YouTube Cracks Down on Far-Right Videos as Conspiracy Theories Spread

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Megalith

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YouTube began penalizing a number of prominent far-right channels this week, which were accused of spreading misinformation regarding events such as the school shooting in Parkland, FL. Critics say that YouTube may be indiscriminately purging any content that reflects badly on the service, despite their reliance on a strike system for rule enforcement.

A YouTube spokeswoman said in a statement that its “reviewers remove content according to our policies, not according to politics or ideology, and we use quality control measures to ensure they are applying our policies without bias.” The company is in the middle of hiring a large influx of moderators, and it attributed some of its recent enforcement actions to a group who are still learning to apply its rules.
 
If the government can force a baker to bake a gay wedding cake, then they should be able to force YouTube to host all channels. The public service argument is used by lefties to defend cases like the one against the baker, and YouTube is indeed offering a public service.

I am a libertarian who wants the smallest and least intrusive government possible, so I think both the baker and YouTube should be able to refuse service to whoever they like. But this is war and one must adopt the rules of warfare forced upon them.
 
Any attempt to censor free speech is unacceptable not matter how disgusting and reprehensible. We are all smart enough to separte the differences and decide for ourselves. There are two sides to every story and all stories must be heard/read to understand the truth. Ask yourself who decides? what is or isn't appropriate. who emplyees the person who decides? and how do we know they don't have an agenda? or if they have been paid for a specific answer? Censorship leads to corruption. The lack of censorship is what separtates America from the rest of the world and I for one don't care to see it erroded away by any excuse or any corperate entity.The simple fact that they specifically point out "right wing channels" should raise the provibal red flag. If it was a policy more inclusive of all nut bags then I might be more sympathitic. Bottom line we should all revere the 1st Amendment and debate our differences with reason and facts respectfully. No one should fear one mans truth and no man should ignore another.
 
Yep, so if you don’t agree with Hollywood or your local SJW troll, then you are not entitled to use a platform on which to disagree with them! Wow

But seriously, I thought America had the right of free speech written in to the Constitution?
 
Smashing Young Man said:
If the government can force a baker to bake a gay wedding cake, then they should be able to force YouTube to host all channels. The public service argument is used by lefties to defend cases like the one against the baker, and YouTube is indeed offering a public service.

I am a libertarian who wants the smallest and least intrusive government possible, so I think both the baker and YouTube should be able to refuse service to whoever they like. But this is war and one must adopt the rules of warfare forced upon them.
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I'm not saying I disagree with you -- in fact, I generally agree private businesses should be able to refuse service to whomever they like -- but there is the unfortunate trend whereby those merely hosting something are being held accountable for content (even though they did not create it). A baker, meanwhile, is not a communications platform, and doesn't have to worry about being held accountable if someone eats too much cake and goes into a diabetic coma. :p

This could be a perfectly reasonable CYA from YouTube's point-of-view.
 
Stimpy88 said:
Yep, if you don’t agree with Hollywood or your local SJW troll, then you are not entitled to use a platform on which to disagree with them! Wow

But seriously, I thought America had the right of free speech written in to the Constitution?
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This has nothing to do with free speech. It's a question of private property rights (in this case, YouTube's).
 
owcraftsman said:
Any attempt to censor free speech is unacceptable not matter how disgusting and reprehensible. We are all smart enough to separte the differences and decide for ourselves. There are two sides to every story and all stories must be heard/read to understand the truth. Ask yourself who decides? what is or isn't appropriate. who emplyees the person who decides? and how do we know they don't have an agenda? or if they have been paid for a specific answer? Censorship leads to corruption. The lack of censorship is what separtates America from the rest of the world and I for one don't care to see it erroded away by any excuse or any corperate entity.The simple fact that they specifically point out "right wing channels" should raise the provibal red flag. If it was a policy more inclusive of all nut bags then I might be more sympathitic. Bottom line we should all revere the 1st Amendment and debate our differences with reason and facts respectfully. No one should fear one mans truth and no man should ignore another.
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Nice sentiments, but again, this isn't a free speech issue. The First Amendment is about protecting people from the government. No one is facing criminal penalties simply for what they said.

There is certainly a bigger question here: When (if ever) is the media beholden to act in the public good? If we're gong to tell YouTube that they can't do this, then are we going to start telling Fox News who and what they have to broadcast?
 
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Youtube has turned into a political propaganda machine. They are testing the waters and making changes now so that it has a bigger influence on the next presidential election. They are aggressively targeting teens before they are old enough to vote so when they are old enough to vote or register to vote it will be D. When I was younger and registered to vote I knew nothing about politics and based my decision on which political party I was registered just because I heard more about one side than the other. I remember one of the more famous youtubers being plastered all over youtube on why he's voting shitlary and why you shouldn't vote Trump. I don't recall seeing much if any trending videos about about Trump and why shitlary is bad.
 
