,
YouTube Censorship Gives All Users the Power to Censor A little over a week ago, I went into our YouTube station with plans to upload a brand new clip. But before I could do this, I was slapped with a warning. Our brief naturist promo movie was reported by a user, reviewed by a YouTube admin (I figure) and taken down for breaking the Terms of Use. It had been up for 3 years and had over 200,000 views. The transgressing clip: YouTube has become so huge, they've basically lost control over their content. With thousands of videos uploaded daily, it becomes impossible to locate, review and remove every single delinquent movie. So what is their alternative? YouTube now relies on users to report videos that violate their terms of use. Put simply, users now have the power to determine what is and is not too obscene for YouTube. It doesn't matter if the mp4 has been on the site for years and accumulated hundreds of thousands or even millions of views. It doesn't even matter if the report is reviewed by a YouTube admin, who presumably makes the final decision on leaving it up or removing it. Because, were it not for that one user who reported the clip, it would still be sitting on YouTube getting more perspectives. All it takes is one offended viewer and a few clicks, and the mp4 is gone. In a movie on how you can censor flag content, YouTube really explains how the users are actually responsible for helping to track content. Though they refer people to their (vague and nearly worthless) community guidelines, in this movie they state, "That's why we rely on our community of over 280 million people to help flag content they believe is improper. The YouTube flag is the most important tool for telling us about content you believe shouldn't appear on YouTube." (They've a new, shorter version of this how to clip, but I find the old one is unintentionally more honest.) So YouTube is basically like, "well our site is so vast, we are just going to give off this monitoring responsibility thing to our 280 million users!" Quite sneaky, YouTube! In the mind of the user, YouTube would now appear much less accountable for what appears on the site. It also empowers users to act on unsuitable content, gives them a sense of duty to help track content and gives individuals a simple button to click when they see something which offends them (whether it breaks the terms of use or not). So we are supposed to consider that http://59.125.224.93/MediaWiki/index.php?title=Nudist-vs-Naturist-By-Melissa-Dejanude-g , and YouTube reviewers, are capable of evenly applying some vague community guidelines to report improper content. Or if not the guidelines, they could merely report content depending on what they believe. Solid strategy, right? What could possibly FAIL? What exactly happens if a clip was truly unjustly removed? In the instance of our video, I could not locate any method to appeal it. It's like they just took that choice away, and it was a done deal. So we're stuck with a 6-month strike, whether it was justified or not. Several months past, I Had created a parody "Facebook Look Back" movie to make a point about Facebook censorship. Ironically, it got reported and censored on YouTube. I managed to appeal it once, but my appeal was rejected. This is why it is so funny that they say "we support free speech" in the flagging video above. This censorship is certainly ridiculous. I presumed Facebook was the evil empire of Internet censorship, but Google (Google owns YouTube) is worse. Why was our video removed? It violated their policy on nudity and sex. I can just assume the offending part was the two uncovered female breasts. Here's what they say in their Community Guidelines on Sex and Nudity: "Most nudity isn't permitted, particularly if it's in a sexual context. Ordinarily if your clip is meant to be sexually provocative, it's less likely to be acceptable for YouTube. You will find exceptions for some educational, documentary, scientific, and artistic content, but only if that is the single purpose of the clip and it's also not gratuitously graphic. As an example, a documentary on breast cancer would be proper, but posting clips out of context from the documentary mightn't be." This policy is vague and inherently subjective. There aren't any concrete guidelines. Art is always subjective. What's nudity precisely? What exactly is art? What qualifies something as educational? YouTube did not consistently have the policies it has now. At one time, nudity wasn't even allowed on the website. Period. But I am certain they comprehended no nudity meant censoring an incredible number of works of art. So in 2010 they altered their policy to permitting nudity in the context of artwork. There is just one issue. Who decides what's art and what's not? Having no particular guidelines means every user is at the mercy of every other user and YouTube admin. The censorship becomes totally haphazard and inconsistent. Uploading a avi with any kind of taboo content is like a gamble. Perhaps it'll stay up, maybe not. Possibly two years or five years will go by before it is taken down. Who knows. Judging by the amount of pornography on YouTube right now, the system definitely is not working. There are plenty of porn videos. TONS. Exactly the same evolution has occurred with Facebook, which now asserts that content only comes with their attention when it is reported by a user. So http://taiwanair.info/index.php?title=A-Guest-Teenage-Naturist-Personal-Narrative-w creates a system where the censorship is absolutely random. Occasionally content is left alone, and occasionally it is taken down. It does not matter whether a post or pic or movie really breaks the community standards or not. Facebook has repeatedly stated that breastfeeding photos are allowed, and yet these sorts of pictures continuously get removed. When they get called out for it in the media, their response is like, We're sorry. This almost NEVER happens. There is just SO much content on our site, and it's so darn hard to manage! If we repaired it, how would we find the time to develop our elaborate promotion schemes and violate users' privacy without them knowing about it? I comprehend, Facebook. Technology is difficult. It is tough for Google, also. Lucky for you guys, nobody has successfully taken a stand in a big way and compelled you to rewrite all the rules. But eventually, the time will come when people with more sway than us will do something about this. The present system is shit, as well as Google knows that. My option for them is to give up striving censor the most inane content. It is a losing battle. The best move to make is work on taking down illegal material and let everything else be. So for now, #boycottyoutube. We're still going to place videos on YouTube, but they'll maintain a style similar to my censored Facebook Look Back clip. We are going to use their own website to make a point and drive users to Vimeo. One last note 'cause I know what some of you're thinking - But YouTube is a free service. There are alternatives, and you do not have to use it. 1. Google is a massive empire. Where do you take your hunts? Do you Bing that shit? No, you Google it. Where does one go first to find a video clip? Google might suck, but it rules the Internet. Telling someone to merely leave is like telling them to go do their searches on Yahoo! from now on. You're not going to get the same consequences. 2. It's not really free. You pay with your eyeballs on the advertisements. And no doubt, so long as you are signed in, Google is tracking your every move and figuring out how to monetize that advice. Google is not your friend. YouTube Censorship Is Out of Control was published by - Young Naturists and Young Naturists America FKK Tags: breasts, censorship, sexuality Group: Felicity's Naturist Website, Nude Censorship and Censoring Of On-Line Nudity, Social Activism About the Writer (Author Profile) Writer of Naturist Site. Co founder of Naturist Portal. 3rd-generation nudie. Avid reader. Feminist. 70% vegan, 30% vegetarian. When I'm not busy eating, I am writing about naturism, censorship, topfree equality, body image and other fun topics. I like comments, so plz leave a comment when you've got something to say! Subscribe If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.