Another tough measure to tackle the spread of hateful and violent speech through its site is being taken by YouTube.
Those videos in which there are insults hurled at people on the basis of race, gender expression, sexual orientation or other “protected attributes” would be deleted from the social media site, said the video streaming company. It has also gone a step further into tackling hate speech on its platform and said that it would also not allow anyone to post videos that have any form of veiled threats of violence, said the Google-owned company. This is also seen as a new step by the company in the world of social media companies aimed at moderating what people can say on the videos that are also created by the same users and are uploaded on to the platform.
The policy of YouTube about the kind of videos and material that it allows to be freely published as well as bans from its site has been severely criticized by politicians, viewers and video creators. Such criticism has accused the company of being complacent and not being proactive enough to prevent its platform from being used for hate speech and extremism. There are also criticisms against the company that it it has helped to create spaces for harassment to linger online. This is in line with other such digital and social media platform where users are allowed to upload their own material including Facebook and Twitter.
Matt Halprin, the vice president of trust and safety of YouTube, said in an interview that since the last two years, its policies and guidelines have been reviewed by the company itself. Achieving delicate balance between allowing freedom of expression and minimizing hateful speech on its platform has been the endeavor of the company. he said.
Outright threats of violence had been banned by YouTube since long. Videos with white supremacist and Neo-Nazi viewpoints were banned by the company in June this year.
However also in that very same month, there was also severe criticism of the company after it allegedly allowed the posting and publication of a video on its site made by conservative commentator Steven Crowder in which homophobic slurs were used by Crowder targeted at Vox reporter Carlos Maza.
YouTube was publicly criticized by Maza for its decision. However the company had said then that none of its anti-harassment policies had been violated by the video.
But with the new policy set by the company, Crowder's videos about Maza will now fall under the category of violation of anti-harassment policies of the company and it would be removed, YouTube confirmed.
Channels that have been found to repeatedly harass people in videos will also be identified and strict action will be taken by the company, YouTube also said. It added that it would in many cases turning off any ad revenue such video channels would normally generate for their creators thereby resulting in demonetizing of the channel.
(Source:www.foxbusiness.com)
Those videos in which there are insults hurled at people on the basis of race, gender expression, sexual orientation or other “protected attributes” would be deleted from the social media site, said the video streaming company. It has also gone a step further into tackling hate speech on its platform and said that it would also not allow anyone to post videos that have any form of veiled threats of violence, said the Google-owned company. This is also seen as a new step by the company in the world of social media companies aimed at moderating what people can say on the videos that are also created by the same users and are uploaded on to the platform.
The policy of YouTube about the kind of videos and material that it allows to be freely published as well as bans from its site has been severely criticized by politicians, viewers and video creators. Such criticism has accused the company of being complacent and not being proactive enough to prevent its platform from being used for hate speech and extremism. There are also criticisms against the company that it it has helped to create spaces for harassment to linger online. This is in line with other such digital and social media platform where users are allowed to upload their own material including Facebook and Twitter.
Matt Halprin, the vice president of trust and safety of YouTube, said in an interview that since the last two years, its policies and guidelines have been reviewed by the company itself. Achieving delicate balance between allowing freedom of expression and minimizing hateful speech on its platform has been the endeavor of the company. he said.
Outright threats of violence had been banned by YouTube since long. Videos with white supremacist and Neo-Nazi viewpoints were banned by the company in June this year.
However also in that very same month, there was also severe criticism of the company after it allegedly allowed the posting and publication of a video on its site made by conservative commentator Steven Crowder in which homophobic slurs were used by Crowder targeted at Vox reporter Carlos Maza.
YouTube was publicly criticized by Maza for its decision. However the company had said then that none of its anti-harassment policies had been violated by the video.
But with the new policy set by the company, Crowder's videos about Maza will now fall under the category of violation of anti-harassment policies of the company and it would be removed, YouTube confirmed.
Channels that have been found to repeatedly harass people in videos will also be identified and strict action will be taken by the company, YouTube also said. It added that it would in many cases turning off any ad revenue such video channels would normally generate for their creators thereby resulting in demonetizing of the channel.
(Source:www.foxbusiness.com)