Stimpy88 said:
Yep, so if you don’t agree with Hollywood or your local SJW troll, then you are not entitled to use a platform on which to disagree with them! Wow

But seriously, I thought America had the right of free speech written in to the Constitution?
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YouTube is a private company and can do whatever they want. Don't get constitutional rights mixed up with corporations/private enterprise. A LOT of people can't seem to make the distinction.
 
NN was not applied to content providers for a reason. They can do what they want with content while forcing the pipes to carry it.
 
Johnx64 said:
Youtube has turned into a political propaganda machine. They are testing the waters and making changes now so that it has a bigger influence on the next presidential election. They are aggressively targeting teens before they are old enough to vote so when they are old enough to vote or register to vote it will be D. When I was younger and registered to vote I knew nothing about politics and based my decision on which political party I was registered just because I heard more about one side than the other. I remember one of the more famous youtubers being plastered all over youtube on why he's voting shitlary and why you shouldn't vote Trump. I don't recall seeing much if any trending videos about about Trump and why shitlary is bad.
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I'm just not sure this kind of tactic can ever accomplish anything. If you're deranged enough to think there's a child abuse ring running out of a network of tunnels under a pizza joint in Washington, then maybe it's best the whole world know about your mental illness. I prefer the crazies out where we can see them.

And their hands.

Besides, we all know that shootings by the Glorious White Master Race are false flags and shootings by brown sub humans are a threat to freedom. They really aren't saying anything particularly engaging.
 
Twisted Kidney said:
I'm just not sure this kind of tactic can ever accomplish anything. If you're deranged enough to think there's a child abuse ring running out of a network of tunnels under a pizza joint in Washington, then maybe it's best the whole world know about your mental illness. I prefer the crazies out where we can see them.

And their hands.

Besides, we all know that shootings by the Glorious White Master Race are false flags and shootings by brown sub humans are a threat to freedom. They really aren't saying anything particularly engaging.
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Yeah these are not Pizzagate channels. These are legitimate conservative channels and some channels that interviewed the non-CNN approved Florida victims. If you think conservative speech is not being suppressed by Google/Youtube/Facebook/Twitter/Media - well, I don't know what to say.

It's one thing to disagree with speech and other political viewpoints. It's another to actively cheer for those viewpoints to be censored.
 
bugleyman said:
This has nothing to do with free speech. It's a question of private property rights (in this case, YouTube's).
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Yep. I love how many super right-wing types are all about "my property rights" and "corporate liberties" and so on but when a company decides to do something they don't like suddenly it is oppression and a first amendment violation. No guys, if you are a hardcore strict constructionist that believes whole heatedly in corporate person-hood and individual rights, particularly property rights, being paramount then shit like this is 100% ok. A company has the right to do what it wants with its property, which includes the right to decide what videos to host, what political position to take, etc.

If you aren't ok with it and you think the government should step in and force them to host what you want, then you are not as pro-individual rights as you want to pretend.
 
Sycraft said:
Yep. I love how many super right-wing types are all about "my property rights" and "corporate liberties" and so on but when a company decides to do something they don't like suddenly it is oppression and a first amendment violation. No guys, if you are a hardcore strict constructionist that believes whole heatedly in corporate person-hood and individual rights, particularly property rights, being paramount then shit like this is 100% ok. A company has the right to do what it wants with its property, which includes the right to decide what videos to host, what political position to take, etc.

If you aren't ok with it and you think the government should step in and force them to host what you want, then you are not as pro-individual rights as you want to pretend.
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It's not a first amendment violation. It is, however, patently wrong for only liberal viewpoints to be disseminated via mass media while conservative speech is suppressed under the guise of being any variety of offensive things.
 
SilverSliver said:
It's not a first amendment violation. It is, however, patently wrong for only liberal viewpoints to be disseminated via mass media while conservative speech is suppressed under the guise of being any variety of offensive things.
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Wrong how? Does that mean organizations like Info Wars or even Fox News that don't disseminate liberal viewpoints are "patently wrong" as well? You can't have it both ways, either it is ok for organizations to have a stance they want to push and to do that or it isn't. It can't be a situation of "it is ok but only so long as I agree with it!"
 
Sycraft said:
Yep. I love how many super right-wing types are all about "my property rights" and "corporate liberties" and so on but when a company decides to do something they don't like suddenly it is oppression and a first amendment violation. No guys, if you are a hardcore strict constructionist that believes whole heatedly in corporate person-hood and individual rights, particularly property rights, being paramount then shit like this is 100% ok. A company has the right to do what it wants with its property, which includes the right to decide what videos to host, what political position to take, etc.

If you aren't ok with it and you think the government should step in and force them to host what you want, then you are not as pro-individual rights as you want to pretend.
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It has a lot to do with the fact that Google is constantly changing the rules, implementing bans without any explanation as to why, and going against their own policies with a lot of these bans. A lot of these YouTube channels have done nothing contrary to the rules, but they don't follow the Google group-think, so they can't be allowed to continue.
 
