YouTube to remove QAnon & other harmful conspiracy-content

[Carn]

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.

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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Managing harmful conspiracy theories on YouTube

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.

blog.youtube

In before "too little, too late", but I guess its progress.

 

[piratepwnsninja]

Good.

 

[KtotheRoc]

They think Democrats will win the Election.

 

[DrROBschiz]

These mother fuckers

Only acting NOW after the damage is done?

The sheer amount of "deprogramming" work that needs to be done at this point is astronomical

 

[Deleted member 4353]

Facebook is doing this too.. What happens if Trump wins again? Qanon and the others come back?

 

[Raccoon]

YouTube is incredibly mismanaged as a platform

this is good tho

 

[TeenageFBI]

Please don't regulate me!

Good news regardless.

 

[MrPoppins]

They think Democrats will win the Election.

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Yep this exactly.

 

[Nida]

It's all trickling through, but ever so slowly.

 

[Video Games Are Dumb]

They think Democrats will win the Election.

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Time to break up Google!

 

[RockmanBN]

Good

 

[Deleted member 16657]

P-please mr Biden sir d-don't regulate us! We fixed the problem just in time

 

[Pirateluigi]

Good thing those videos havent already indoctrinated a ton of people....

 

[Volimar]

They're all scared shitless that Warren is going to come regulate the hell out of their platforms.

 

[Marvie]

Years too late

 

[MinerArcaniner]

Please don't regulate me!

Good news regardless.

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Pretty much.

They should still get broken the fuck up regardless. Doing this right before the election proves they were only keeping that stuff on their sites to keep Trump and the Republicans happy. It's all just cynical posturing. -_-

 

[Trouble]

They think Democrats will win the Election.

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"Look! We don't need to be regulated, we were proactive!"

 

[Kensation]

Good. Hopefully these complicit companies get the hammer brought down on them anyway.

 

[Arkanim94]

good.

oh shit, they are gonna remove things like the Dan Olson documentary won't they?

DAMMIT.

 

[FormatCompatible]

Good news but it took way, way too goddamn long for them to remove this shit.

 

[HStallion]

I'll just say this is a long time coming and I'm glad its finally happened. Hopefully they start cracking down on the other seriously problematic parts of youtube's content and userbase in the near future as well. I doubt that last part but one can hope.

 

[FormatCompatible]

oh shit, they are gonna remove things like the Dan Olson documentary won't they?

DAMMIT.

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Oh fuck they are totally going to do that aren't they.

 

[Cyborg009]

Please break up these companies.

 

[TOM 2]

This shit should've been shut down in 2017.

 

[digitalrelic]

These mother fuckers

Only acting NOW after the damage is done?

The sheer amount of "deprogramming" work that needs to be done at this point is astronomical

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The damage hasn't even started. If FB and YouTube were to continue on their current trajectories, we'd be in a living hell in 5-10 years.

Is it way too late? Yes.

Are these absolutely crucial changes that can still make a massive positive impact to our world? Yes.

 

[Greigor the FellHand]

youtubes gonna have to take down 50% of rogans shows.
also gonna have to take down like 95% of coast to coast am// conspriacy shows

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

I love how big tech waited until *2 weeks* before a probable landslide and inevitable oversight to say "hey, maybe we could do more to slow down Nazis and terrorists".

 

[captmcblack]

Now for hosting, ISPs and DNS providers to start getting skittish fucking with this type of content too.

Also WhatsApp and similar things.

 

[CDX]

Good. Better late than never.

 

[Tfritz]

tfw you look at the polls and realize the dems are probably gonna win and now you have to scramble to try and ~regulate yourself~ before they do it for you even though you've let this shit fester for years, poisoning the minds of god knows how many people, all while demonstrating that you could have done this at any time and instead chose not to

 

[Mr Coopz]

YouTube alt right and conspiratorial content is a fucking disease. These cunts like YouTube and Facebook need fucking sorting out. They've caused so much untold damage it's frightening.

 

[Muppet of a Man]

They think Democrats will win the Election.

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This. These fucking pieces of shit have made their money. They don't give a shit.

 

[Scheris]

Wonder how well they'll actually do it, considering some of the "safe for kids" stuff I've seen marked that really isn't on the service.

 

[BronzeWolf]

This late means they knew wtf was happening, could do something about it, but didn't cause they suck.

 

[Zombine]

Put PragerU right in the bin.

 

[Tawpgun]

Not enough.

After watching that Social Dilemma doc the core of the issue is simple.

The algorithms need to change. There is just too much financial incentive to push people into these bubbles.

