Youtube and the conundrum of questionable content

Young man angry at what is on the screen

Despite recently announcing that community monitors and AI had removed millions of videos that break community standard guidelines, YouTube allows plenty of content that is at best controversial and at worst inflammatory and divisive.

For example, the battle over social issues has a home on the video sharing website. Whether it is MTGTOW, #MenToo, extreme feminism, anti-LGBTQ, pro-LGBTQ, etc. there is a significant amount of content for people to disagree about and debate. Also, videos about bad partners, gold digging men or women, pranks, and scintillating content that pushes the boundaries of acceptability are searchable and highly viewed.

What responsibility does YouTube have to police its platform? Should YouTube police its platform and block any of these groups or categories? Google, who owns YouTube, has a Terms of Service that clearly states that the YouTube team and Google reserve the right to determine what their community standards are and what constitutes a violation of the posted TOS. YouTube is the platform and the prevalence of certain types of content is not an endorsement by Google. Hate and violence, human trafficking, terrorism, and pornography as well violations of intellectual property will get the lion’s share of attention from monitors. False advertising and social issues will be allowed as long as they do not violate TOS, regardless if there are people who do not agree with the content creators. This position will not please anyone 100%. And based on how passionate people are about these issues, it is almost impossible to please both the proponents and detractors simultaneously.

The YouTube brand is not a charity or a non-profit. Google makes money off people viewing ads, buying subscriptions, and merchandise. This is directly related to user engagement and the duration of user sessions. The longer you watch, the better the chance that you will click an ad or at the very least trigger an increasing amount of impressions that factor into monetization. Controversy sells and controversy animates people.

Details: Written by Javier S.; Category: Work and Tech; Last Updated: 17 February 2019

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