
YouTube restricts access to conservative radio host's videos - Thorondor
http://www.wsj.com/articles/warning-this-article-is-educational-1476918851
======
jfaucett
This shouldn't be surprising to anyone envolved with social media. This type
of thing has been going on for the last couple of years. The most recent high
profile event was when Twitter banned Milo Yiannopoulos for bigoted comments
which his followers posted. [1] But it is often the case that this type of
thing occurs because of a flagging algorithm.

However, I would still defend Youtube's right as a company to act as it
chooses. If people dislike Youtube's behaviour they can leave the platform,
and if enough so choose Youtube will feel the free market forces acting just
like any other company would.

This does highlight an overal issue I've noticed recently, namely, a growing
tendency for people to not be capable of rational discussion. And if someone
presents a differing viewpoint, many people and companies alike respond in an
outraged and overblown PC manner.

To see something along these lines that is actually going on in Canada right
now check out Jordan B Petersons videos on youtube. [2] I really could not
believe what's happening to this very intelligent man is real until I saw it
for myself.

Anyway, I wish people could just calm down with the emotional outbursts and
have rational debate to come to conclusions about specific issues or even
agreements to disagree.

1\. [https://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/twitter-just-
permanen...](https://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/twitter-just-permanently-
suspended-conservative-writer-milo?utm_term=.hsMagAK9v#.kyR2MmNLg)

2\.
[https://www.youtube.com/user/JordanPetersonVideos/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/JordanPetersonVideos/videos)

~~~
duskwuff
> ... Twitter banned Milo Yiannopoulos for bigoted comments which his
> followers posted.

This is an incredibly weird way of characterizing what happened.

Milo's account was permanently suspended after he made a series of racist,
sexist comments targeting Leslie Jones (a black actress who had recently
starred in _Ghostbusters_ ), and directed his followers to make similar
comments. This was not a first offense, either; Milo's account had been
suspended on multiple previous occasions for similar harassment campaigns.

~~~
legostormtroopr
> Milo's account was permanently suspended after he made a series of racist,
> sexist comments targeting Leslie Jones

Show me one.

~~~
back_beyond
Indeed, it was she who incited violence.

Edit: downvotes yet this is patently true. She ordered her followers to "get
him" in reference to Milo.

Edit 2: I was mistaken about the individual she directed her followers to
"get", it was a user by the handle of @whitebecky1776.

Edit3: I stand by my claim of her incitement to violence.

~~~
jfaucett
Upvote for correcting yourself. I always respect people who can do this. Too
few can and too many should.

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redthrowaway
I doubt anyone at Youtube is explicitly seeking out conservative views to
censor. But they have created a system whereby flagging videos you disagree
with is rewarded, and an effective way to ensure others don't see them. That
won't end well.

~~~
dragonwriter
YouTube is an advertising supported media outlet ope my seeking to become a
megaTV channel. Marginalizing controversial content so that users who haven't
affirmatively opted out of filtering don't encounter is not something that is
likely to work out badly for them.

~~~
WildUtah
A free democracy has a natural way to handle the development of a culture of
hate and censorship against a minority. The minority develops its own video
sharing sites and its own advertising networks and its own publishing houses.
Since we're talking about a free democracy, those new explicitly minority
outlets cannot be censored.

This isn't the first time this has happened. Abolitionists, anarchists,
communists, pornographers, homosexuals, and others have had to do what
conservatives now have to do in the face of a majority culture that chooses to
hate and censor them. They'll be fine, maybe even stronger for the experience.

And it has a cool Hacker News perspective. It's certainly good for the
startups that will be serving the new market.

------
Aloha
I believe freedom of speech is sacrosanct, but in the end, if you own the
means of delivery, it in the end can be construed as your speech.

So, The one who controls the press, also controls the speech - if you want
absolute freedom, you need to build your own press.

I just wish the social media companies didnt keep trying to present themselves
and neutral players in this - as if they were just a 'platform'.

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tdb7893
This is obviously just some people flagging it, I think a conversation about
the algorithm might be interesting but this obviously isn't some purposeful
censorship.

~~~
Steko
Appears to have started with 21 videos and then YT reexamined them and cleared
6 and kept 15 restricted so maybe more than just the algorithm.

~~~
tdb7893
That makes more sense. The article doesn't mention that at all and makes it
sound just algorithmic

------
_rpd
> But more than 15 videos are “restricted” on YouTube, a development PragerU
> announced this month. This means the clips don’t show up for those who have
> turned on filtering—say, a parent shielding their children from explicit
> videos.

They've just been classified as 'restricted'. Only parents of young children
use this. This is completely fine.

~~~
dogma1138
No it's not fine, I've watched a few of those videos and there is nothing
there that should be restricted for young children, there wasn't anything even
that controversial just a different political view.

Since restricted videos can be managed as part of the G-Suite (can be either
done via account or more commonly network level blocking) organizations such
as workplaces and schools can and often do block them this isn't some parental
control that is rarely used.

This type of restriction where YouTube is redirected to restrict.youtube.com
([https://support.google.com/a/answer/6214622](https://support.google.com/a/answer/6214622))
is actually fairly common in many places, and it can be done transparently so
you don't even notice it.

So yeah this is not fine, and this is a big problem.

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sattoshi
Big business and big politics will always have each others' backs. Otherwise
they wouldn't have been allowed to get this big in the first place.

Follow the money!

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nercht12
I'm not so much disturbed by the "censoring" of Youtube as I am the inability
for people to create suitable alternatives. (By "inability" I don't mean lack
of skill or frameworks, mind you.)

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andrewclunn
Algorithm justice is mob justice, plain and simple.

~~~
jjawssd
Is it really so simple? What is algorithm justice, really?

~~~
andrewclunn
A form of justice concerned only with the aggregate, and ignorant to its own
ignorance of anything beyond the scope of its immediate vision / data
scrappers.

