTube is censoring them so they can just go underground, I mean mysteriously disappear cause thats what happens when someone is banned from one website, an I right fellow freedom fighters? nah, of course not, and neither are you. YouTube needs to let people make almost any video on there that isn't actually footage of graphic violence and needs to get their nose out of the political arena. Dang, even our government itself needs to get its hands out of these pointless debates. I'm tired of two political parties debating which group has been more messed with when our roads and bridges are collapsing, we may be getting involved in another war in the middle east, the suicide rate is now at 40,000 a year, and the gap between the rich and poor is widening. Let the public alone have these debates.

...K.

[Vassenor]

Private companies banning speech is a problem when those companies have more power over public discourse than the government. We shouldn't leave our fundamental rights up to the whims of tech robber barons.

Last time I checked, YT isn't preventing anyone to set up their own streaming service and posting whatever Nazi shit they want.

I mean I'm personally still not a fan of "it's OK if they can just go somewhere else" really.

[Chestaan]

Obviously it's good to see fascists having their videos demonetized, but I also am very much in favour of large tech companies being limited in what they can and can't do. More regulation would be a nice first step, but putting all internet resources in common ownership would be ideal.

[Grenartia]

«YouTube censors political speech and doesn’t allow opinions it doesn’t like on its platform. Watch this YouTube video critical of YouTube which explains it all.”

Also private businesses need to be punished for controlling their privately operated platforms because reasons.

But private businesses should also totally be allowed to do whatever they want, because "muh free market".

[Grenartia]

This myth that YouTube is targeting right wing and conservative content has to stop. It is not about conservative politics, it is a universal overkill response to purge anything remotely controversial, it's been happening to everyone which you right-wingers with this myth of persecution would know about if you ever stepped outside your own bubble.

Secular Talk - Political show hosted by Kyle Kulinski, a progressive and Bernie Sanders supporter. Every single one of his videos were demonetized with the adpocalypse and he reports now only earning a quarter of what he used. Algorithm changes resulted in a huge drop in expected new subscribers.

Jimmy Dore - Another progressive who has had almost everything demonetized, algorithm hid his channel from new subs too.

Telltale - Atheist youtuber who talks about Jehovah's Witnesses and other cults, most videos demonetized from the start.

Psyched Substance - A youtuber who talks about psychedelic drugs, harm reduction, and past trip experiences. Not only entirely demonetized but had to delete over half his videos so his channel wouldn't be banned.

It's gotten so ridiculous now you barely even come across a video where you hear the word 'fuck' instead of a bleep sound, because even the word 'fuck' means automatic demonetization. It is not about your politics, it is just a mass sanitization campaign. And yes, it's total bullshit but don't think the leftist side of youtube and apolitical youtubers aren't experiencing the same shit.

Holy shit, another person who watches Telltale? Nice.

A social media platform is preventing homophobes, racists, white supremacists, literal Nazis, etc. from earning money for spreading said homophobia, racism, white supremacism, literal Nazis, etc. on said social media platform?

Somebody stop the motherfucking presses because this... is somehow bad?

Along with the LGBT community. Which a lot of posters are suddenly okay with.

Nobody said that.

[Teachian]

Still not 100% on companies not needing to service someone, but I’m not shedding any tears for Nazis. As far as this looks, the only way “right wing” content is being oppressed is that the OP thinks far-right channels should just be considered right wing. Right...

Anyway, YouTube is a company that seems increasingly uncomfortable over anything controversial, a topic that even apolitical audiences see affecting their channels. A better conversation would be over whether it’s far/effective, and how far it should go.

[Risottia]

Last time I checked, YT isn't preventing anyone to set up their own streaming service and posting whatever Nazi shit they want.

I mean I'm personally still not a fan of "it's OK if they can just go somewhere else" really.

It's called "freedom". Love it or leave it.

[The Emerald Legion]

Thread title and OP is misleading and dishonest, YouTube is removing of demonetizing white nationalist and neo-nazi channels, not your average milquetoast right wing or conservative channels.

