YouTube’s anti-extremism crackdown targets journalist who documents extremism
YouTube on Wednesday announced an expanded crackdown on hate speech, but the company said it would make sure not to ban or demonetize videos that “aim to condemn or expose hate, or provide analysis of current events.”
However, YouTube’s crackdown has already targeted a journalist who documents extremism, presumably by mistake.
“Within minutes of @YouTube’s announcement of a new purge it appears they caught my outlet, which documents activism and extremism, in the crossfire,” journalist Ford Fischer wrote on Twitter yesterday. “I was just notified my entire channel has been demonetized. I am a journalist whose work there is used in dozens of documentaries.”
Fischer is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of News2Share. PBS’s “Documenting Hate” series is one of the documentaries that relied on his footage. His IMDB page lists numerous documentaries that he contributed to.
The News2Share YouTube channel’s recent videos include footage of MAGA activists countering participants in the anti-Trump “National March to Impeach,” footage of an argument near the White House between a Trump supporter and a Native American, an interview with the New Black Panther Party, and coverage of Chelsea Manning being jailed because of her refusal to testify in a case involving WikiLeaks.
Two videos removed
YouTube’s decision “pulled the rug out from my income, my entire livelihood,” Fischer wrote. In addition to removing ads from his channel, YouTube also took down two videos, according to Fischer. One was “a video of @JasonRCharter and other antifa activists confronting a Holocaust denier,” he wrote. “While it’s true that the Holocaust denier says Holocaust-denier-stuff, this is raw vid documenting him being shut down.”
A video was taken down of me and others confronting a Holocaust denier at AIPAC. The video was considered promoting hate speech. @FordFischer now faces a major loss of income(because he cannot profit from ads)for his essential work in documenting major events around the country. https://t.co/5VIKWl6I5o
— Jason Charter (@JasonRCharter) June 5, 2019
The other clip removed from News2Share “was raw video of a speech given by Mike Peinovich ‘Enoch,'” Fischer wrote, referring to a white supremacist. “While unpleasant, this documentation is essential research for history.” The same footage was used in a PBS documentary that Fischer helped produce, he added.
YouTube’s emails to Ford informing him of the video removals said that “Content glorifying or inciting violence against another person or group of people is not allowed on YouTube.” YouTube told him that it “review[s] educational, documentary, artistic, and scientific content on a case-by-case basis” and makes “limited exceptions” for videos “with sufficient and appropriate context and where the purpose of posting is clear.”
While allowing his channel to remain online, YouTube told Ford that it is demonetizing all of his remaining videos because “a significant portion of your channel is not in line with our YouTube Partner Program policies.” YouTube told Ford that it made this decision after a review in which the site’s “policy specialists carefully looked over the videos you’ve uploaded to your channel.”
The YouTube Partner Program lets people earn money on YouTube via ads. YouTube told Fischer that he can re-apply for the program in 30 days.
“We understand that you may have unintentionally made mistakes,” YouTube told him. “This 30-day time period allows you to make changes to your channel to make sure it’s in line with our policies.”
“I don’t understand how YouTube is so bad at this”
Carlos Maza, a Vox writer who previously criticized YouTube for failing to ban a YouTuber who repeatedly made homophobic jokes about him, wrote, “What’s happening to Ford is fucking awful. He’s a good journalist doing important work. I don’t understand how YouTube is still so bad at this. How can they not differentiate between white supremacist content and good faith reporting on white supremacy?”
(Crowder, the YouTube personality who repeatedly made homophobic jokes about Maza, had his channel de-monetized by YouTube yesterday. YouTube had previously said Crowder hadn’t violated its rules.)
YouTube’s latest crackdown apparently also removed a video debunking Holocaust denialism, which was made by science writer Brian Dunning.
“Hey @TeamYouTube, when a science writer posts a video explaining the evidence that the Holocaust was real, and anti-Semites campaign to dishonestly flag it as hate speech, you should actually watch it rather than deleting it and telling ME not to ‘glorify or incite violence,'” Dunning wrote on Twitter.
YouTube apparently also removed a four-year-old video that mocked conspiracy theorists who claimed the Sandy Hook shooting was a false flag.
YouTube’s announcement of its anti-hate speech crackdown yesterday stated the move is “specifically prohibiting videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation, or exclusion based on qualities like age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran status.”
Newly prohibited videos include ones “that promote or glorify Nazi ideology, which is inherently discriminatory,” YouTube said. YouTube also said it will “remove content denying that well-documented violent events, like the Holocaust or the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary.”
It’s not clear whether or when YouTube will restore Fischer’s removed videos or his monetization ability. A YouTube-run Twitter account told Fischer, “We’re passing this along for you.”
We contacted YouTube owner Google today, and the company told us that Fischer’s situation is “actively under review.” We contacted Fischer and he told us that “YouTube hasn’t reached out [to me] since the initial takedown.”
