Tag Archives: YouTube

Trump Campaign Buys YouTube Election Day Takeover

Bloomberg News reports: In the immediate run up to the U.S. presidential election and on Election Day, the homepage of YouTube is set to advertise just one candidate: Donald Trump. The president’s re-election campaign purchased the coveted advertising space atop the country’s most-visited video website for early November, said two people with knowledge of the transaction. The deal ensures Trump …

Read More »

YouTube Finally Bans Pro-Trump “Jew Coup” Channel

A reminder via the New York Times: To coordinate coverage of President Trump’s trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the White House provided press credentials to the usual mix of American news organizations, including Fox News, Reuters and The New York Times. One media outlet stood out: TruNews, a website aimed at conservative Christians whose founder, a …

Read More »

YouTube Bans Birtherism And Political Deepfake Videos

The Associated Press reports: YouTube is making clear there will be no “birtherism” on its platform during this year’s U.S. presidential election. Also banned: Election-related “deepfake” videos and anything that aims to mislead viewers about voting procedures and how to participate in the 2020 census. The Google-owned video service clarified its rules ahead of the Iowa caucuses Monday. The company …

Read More »

Morocco Jails Popular YouTuber For Insulting King

The BBC reports: A well known Moroccan YouTuber has been jailed for four years after being found guilty of insulting the country’s king. Mohamed Sekkaki [photo] was arrested earlier this month after criticising King Mohammed’s speeches and for calling Moroccans donkeys. He plans to appeal against the verdict. Rights groups are worried that personal freedoms are under increasing threat in …

Read More »

YouTube Stiffens Anti-Harassment Policies, Demeaning Language Rules After Right Winger’s Anti-Gay Attacks

The Verge reports: YouTube today announced an expansion of its anti-harassment policy that will ban video creators from insulting one another on the basis of their race, gender expression, or sexual orientation — even if the person they are insulting is a popular creator, celebrity, politician, or other public figure. The new policy comes several months after YouTube was criticized …

Read More »

Google/YouTube Has Booted Over 300 Trump Ads

CBS News reports: In response to concerns raised after the 2016 election cycle, Google and YouTube, like Facebook, keep a searchable archive of political ads that have run on the site. 60 Minutes reviewed the archive to learn more about President Trump’s problematic political ads. We found that over 300 video ads were taken down by Google and YouTube, mostly …

Read More »

YouTube Bans Sebastian Gorka For Copyright Violations

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 …

Read More »

YouTube Won’t Remove TOS Violations By Politicians

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 …

Read More »

YouTube Has Spiked 17K Hate Channels Since June

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 …

Read More »

YouTube Spikes 200+ Hong Kong Disinfo Channels

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 …

Read More »

Anti-Defamation League: Extremist Channels Continue To Operate On YouTube Despite Promised Crackdown

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 …

Read More »

YouTube Tests “Hiding” Comments On Its Mobile App

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 …

Read More »

YouTube CEO Apologizes To LGBTQ Community

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 …

Read More »

YouTube Demonetizes Anti-LGBT Channel (For Now)

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 …

Read More »

YouTube Bans White Supremacists, 9/11 And Sandy Hook Truthers, Holocaust Deniers, Other Extremists

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 …

Read More »

YouTube Under Fire For Allowing Anti-LGBT Hate Speech

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, …

Read More »

Alex Jones Claims NZ Terror Attack Was “False Flag” (And Uses YouTube Where He Is Supposedly Banned)

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 …

Read More »

Randy Rainbow: He’s In Love (And We’re All Gonna Die)

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 …

Read More »

YouTube To Disable Comments On All Clips Featuring Minors After Pedophiles Force Away Major Brands

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 …

Read More »

YouTube Demonetizes Anti-Vaccine Channels

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 …

Read More »