And good on them, I say. Aside from the deletions, the vast majority of advertisers are absolutely not going to want or be cool with their ads being shown on videos advocating literal ethnic cleansing and genocide.

I linked a video that explains this.

Sargon is not a legitimate, neutral or accurate source for anything.

Given one of the Videos affected is literally just a conservative reading the green new deals text word for word....

[Cerinda]

A private company can do whatever it wants, it's called capitalism.

Also the irony that you have fascists complaining about censorship.

[The Emerald Legion]

A private company can do whatever it wants, it's called capitalism.

Also the irony that you have fascists complaining about censorship.

Actually they can't. Anti Trust laws exist for a reason.

[Ifreann]

Why is anyone surprised by this still? YouTube is obviously leftist, but like the right-wing always says, "why do you just go make your own site/show/videogames?"

Pretty funny that they can't take their own advice.

Yes, the huge corporation is clearly leftist.

---

It's always fun when fascists pretend to care about freedom of speech.

More than you do,

Very much not, citizen.

also it says a lot that you keep focusing on arguments against character rather than the actual argument.

That is a fallacious form of argument.

I think it's entirely relevant that you're making appeals to rights that you, given the chance, would strip from all of us. It's not wrong or unjust to stop you and your Nazi comrades from using your rights to take away my rights.

---

Well, the content is still hosted, just not receiving revenue. Which, yes, I do understand, it sucks. Especially for content creators who use YT as a source of income. But this is how it is. If people want to change the status quo, all you can do is file a law or civil suit against the company. However, if or when YT is found guilty of discrimination, the company has the right to control what content it allows to receive payment on their platform.

I think that may be problematic in localities that prohibit political discrimination. And Youtube happens to be headquartered in one such locality.

They're not discriminating, though. It's been pointed out in this thread that this poorly conceived act of ass-covering has hit channels that are not at all right wing.

---

We are truly in the greatest of all timelines when leftists are supporting the rights of corporations to fuck with their base and rightwingers are calling for nationalization.

2016 broke more things than we realized.

You, and several other people, are confusing leftists and liberals.

---

I think we have to be clear that this isn't just Nazis being deplatformed. The largest conservative channel was among the demonetized.

As per its harassment and cyberbullying policy, YouTube forbids content that is "deliberately posted in order to humiliate someone, makes hurtful and negative personal comments about another person or incite others to harass or threaten individuals on or off YouTube."

Sorry that Youtube doesn't want to pay someone to call a journalist a queer repeatedly?

Save millionaire Steven Crowder from the evil leftists by buying his $99 mug, now only $69!

---

No, it's not, but a nice strawman. Anything to avoid addressing the actual point, I see, as per usual.

The point, of course, that Crowder is a comedian, and says offensive things to go for shocked laughter...

Crowder, so far as I've seen, is a propagandist for the right. Part of that involves mocking liberals and leftists. He doesn't make jokes that offend and shock his right wing, conservative audience to get a laugh out of them. He makes jokes that his audience think would trigger the libs. His fans aren't offended when Crowder calls Maza a lispy queer. They're fucking gleeful at the thought of how offended Maza would be to hear that. So much so that some of them run off to one of Maza's videos or a Vox article he wrote or his Twitter and say it to him themselves.

If you think that Carlos Maza has that kind of harassment coming, whatever, but it isn't offensive comedy.

---

I'm sorry you don't understand the meaning of the word "homophobia", since you called it "nonsense". I figured it'd be fairly obvious by now.

You mean the word invented to smear people and pathologize viewpoints. You know what makes it obvious? The "phobia" bit. See, phobias are psychological conditions and implying someone has a psychological condition is essentially an ad hominem for those too lazy to defend gay rights against assholes by using actual logic.

Who am I kidding, you aren't following this at all.

Hey man, what's a hydrophobic material?

