YouTube SECRETLY Labeled My Video "Harmful or Dangerous"
YouTube secretly labeled a video of mine “harmful or dangerous” without notifying me. This is after YouTube sent me an email telling me the exact opposite—that the video was safe and “suitable for all advertisers”.
The video, "‘Rigged’ Election Claims | Trump 2020 vs. Clinton 2016,” was previously deleted (along with tens of thousands of similar videos) in accordance with YouTube's “Elections Misinformation” policy of censoring content questioning election results—even though my content itself didn’t question election results. It’s just a documentary compilation of historic events—election denial from both Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.
When YouTube ended its “Elections Misinformation” policy earlier this year in June, I re-uploaded the video to YouTube to see if the policy had indeed changed as announced. I reported on June 7 that I’d received an email from YouTube telling me, “After manually reviewing your video, we’ve determined that it is suitable for all advertisers.”
But two months later, just by chance, looking through my YouTube library, I noticed YouTube’s original manual review was secretly overturned by an unnamed “human reviewer”. The video is now demonetized (“limited ads”) for violating YouTube’s “Harmful or Dangerous acts” policy.
I was never notified of this secret new ruling. And so, due to the fact that YouTube had notified me of the previous ruling, YouTube left me with the false impression that my video was not being suppressed and demonetized, when, in fact, it was.
Needless to say, it’s extremely concerning to have one’s content and income suppressed for documenting history. But to be accused of causing “harmful or dangerous acts” for sharing history really does take it to another level of creepiness.
When YouTube announced it had ended its “Election Misinformation” policy, I was hopeful that YouTube was reverting back to a more free and democratic site. I was wrong. It’s gotten worse. Overt censorship of so-called “election misinformation” seems to have been replaced with a more nefarious system with essentially the same effect but even less transparency than before.
To be fair Matt, your videos are generally both "harmful" and "dangerous" ... but in the best way possible...
This sort of behaviour is so common now people aren’t even surprised by it, or worse, they say well yes of course, people can’t be posting misinformation, or they say something similar related to whatever the censorship is directed towards. People have arrived at a place that they either accept censorship, want it, or demand it. We’ve come a long way in 4 years, would not have believed culture could be re-engineered to such a degree in such a short period of time. Maybe it will swing back just as fast or hopefully faster.