YouTube Has Quietly Begun Censoring Journalists Who Criticize GovernmentBy Alice Salles Claiming some of their videos had been barred from making money through the companys ad services, YouTube hosts like Philip DeFranco spoke out against the policy, claiming over a dozen of his videos had been flagged as inappropriate for advertising, including one dinged for graphic content or excessive strong language. In a video entitled YouTube Is Shutting Down My Channel and Im Not Sure What To Do, DeFranco called YouTubes policy censorship with a different name, since users touching on what the company considers to be controversial subjects end up losing money. If you do this on the regular, and you have no advertising, DeFranco added, its not sustainable. While YouTube has already confirmed its policy regarding what it considers unfit for monetization hasnt changed, the issue might lie elsewhere now that the company seems more efficient in enforcing its own rules. As a matter of fact, the content policy changed in 2012, when YouTube first introduced its ad-friendly guidelines. But while an algorithm is allegedly used to spot and de-monetize videos that break the companys rules, many continue to accuse the company, currently owned by Google, of having vague descriptions of what its leadership considers ad-friendly. YouTube rolled out its monetization tool in 2006, when ads consisted of videos that would pop up at the bottom of the users screen. If the user did not click on it, it would roll for about ten seconds before going away. But as ad executives pressured YouTube to to do a better job at promoting its creators, the relationship with its advertisers changed. As better and even more intrusive ads were added to YouTube videos, the company allegedly became more concerned with the content. Those who are affected often complain about copyright claims, but some complain about another type of targeting one that involves power players. Derrick J. Freeman, the host of FR33MANTV, told Anti-Media that he monetizes all of his videos, and every day some video even much older ones gets slapped with some kind of warning or another because of music playing in the background somewhere. Usually a public place. While Freemans work is often political in nature, he hasnt seen any of his videos being flagged for breaking YouTubes rules concerning subjects related to war or political conflicts. Mat Bars, another YouTube user, also complained about copyright claims. Asked about the alleged censorship problem, Bars told Anti-Media that what it really most likely comes down to is advertisers not wanting their ads to be associated with certain things. To the YouTube host, the company is mostly blameless in this. The site isnt even profitable, so letting advertisers push them around like this suits their best interests. Instead of complaining about censorship, Bars added that what affects him personally is the copyright system. But to more radical political figures who gather a considerable number of followers on YouTube, things are slightly different. To Luke Rudkowski, the man behind the popular channel We Are Change, YouTubes policy of nixing monetization on some of his most popular videos has been a problem for a long time. For years, he told Anti-Media, I have monetized and still get f*cked from it. Especially, he continued, [when I launch a video about] Hillary, or war and foreign policy. When his videos touch on drugs or guns, however, he says ads remain in place. When the videos only have Hillary Clinton they do fine, he added, however, when we add FBI, thats when YouTube springs into action. Anti-Media journalist and senior editor, Carey Wedler, got her start on YouTube and has had a similar experience with her channel. She explained the first time she realized the site had singled out her videos was a couple of weeks after she posted a video about how Americas culture of militarism is an underlying contributor to domestic mass shootings. She continued: The video was released shortly after the Orlando shooting, which occurred in June. By July 6, I had received an email saying the video was not advertiser friendly. Two days later, I received another email about a video I released at the beginning of June before I released the mass shooting video. This video, which pointed out inconsistencies in Bernie Sanderss record and questioned his revolutionary status, was also stripped of monetization. While the mass shooting videos monetization has been restored without her appealing the companys decision, her Sanders video remains ineligible. The Sanders video focused largely on his record of supporting war and the military-industrial complex. Her other videos affected by YouTubes policy include What Every American Needs to Know About Radical Islam, a video that challenged rampant Islamophobia and jingoism right after the Paris terror attacks last November, and Why Im Ready for Hillary!, which the creator claims to be an extremely sarcastic indictment of Hillary Clinton published before she announced her candidacy early last year. Other videos by Wedler that suffered the same fate include How America wins the wars in Syria Iraq and How I became a self-hating Jew. All of the de-monetized videos contain anti-war sentiments. According to the prolific writer and vlogger, YouTube only bothered to email her notifications regarding the changes in monetization for the Sanders and the mass shooting videos: I noticed the [other] videos had all been stripped of monetization when I logged into Youtube to check out the two that had been officially flagged. However, when I checked my settings following receipt of the two emails regarding mass shootings and Bernie, my overall monetization setting had been switched off meaning none of my videos were monetized. She claims to have never selected that option prior to learning about the issues with the videos mentioned previously, yet when she turned the monetization option back on, the monetization reactivated but only for videos that hadnt been specifically flagged. I also noticed that my videos before the self-hating Jew video hadnt been rejected for monetization at all, she said. In cases involving YouTubes decision to flag her videos that included notifications, Wedler added, YouTube failed to give her a specific reason as to why the videos were stripped of monetization. Ive seen some screenshots of those emails from other Youtubers and some contain reasons. Mine didnt, though its pretty clear to me that in my case, its because they are considered controversial. Some discuss war and some contain images of war, and they are always questioning military violence. While Wedler agrees that this type of policy is not direct censorship it does amount to an implicit attempt to discourage me and others from saying controversial things. She added that while YouTube is a privately owned company that can decide which content is appropriate for its advertisers, if they are deciding [which of] my videos shouldnt be allowed to generate revenue, they are effectively removing much of my incentive to continue producing content on the platform. Despite the companys policy, Wedler vows to continue making these videos simply because the message is what matters. As Wedler stated, YouTube is a private company and it has the right to set its own policies. But its undeniable that the sites owner, Google, has, on a number of occasions, shown its favoritism through lobbying, prompting many to highlight the companys appearance of favorable bias toward Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Google went from spending $80,000 on lobbying in 2003 to over $16 million in 2014. After 2014, Google, Inc. became Alphabet, and in 2015, Alphabetinvested over $16 million in lobbying. To date, the company has spent over $8 million on Washington politicians. Alphabets top recipient this election cycle is, unsurprisingly, Hillary Clinton. But despite its knack for influence buying, Google has, over the years, created relationships with think tanks that would have criticized the tech giants crony capitalist ways under different circumstances. According to theWashington Post, Google has embarked on a quest to woo free market organizations by populating elite think-tanks such as the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the New America Foundation with its fellows, including young lawyers, writersand thinkers paid by the company. From the Post: To critics, Googles investments have effectively shifted the national discussion away from Internet policy questions that could affect the companys business practices. Groups that might ordinarily challenge the policies and practices of a major corporation are holding their fire, those critics say. Claiming to be defenders of privacy, Google successfully waged an aggressive lobbying campaign within Washington to defeat a congressional effort that could have put Google in the middle of a very nasty antitrust fight. After supporting the European Unions antitrust prosecution of Microsoft, Google found itself the target of the same type of scrutiny, being accused of unfairly discriminating against users. With the excuse of going after companies like Google for antitrust law violations, Congress came up with the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a bill disguised as an anti-online piracy fix that would have allowed the federal government to target illegal copies of films and other forms of media hosted on foreign servers. The bill would have hurt Google the most because the search engine would have several results deleted from its database, requiring ISPs to remove URLs from the Web, which is also known as censorship last time I checked, Google chairman Eric Schmidt said. Just one month before SOPA was unveiled by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), Schmidt appeared before Congress during a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) hearing where a Republican senator accused the company of skewing search results to benefit its own products and hurt competitors. As this hearing took place and Google was grilled by lawmakers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Motion Picture Association of America lobbies pushed Congress to pass harsh anti-privacy legislation, accusing companies like Google of giving users access to pirated music and movies. Afraid of the backlash caused by the hearing, Google feared the Hollywood lobby would end up hurting many of its partners, as well as smaller organizations directly tied to Google. But the search engine giant had a way out its aggressive lobbying and partnership building skills. As SOPA appeared poised for passage, Google and several other tech firmsstood in opposition and the bill finally failed. While SOPA was, indeed, a farce and privacy advocates in Washington were happy the bill didnt see the light of day its important to note how hard Google worked to keep it from becoming a reality, putting the Silicon Valley giant closer to powerful institutions that, in theory, are against crony capitalism. But after SOPA, the FTC went back to the drawing board, threatening to investigate Googles alleged antitrust violations further. At the time, the companys rivals, including Microsoft and Yelp, were aggressively pressing arguments that Google was exploiting its dominance in the search business. Reaching out to another partner, George Mason Universitys Law Economics Center, Google and the university put together the first of three academic conferences at the GMU law schools Arlington County campus, which, according to the Washington Post, helped to shape the FTCs approach to the Google probe from then on. At the third academic conference held at GMU, Google remained present as a silent partner. As [a] strong contingent of FTC economists and lawyers were on hand for the May 16, 2012, session, the Washington Post reported, research financially backed by Google was presented by GMU lawyers and economists. And [i]n January 2013, after an investigation that spanned more than a year and a half, the FTC settled the case with Google, which agreed to give its rivals more access to patents and make it easier for advertisers to use other ad platforms. From the publication: But when it came to the charges that Google biased its search results to promote its own products, the five FTC commissioners all voted to close the investigation, saying there was no evidence the companys practices were harming consumers. As Google became more involved with politics, other lobbying opportunities would arise. More recently, Google got involved in yet another powerful lobbying effort, which started when the company hired the former administrator of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to serve as the companys Director of Safety for Self-Driving Cars, proving the revolving door that presidential candidate Barack Obama promised to nix is still alive and well. The effort paid off, and personal injury attorneys are now concerned that Google may try to push still more regulations, forcing regulators to stick the human driver with the blame for crashes and getting Googles autonomous driving system off the hook. Whether YouTubes ad policy has anything to do with its parent companys politics is impossible to determine. But as we analyze Googles influence in Washington, its important to note that, whether you agree with the tech giant on none, some, or all issues, governments create the incentives for companies like Google to continue rent-seeking. As the economist David R. Henderson puts it, individuals are said to seek rents when they try to obtain benefits for themselves through the political arena. licensed electricians and doctors [for instance] often lobby to keep regulations in place that restrict competition from unlicensed electricians or doctors. Companies like Google are champions of this practice, which has helped to protect the brands popularity by keeping competitors at bay. So its not a surprise to see many claiming their content is being censored by Googles YouTube. After all, with the amount of power the company holds in Washington, its as if Google or Alphabet is an actual wing of the government. This article (YouTube Has Quietly Begun Censoring Journalists Who Criticize Government) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Alice Salles and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11 pm Eastern/8 pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, please email the error and name of the article to edits@theantimedia.org. I already know a site effected by this censorship U.S. style. StormCloudsGathering posted a video 11 months ago title StormCloudsGathering is Under Attack, they immediately notice the new policy. They have over half a million subscribers and many videos over 300K views. I like them quite alot, but you can clearly see the effect (5 video in a year) and also many alt media creators( like Luke Rudkowski- if I recall correctly) have reported a drop in viewer count. Im pretty confident that google/youtube changed the algorithm to make alt media less views. YouTube is a government operation, behind the scenes. Of course this is happening. Independent thought could bring about self governance. These are conditions intolerable to NATIONAL zecurity. Show us your family and we will put them into the great zioinst db forever. Years ago, I told people that we needed to abandon the internet and return to face to face communications. 