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posted by janrinok on Monday June 10 2019, @05:53PM   Printer-friendly

On June 5th, YouTube announced in a post on its official blog that it is going to be:

Removing more hateful and supremacist content from YouTube

by specifically prohibiting videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion based on qualities like age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation or veteran status.

Finally, we will remove content denying that well-documented violent events, like the Holocaust or the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, took place.

Reducing borderline content and raising up authoritative voices

In January, we piloted an update of our systems in the U.S. to limit recommendations of borderline content and harmful misinformation

We're looking to bring this updated system to more countries by the end of 2019. Thanks to this change, the number of views this type of content gets from recommendations has dropped by over 50% in the U.S. Our systems are also getting smarter about what types of videos should get this treatment, and we'll be able to apply it to even more borderline videos moving forward. As we do this, we'll also start raising up more authoritative content in recommendations

Continuing to reward trusted creators and enforce our monetization policies

we are strengthening enforcement of our existing YouTube Partner Program policies. Channels that repeatedly brush up against our hate speech policies will be suspended from the YouTube Partner program, meaning they can't run ads on their channel or use other monetization features like Super Chat.

In an article discussing this, Silicon Valley reporter Casey Newton of The Verge notes that this "is expected to result in the removal of thousands of channels across YouTube."

The crackdown goes into effect today and will "ramp up" over the next few days.

Aristarchus adds from Time:

The video streaming company says it has already made it more difficult to find and promote such videos, but it's now removing them outright. YouTube will also prohibit videos that deny certain proven events have taken place, such as the Holocaust.

The changes come as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other online services face mounting concern that the services allow, and in some cases foster , extremism.

YouTube's new policies will take effect immediately. Specifically, the service is banning videos "alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion." The ban applies to a range of characteristics, including race, sexual orientation and veteran status.

[...] The companies have said they are walking the balance between creating safe spaces while also protecting freedom of expression. With little government oversight on online material, internet companies have become the arbiters for what is and isn't allowed.


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  • (Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday June 11 2019, @06:09AM

    by Arik (4543) on Tuesday June 11 2019, @06:09AM (#854092) Journal
    Exactly.

    All too often, what happens is that both sides simply 'cite facts' meaning mentioning things they believe.

    You want real facts? You need to sift through evidence.

    Independent media is not uniformly of high quality, but legacy media is nearly uniformly low quality. They are constantly citing 'facts' without evidence, and often they're simply wrong. And demonstrably so.

    Do they respond by increasing their quality controls? No, they respond by smearing the portal where critical voices are most numerous.
    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
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