The Daily Beast reports: YouTube banned Sebastian Gorka from its platform on Monday, apparently because the former Trump White House adviser refused to stop playing songs from pop rock band Imagine Dragons on episodes of his radio show that were later uploaded to the site. Gorka, a notoriously combative Trump ally, has regularly played Imagine Dragons songs on his radio …
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Politico reports: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said today that content by politicians would stay up on the video-sharing website even if it violates the company’s standards, echoing a position staked out by Facebook this week. “When you have a political officer that is making information this is really important for their constituents to see, or for other global leaders to …
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The Verge reports: YouTube’s teams have removed more than 100,000 videos and 17,000 channels since the company implemented changes to its hateful content policies in June. Those numbers are approximately five times as many than the company’s last quarter, according to a new blog post from YouTube about the company’s attempts to tackle a growing number of hateful and dangerous …
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The Verge reports: Google just published a blog post revealing that it has disabled 210 YouTube channels that the company says “behaved in a coordinated manner while uploading videos related to the ongoing protests in Hong Kong.” Google cites the behavior as being “consistent with recent observations and actions related to China announced by Facebook and Twitter.” The accounts were …
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The Anti-Defamation League reports: An analysis by ADL’s Center on Extremism found that a significant number of channels on YouTube’s platform continue to disseminate anti-Semitic and white supremacist content despite the company’s June 2019 crackdown on hate speech. For years, YouTube has officially prohibited content which promoted or condoned violence or incited hatred against individuals or groups based on core …
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The Daily Beast reports: In a software tweak first spotted by a developer forum, YouTube is toying with eliminating the comments section that accompanies videos on its mobile app. As it stands now, comments appear when a user scrolls below a video’s sharing buttons and “Up Next” recommended videos. The change would significantly downgrade the prominence of comments on the …
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Axios reports: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki apologized Monday to members of the LGBTQ community who were offended by the company’s response to antigay comments by Steven Crowder aimed at Vox journalist Carlos Maza. At the same time, she defended the company’s handling of the issue. YouTube has been under fire for a variety of issues, including the spread of hate …
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The Daily Beast reports: YouTube unleashed massive confusion and satisfied apparently no one with its handling of Steven Crowder’s homophobic campaign against a gay journalist on Wednesday. The company will “demonetize” Crowder, a far-right performer, for harassing Vox reporter Carlos Maza. The announcement was a partial reversal from Tuesday, when YouTube said it would not take action against Crowder. After …
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Vox reports: YouTube is finally banning content that promotes white supremacist views on its video platform. But it will still permit videos it classifies as “borderline,” which isn’t clearly defined, as well as a host of other problematic content. The Google-owned platform said on Wednesday that it’s updating its hate speech policy to prohibit “videos alleging that a group is …
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The Washington Post reports: Carlos Maza, a video producer for the news site Vox, said the harassment began about two years ago. Steven Crowder [screenshot above], a right-wing commentator and comedian, had begun to call out Maza’s sexuality and his race — Maza is gay and Latino — in some of his videos on YouTube. And last week, Maza said, …
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Media Matters reports: Although YouTube has banned several channels associated with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars site, the outlet still maintains a secondary channel and is using it to claim that the the mass shootings at two New Zealand mosques were “false flag” attacks. While YouTube banned Jones’ primary account in August 2018 and banned some related Infowars channels in …
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YouTube star Randy Rainbow is back today with another song parody, this time set to the tune of “I’m In Love With A Wonderful Guy” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1949 classic musical, South Pacific. Some of you may recall Mitzi Gaynor’s take on the song in the 1958 movie version. As always, I won’t give away the clever lines, just …
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The BBC reports: YouTube says it will switch off comments on almost all videos featuring under-18s, in an attempt to “better protect children and families.” Several brands stopped advertising on YouTube after discovering that pedophiles were leaving predatory comments on videos of children. YouTube had originally disabled comments on videos that were attracting predatory and obscene comments. But it will …
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Buzzfeed News reports: YouTube on Friday said it would prevent channels that promote anti-vax content from running advertising, saying explicitly that such videos fall under its policy prohibiting the monetization of videos with “dangerous and harmful” content. The move comes after advertisers on YouTube pulled their ads from these videos, following inquiries from BuzzFeed News. “We have strict policies that …
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The New York Times reports: Nestlé, Epic Games and other major brands said on Wednesday that they had stopped buying advertisements on YouTube after their ads appeared on children’s videos where pedophiles had infiltrated the comment sections. The companies acted after a YouTube user posted a video this week to point out this behavior. For the most part, the videos …
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Forbes reports: In an official blog post published January 25th about YouTube’s changes to its recommendation algorithm, the Google-owned company announced they would be cracking down on conspiracy-laden videos and other “borderline content”… by ceasing to list them in the “Up Next” sidebar. Examples listed of content no longer being recommended included 9/11 truther documentaries, flat earth conspiracy videos and …
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Mashable reports: YouTube has toughened its stance on dangerous pranks and challenges. While silly antics are a prevalent part of the video platform’s culture, a spate of troubling incidents from the Bird Box challenge, the fire challenge, and the Tide Pod challenge has spurred YouTube into action. YouTube has unveiled updated community guidelines for creators, with a new section on …
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Variety reports: YouTube has released its annual Rewind video highlighting 2018’s biggest viral events, trends, and more. Epic Games’ battle royale phenomenon “Fortnite” features prominently in the montage. The video begins with Will Smith wishing for a mashup of “Fortnite” and technology-focused YouTuber Marques Brownlee. Cut to a Battle Bus full of YouTube personalities (Ninja is driving, naturally). They parachute …
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Viral YouTube star Randy Rainbow is back today with his own take on a “get out the vote” message, this time riffing on What Is This Feeling? from Wicked. Special appearances by Hair Furor and Sarah Huckleberry Sanders. As always, no spoilers, just watch and enjoy.
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Viral YouTube star Randy Rainbow was busy this weekend with his latest number, If You Ever Got Impeached, which is set to the tune Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg’s classic If I Only Had A Brain from The Wizard Of Oz. As always, I won’t give away any of the jokes but you’ll definitely enjoy Randy’s inventive rhymes.
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