Do you think that some materials have a psychological condition whereby they're irrationally afraid of water? Do you really think that there are chemicals that can feel fear? Are you under the impression that individual molecules somehow have minds and psyches and emotions?

---

1) Try actually looking up and reading what fascism is.
2) Try sourcing your claims.

@hbomberguy, referring to claims by @calebjhull that "[t]his", Carlos Maza(@gaywonk) saying that deplatforming works and milkshake throwing is good, "is straight up fascism".

It's not relevant to the topic at hand at all.

---

A social media platform is preventing homophobes, racists, white supremacists, literal Nazis, etc. from earning money for spreading said homophobia, racism, white supremacism, literal Nazis, etc. on said social media platform?

Somebody stop the motherfucking presses because this... is somehow bad?

It's bad because they're doing it really fucking badly, catching perfectly legit channels in the same net as the world's loudest mug salesman, and also because they're only doing it as an ass-covering measure. YouTube is trying to give the appearance that they don't allow extremists or harassment, but the nature of their business model is that they will always allow and reward extremism and harassment because shit like that "drives engagement" and brings in that sweet ad revenue.

[Shrillland]

Why is anyone surprised by this still? YouTube is obviously leftist, but like the right-wing always says, "why do you just go make your own site/show/videogames?"

Pretty funny that they can't take their own advice.

Yes, the huge corporation is clearly leftist.

---

More than you do,

Very much not, citizen.

also it says a lot that you keep focusing on arguments against character rather than the actual argument.

That is a fallacious form of argument.

I think it's entirely relevant that you're making appeals to rights that you, given the chance, would strip from all of us. It's not wrong or unjust to stop you and your Nazi comrades from using your rights to take away my rights.

---

I think that may be problematic in localities that prohibit political discrimination. And Youtube happens to be headquartered in one such locality.

They're not discriminating, though. It's been pointed out in this thread that this poorly conceived act of ass-covering has hit channels that are not at all right wing.

---

We are truly in the greatest of all timelines when leftists are supporting the rights of corporations to fuck with their base and rightwingers are calling for nationalization.

2016 broke more things than we realized.

You, and several other people, are confusing leftists and liberals.

---

Sorry that Youtube doesn't want to pay someone to call a journalist a queer repeatedly?

Save millionaire Steven Crowder from the evil leftists by buying his $99 mug, now only $69!

---

The point, of course, that Crowder is a comedian, and says offensive things to go for shocked laughter...

Crowder, so far as I've seen, is a propagandist for the right. Part of that involves mocking liberals and leftists. He doesn't make jokes that offend and shock his right wing, conservative audience to get a laugh out of them. He makes jokes that his audience think would trigger the libs. His fans aren't offended when Crowder calls Maza a lispy queer. They're fucking gleeful at the thought of how offended Maza would be to hear that. So much so that some of them run off to one of Maza's videos or a Vox article he wrote or his Twitter and say it to him themselves.

If you think that Carlos Maza has that kind of harassment coming, whatever, but it isn't offensive comedy.

---

You mean the word invented to smear people and pathologize viewpoints. You know what makes it obvious? The "phobia" bit. See, phobias are psychological conditions and implying someone has a psychological condition is essentially an ad hominem for those too lazy to defend gay rights against assholes by using actual logic.

Who am I kidding, you aren't following this at all.

Hey man, what's a hydrophobic material?

Do you think that some materials have a psychological condition whereby they're irrationally afraid of water? Do you really think that there are chemicals that can feel fear? Are you under the impression that individual molecules somehow have minds and psyches and emotions?

---

1) Try actually looking up and reading what fascism is.
2) Try sourcing your claims.

@hbomberguy, referring to claims by @calebjhull that "[t]his", Carlos Maza(@gaywonk) saying that deplatforming works and milkshake throwing is good, "is straight up fascism".

It's not relevant to the topic at hand at all.

