Speech and Technology Companies

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Isgrimnur
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Speech and Technology Companies

Post by Isgrimnur »

BBC
At the centre of the dispute is journalist Carlos Maza, who presents a popular series called Strikethrough for the news site Vox. He says he has faced persistent abuse from rival video-maker Steven Crowder, who has more than 3.8 million subscribers on YouTube. Whenever Maza publishes a video for Vox, Crowder will post his own "debunking" video, peppered with insulting language attacking Maza's sexual orientation and ethnicity.

So, last week, Maza posted a video compilation of the abuse. In the clips, Crowder imitates Maza's accent and calls him, among other things, a "lispy queer", a "gay Vox sprite" and a "gay Mexican".

Maza asked YouTube to step in.
...
YouTube said it would investigate. It conducted an "in-depth review" and on Tuesday it came back with an answer.

"While we found language that was clearly hurtful, the videos as posted don't violate our policies," it said in a statement.
...
Crowder himself claimed the row was not about abuse but "an example of a giant corporate media entity [Vox] trying to silence voices they do not like". He said the language he used to mock Maza was "friendly ribbing".
...
But YouTube said Crowder's comments did not violate the policies because they were sandwiched between "debate".

In notes provided by Google and published by news site Gizmodo, the company said: "We take into consideration whether criticism is focused primarily on debating the opinions expressed or is solely malicious."
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Isgrimnur
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Re: Speech and Technology Companies

Post by Isgrimnur »

The Verge
YouTube is changing its community guidelines to ban videos promoting the superiority of any group as a justification for discrimination against others based on their age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran status, the company said today. The move, which will result in the removal of all videos promoting Nazism and other discriminatory ideologies, is expected to result in the removal of thousands of channels across YouTube.

“The openness of YouTube’s platform has helped creativity and access to information thrive,” the company said in a blog post. “It’s our responsibility to protect that, and prevent our platform from being used to incite hatred, harassment, discrimination and violence.”

The changes announced on Wednesday attempt to improve its content moderation in three ways. First, the ban on supremacists will remove Nazis and other extremists who advocate segregation or exclusion based on age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran status. In addition to those categories, YouTube is adding caste, which has significant implications in India, and “well-documented violent events,” such as the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting and 9/11. Users are no longer allowed to post videos saying those events did not happen, YouTube said.

Second, YouTube said it would expand efforts announced in January to reduce the spread of what it calls “borderline content and harmful misinformation.” The policy, which applies to videos that flirt with violating the community guidelines but ultimately fall short, aims to limit the promotion of those videos through recommendations. YouTube said the policy, which affects videos including flat-earthers and peddlers of phony miracle cures, had already decreased the number of views that borderline videos receive by 50 percent. In the future, the company said, it will recommend videos from more authoritative sources, like top news channels, in its “next watch” panel.

Finally, YouTube said it would restrict channels from monetizing their videos if they are found to “repeatedly brush up against our hate speech policies.” Those channels will not be able to run ads or use Super Chat, which lets channel subscribers pay creators directly for extra chat features. The last change comes after BuzzFeed reported that the paid commenting system had been used to fund creators of videos featuring racism and hate speech.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Sepiche
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Re: Speech and Technology Companies

Post by Sepiche »

A step in the right direction at least... lets just hope they actually apply the guidelines they created.

I've met and talked with a number of Youtube's programmers and engineers over the years, and they get the problem and have lots of ideas and potential solutions, it's just a matter of getting the higher ups to understand that no matter how many views hate speech brings in, it ultimately hurts the company much more to leave it on there.
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stessier
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Re: Speech and Technology Companies

Post by stessier »

It's not an easy problem. Trying to come up with rules that allow the take down of some speech but not other speech is doomed to failure. They can certainly do better, but it's not like they haven't been trying up until now.
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Isgrimnur
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Re: Speech and Technology Companies

Post by Isgrimnur »

BI
YouTube has said that it's "suspended" monetization for popular star Steven Crowder, chalking up the decision to a "pattern of of egregious actions" that "has harmed the broader community."

The decision comes just a day after YouTube faced a major backlash after it publicly declined to take action against Crowder after it came to light that the star had made consistent homophobic and racist comments about Vox journalist Carlos Maza.
...
On Wednesday, however, YouTube seemed to indicate that while Crowder's videos may not have violated the site's terms of service, it was found to be against its partner program policies — the rules that govern the ability of top YouTubers like Crowder to take a slice of the advertising revenues generated by their videos.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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gilraen
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Re: Speech and Technology Companies

Post by gilraen »

Sepiche wrote: Wed Jun 05, 2019 2:19 pm A step in the right direction at least... lets just hope they actually apply the guidelines they created.
Well...they are. They have apparently demonetized a ton of channels and deleted thousands of videos. #VoxAdpocalypse is trending #1 on Twitter.
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