 

[collige]

They've let this shit grow and fester for so long I have little faith that they're willing to fully follow through on this. We'll see I guess.

youtubes gonna have to take down 50% of rogans shows.
also gonna have to take down like 95% of coast to coast am// conspriacy shows

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Exactly, this shit is already entrenched in the mainstream now.

Just like Facebook though, I have no idea why so many people think this is directly related to the threat of regulation. There's no scenario where the government can force Youtube to take down these videos.

 

[PeakPointMatrix]

Every social media platform before Dem regulation:

 

[Post Reply]

This builds on our work over the last several years

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Need to see the receipts on that one

 

[Protein]

Dems should still regulate those traitorous fuckers into the ground.

 

[makonero]

"Look! We don't need to be regulated, we were proactive!"

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lol yep

so fucking transparent. like a kid finishing his book report the day before it's due.

 

[Marion Cobretti]

tfw you look at the polls and realize the dems are probably gonna win and now you have to scramble to try and ~regulate yourself~ before they do it for you even though you've let this shit fester for years, poisoning the minds of god knows how many people, all while demonstrating that you could have done this at any time and instead chose not to

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This is what it comes down to. It's so obvious.

I hope they come for Joe Rogan. That dude is doing sooo much harm.

 

[Deleted member 12224]

The tech companies staved off regulation for four years but came far closer than they would have expected at the start when they took their hands off the wheel to avoid angering a potential 2017-2021 Trump administration.

Now, its weeks before the 2020 election, and the tech companies emerge from the first term of the Trump administration staring down either 1) a second Trump term with the GOP furious and looking to regulate them for (spurious, constitutionally dubious claims of) censorship or 2) a first Biden term with the Democratic Party looking to regulate them.

Basically, Facebook, Twitter, Google (via YouTube), are just Mac.

It did not end well for Mac.

 

[Schlorgan]

They think Democrats will win the Election.

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This.

They're cleaning house now on their own terms so they aren't forced to clean house later by a Dem administration.

 

[Deleted member 5876]

Too little too late.

 

[Brawndo Addict]

The damage hasn't even started. If FB and YouTube were to continue on their current trajectories, we'd be in a living hell in 5-10 years.

Is it way too late? Yes.

Are these absolutely crucial changes that can still make a massive positive impact to our world? Yes.

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I think this is a very important counterweight people need to remember. What often prompts people to action on something they're tentative or unaware about is the first time there's real harm/damage. Was there an ungodly amount of suffering and damage that was caused to the world at large due to this stuff running rampant (from brexit to trump to climate denial, etc)? Absolutely, no question. But it might just be the only catalyst that could have ever motivated the world, governments, and tech companies to do the work necessary to prevent it from happening again.

 

[Greigor the FellHand]

They've let this shit grow and fester for so long I have little faith that they're willing to fully follow through on this. We'll see I guess.


Exactly, this shit is already entrenched in the mainstream now.

Just like Facebook though, I have no idea why so many people think this is directly related to the threat of regulation. There's no scenario where the government can force Youtube to take down these videos.

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its not just regulation from government. this is also in response to the findings of the anti trust/monopoly hearing recently.
regulation is coming to social media, this is them trying to say, look see were regulating!!

but the threat of them getting torn apart into several smaller companies is also growing.

this is big tech shitting their pants trying to do something to give the appearance that they were running a business responsibly

 

[collige]

its not just regulation from government. this is also in response to the findings of the anti trust/monopoly hearing recently.
regulation is coming to social media, this is them trying to say, look see were regulating!!

but the threat of them getting torn apart into several smaller companies is also growing.

this is big tech shitting their pants trying to do something to give the appearance that they were running a business responsibly

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Agree 100%, that's why I said "directly". I just think we should be clear on the difference because a lot of posts don't seem to making that clear.

 

[HStallion]

They've let this shit grow and fester for so long I have little faith that they're willing to fully follow through on this. We'll see I guess.


Exactly, this shit is already entrenched in the mainstream now.

Just like Facebook though, I have no idea why so many people think this is directly related to the threat of regulation. There's no scenario where the government can force Youtube to take down these videos.

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Considering how many different platforms are all jumping on this bandwagon in an incredible short amount of time right before the election I think it becomes pretty obvious. Not too mention if laws and such are passed with that goal in mind, they can certainly force the hand of these companies, just need people with backbones in charge with this goal in mind.

 

[KNZFive]

They think Democrats will win the Election.

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Exactly. All of these tech companies must be hearing through the grapevine that a Biden administration and a Democratic senate would be coming down hard on them with regulation, so they're making moves to avoid government action.

Of course, this is too little, too late. Forget closing the stable doors after the horses have run off; the horses have run 1000s of miles away at this point and now they're holding protests and getting elected to Congress.