Well, I think, I am just going to be done with youtube. We are their product to advertisers. Not using their service will fix that. Going to block them for users at both offices as well.
It is there service, and they can do what they want with it. It's my router and I am free to block access to them through those routers at my place of business and home.
 
braamer said:
It has a lot to do with the fact that Google is constantly changing the rules, implementing bans without any explanation as to why, and going against their own policies with a lot of these bans. A lot of these YouTube channels have done nothing contrary to the rules, but they don't follow the Google group-think, so they can't be allowed to continue.
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Which is again 100% their right, if you are someone who's big on the whole corporate person-hood and personal property rights bandwagon. They can do whatever they want with their platform, for whatever reasons they want and they aren't obligated to have a clear defined set of rules. The rules can be "We do what we like, it's our shit, love it or leave it." The answer then to that if you are dissatisfied and are a hard core capitalist, free market type is to take your business elsewhere and/or start up a competing platform with rules you do like. Let the market decide, as Ron Swanson would say, "Who is right and who is poor."

Now personally, I don't think that is a good way of going about things. But then I'm not a strict constructionist, hard core capitalist, right winger. I support the idea of government regulation on the market and such. However if you are all-in on these right wing positions it is then highly hypocritical to come out and complain when a company does whatever it wants with its property since that is the idea: Corporations are people, people have the right to do with their property as they please, companies answer only to their shareholders and customers.
 
zamardii12 said:
YouTube is a private company and can do whatever they want. Don't get constitutional rights mixed up with corporations/private enterprise. A LOT of people can't seem to make the distinction.
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Free Speech is an ideal that exists beyond the law. You are the one who is mixed up. The First Amendment of United States Constitution is a singular implementation of a sub-section of that ideal. It is not the final authority of Free Speech. there is more to life than the law.
 
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Spire3660 said:
Free Speech is an ideal that exists beyond the law. You are the one who is mixed up. The First Amendment of United States Constitution is a singular implementation of a sub-section of that ideal. It is not the final authority of Free Speech. there is more to life than the law.
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But then you want to infringe on Youtube's free speech to support the speech of the people you like. If the position is one that they should be required to allow certain speech on their platform, even if they don't want, that infringes on their rights. It would be like if you had a sign on your house expressing your views, and you were forced to put up another sign expressing different views for free speech reasons. That would be infringing on your rights to support someone else's.

This stuff gets complex, particularly depending on what kind of view you take of a company. Now it is very valid to say "Companies should NOT be treated as people, they don't have the same free speech rights, their rights can and should be curtailed to support the rights of individuals." There are plenty of people who make an argument just like that. However do consider the consequences of that kind of view, and also consider the consistency (or lack thereof) with other views you might have.

Rights aren't something that is an absolute, because you have to balance them against other people's rights.
 
we need to figure out a solution to this first the malls and then the sites on the internet such as youtube has displaced the "public square" as the means by which to get your information out to the public (free speech) ...
 
Gorankar said:
Well, I think, I am just going to be done with youtube. We are their product to advertisers. Not using their service will fix that. Going to block them for users at both offices as well.
It is there service, and they can do what they want with it. It's my router and I am free to block access to them through those routers at my place of business and home.
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Good luck with that Youtube has become so ingrained in most people daily lives its pretty shocking. Want to learn build a pc watch a video on it, want to learn how make your own air compressor from a old refrigerator compressor watch the video for it.
 
gusphase said:
So when will all of the far left channels that propagate unprovable theories about Trump get removed?
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I suppose that's up to YouTube. The point is that if you're a conservative, it's hard to see how you can advocate that the government get involved and force the issue.

I'm genuinely curious, though: Are there channels like that, or are you just assuming there are? I honestly don't know, but it's hard to see why they'd be necessary.
 
Sycraft said:
But then you want to infringe on Youtube's free speech to support the speech of the people you like. If the position is one that they should be required to allow certain speech on their platform, even if they don't want, that infringes on their rights. It would be like if you had a sign on your house expressing your views, and you were forced to put up another sign expressing different views for free speech reasons. That would be infringing on your rights to support someone else's.

This stuff gets complex, particularly depending on what kind of view you take of a company. Now it is very valid to say "Companies should NOT be treated as people, they don't have the same free speech rights, their rights can and should be curtailed to support the rights of individuals." There are plenty of people who make an argument just like that. However do consider the consequences of that kind of view, and also consider the consistency (or lack thereof) with other views you might have.

Rights aren't something that is an absolute, because you have to balance them against other people's rights.
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We arent talking RIGHTS. Can you think of life outside the scope of the law at all????? How boring can you be that the only possible conversation you have is 'but the law says'.

You can take a company to task on moral grounds, without ever having the support of law. Laws are often compromises, ideals dont compromise. We are discussing the ideal of Free Speech.
 
Macross said:
Good luck with that Youtube has become so ingrained in most people daily lives its pretty shocking. Want to learn build a pc watch a video on it, want to learn how make your own air compressor from a old refrigerator compressor watch the video for it.
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There are alternatives. The more we use them, the more viable they become. I don't really go to youtube for education reasons anyway. Just stupid stuff on my phone, like terrible driver videos, while I am waiting somewhere with nothing to do. I have learned one thing from youtube for certain though. Russians drive like they hate each other. ;)
 
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