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Managing harmful conspiracy theories on YouTube

18-10-2020 < Attack the System 35 491 words
 

YouTube issued a statement about how they are upgrading their efforts to merely be a source of legitimation for ruling class ideologies.







Those of us involved in dissident politics need to prepare for the day when it becomes impossible to communicate in an open way online, and when the Internet in the West is just as censored as it is in China and the Middle East, not necessarily through direct state action as much as “private” action by Big Tech in collusion with or under pressure by the state. No alternative political books on Amazon, no controversial websites, no dissident social media of any meaningful kind. Even email communication may be difficult.





“Today we’re further expanding both our hate and harassment policies to prohibit content that targets an individual or group with conspiracy theories that have been used to justify real-world violence. One example would be content that threatens or harrasses someone by suggesting they are complicit in one of these harmful conspiracies, such as QAnon or Pizzagate. As always, context matters, so news coverage on these issues or content discussing them without targeting individuals or protected groups may stay up. We will begin enforcing this updated policy today, and will ramp up in the weeks to come. Due to the evolving nature and shifting tactics of groups promoting these conspiracy theories, we’ll continue to adapt our policies to stay current and remain committed to taking the steps needed to live up to this responsibility.”












Today, we are taking another step in our efforts to curb hate and harassment by removing more conspiracy theory content used to justify real-world violence.





By The YouTube Team






Managing misinformation and harmful conspiracy theories is challenging because the content is always shifting and evolving. To address this kind of content effectively, it’s critical that our teams continually review and update our policies and systems to reflect the frequent changes. Today, we are taking another step in our efforts to curb hate and harassment by removing more conspiracy theory content used to justify real-world violence. This builds on our work over the last several years to strengthen and evolve our policies and enforcement — work that has been organized around four pillars: removing violative content, reducing the spread of harmful misinformation, raising authoritative voices, and rewarding trusted creators.


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