YouTube cannot protect decency by enforcing silence.
This evening I decided to produce and release a YouTube video concerning a video that AJ+ had removed concerning the #holocaust. This video was then assessed to be "inappropriate or offensive to some audiences" and I was sent a notification as such by YouTube even prior to the premier of the video. This means that YouTube was judging the appropriateness of an amateur produced video to be offensive even prior to anyone actually seeing it besides the producer (me).
Since becoming active in blogging and consequentially social media since 2015, I've had to deal with many of the same trends in social media censorship as many fellow "netizens" (as they used to call us). Granted for a YouTube channel mine is not much to look at, and as such I've never monetized it and continue to work my day job. The reason that I produce content and occasionally have guests is because I do believe that video and blogging is a great way to discuss controversial topics and relieve social pressures rather than have issues fester below the surface. Frequently I do get remarks aimed at making fun of my respiratory issue, speech patterns, clothes, appearance, political beliefs and my Jewish religion. That's fine; it is the price to be paid to be heard, and you can't please everyone.
While originally my beliefs were more focused on economic libertarianism, events have shown that financial freedom - while still important - means very little without civil liberties. The video in question (above) was a civil critique of a recently removed video by Al Jazeera's web-based media arm AJ+ as well as one of its associates Matt Lieb. AJ+ had already removed the video and apparently has now fired the two journalists for alleging that the Holocaust was an event embellished by Zionists in order to justify crimes against Palestinians, and indeed claiming at one point that Zionism drew positive inspiration from the Nazis and the Holocaust. The sources for my video were a YouTube video by Lieb from January 2018 as well as the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) translation of the AJ+ video. And unlike many of my other videos I didn't use any profanity.
I've never asked another user or creator to take down one of their videos because it offends my sensibilities, and as far as I'm concerned AJ+ might as well have remained up rather than being scrubbed so that the network can pretend it has "journalistic standards". The truth is that I've spoken with people over the past couple years that have abhorrent opinions or such poor taste that they are obviously meaning to provoke. The best example was a man from Seattle who would walk around with a Nazi armband and try to drive bystanders to react to him. After speaking to him I found out he had substance abuse and mental health issues, even living on the street for a time. In 2017 this man was assaulted and knocked unconscious by a bystander while pulling one of his stunts. I use this example not to validate hateful behaviour but to explain that yes there are people like this out there if you can find them, but they are rarely in positions of power, certainly not enough to justify banning their speech.
The video that I produced was not even bordering on the same level of provocation or shock value that the previous example entailed. In fact, YouTube did not award me an actual strike. YouTube promptly replied to my appeal by rejecting my claim that I should be able to comment on a video regarding the Holocaust, both because I am Jewish myself and in general because the internet was meant to enable sharing information rather than suppressing it. Is YouTube now going to tell rappers and black creators not to say the word n**ger? Are they going to tell Ukrainians not to discuss Chernobyl?
This is the 3rd time in the past few weeks that I've noticed a Jewish person have a post censored on either YouTube or Facebook because it was deemed offensive and anti-Semitic when the author had either been criticizing anti-Semitism or sharing something by mistake. Each time I've commented and opined that this is the exact reason that no one, whatever his or her background, including us Jews should support internet censorship because eventually those that sought the machine's protection become its targets. I urge you to share this article and the video in the spirit of promoting true debate and reasoned discussion rather abiding by codes of silence imposed by our new 3rd Estate of Palo Alto.