---

A social media platform is preventing homophobes, racists, white supremacists, literal Nazis, etc. from earning money for spreading said homophobia, racism, white supremacism, literal Nazis, etc. on said social media platform?

Somebody stop the motherfucking presses because this... is somehow bad?

It's bad because they're doing it really fucking badly, catching perfectly legit channels in the same net as the world's loudest mug salesman, and also because they're only doing it as an ass-covering measure. YouTube is trying to give the appearance that they don't allow extremists or harassment, but the nature of their business model is that they will always allow and reward extremism and harassment because shit like that "drives engagement" and brings in that sweet ad revenue.

I've been seeing the excesses already. Yes, they are a private company and have the right to do as they please, and yes, preventing the spread of bigots and anti-science folks(anti-vaxxers and flat earthers have also been swept up) is a good thing....but depending on the algorithm is leading to a lot of stuff only tangentially related being removed. Historical films, marches, and songs are being pulled just because of how they're related to the banned subjects...this isn't on a massive scale, but it is noticeable.

[Ifreann]

I've been seeing the excesses already. Yes, they are a private company and have the right to do as they please, and yes, preventing the spread of bigots and anti-science folks(anti-vaxxers and flat earthers have also been swept up) is a good thing....but depending on the algorithm is leading to a lot of stuff only tangentially related being removed. Historical films, marches, and songs are being pulled just because of how they're related to the banned subjects...this isn't on a massive scale, but it is noticeable.

And they're doing it by algorithm because 1)that's just cheaper than hiring an army of people to actually watch all these videos and judge them fairly and impartially and 2)an algorithm wrongly demonetising legit channels doesn't look as bad as actual human employees doing it.

[Vassenor]

I've been seeing the excesses already. Yes, they are a private company and have the right to do as they please, and yes, preventing the spread of bigots and anti-science folks(anti-vaxxers and flat earthers have also been swept up) is a good thing....but depending on the algorithm is leading to a lot of stuff only tangentially related being removed. Historical films, marches, and songs are being pulled just because of how they're related to the banned subjects...this isn't on a massive scale, but it is noticeable.

And they're doing it by algorithm because 1)that's just cheaper than hiring an army of people to actually watch all these videos and judge them fairly and impartially and 2)an algorithm wrongly demonetising legit channels doesn't look as bad as actual human employees doing it.

And human moderation can invite actual legal consequences.

[Galloism]

Why is anyone surprised by this still? YouTube is obviously leftist, but like the right-wing always says, "why do you just go make your own site/show/videogames?"

Pretty funny that they can't take their own advice.

Yes, the huge corporation is clearly leftist.

I mean, YouTube is owned by Alphabet Inc, the same company which owns Google, and Google has been caught in a number of cases of institutional bias.

This is an opinion piece, but contains lots of sources - https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/ ... 248099002/

The point, of course, that Crowder is a comedian, and says offensive things to go for shocked laughter...

Crowder, so far as I've seen, is a propagandist for the right. Part of that involves mocking liberals and leftists. He doesn't make jokes that offend and shock his right wing, conservative audience to get a laugh out of them. He makes jokes that his audience think would trigger the libs. His fans aren't offended when Crowder calls Maza a lispy queer. They're fucking gleeful at the thought of how offended Maza would be to hear that. So much so that some of them run off to one of Maza's videos or a Vox article he wrote or his Twitter and say it to him themselves.

So he's more like Steven Colbert than Jay Leno.

Ok.

If you think that Carlos Maza has that kind of harassment coming, whatever, but it isn't offensive comedy.

Carlos Maza is a public figure, like Crowder, like Donald Trump, like Oprah, like Steven Colbert. That comes with people making fun of you in ways that aren't fair.

Something something presidential harassment.

Anyway, the notion that you can be a public figure without people talking about you is absurd. We draw the line at invoking action against people, so if someone can show where Crowder said "here's Maza's personal number, send him a million text messages", then you'll have a point. Until then, you don't - people talk about public figures. Even public figures talk about other public figures. It's what they do.