YouTube’s content policing is getting worse, not better, over time – as comedian Mark Meechan, aka Count Dankula, has been finding out.
His comedy video known as “Nazi Pug” – where he is seen teaching his wife’s dog to behave like “the least cute thing that he could think of,” namely, a Nazi giving a Nazi salute – got removed from his channel last year.
But on Friday, Meechan announced that he had just received a notification from YouTube that this same video was struck down on “hate speech” grounds while the channel itself has received a “warning” that often leads to subsequent strikes and can result in a complete ban.
In the tweet, Meechan tags YouTube’s Creators Twitter account to ask why the giant video platform would feel the need to sent a notice about “removing” a video that has been deleted last year, and isn’t even listed in the videos tab on the channel.
But, as this creator has found out – even though the video was removed – it was not actually deleted. Invisible to him in the video manager, therefore impossible for him to delete, YouTube still had it on its servers.
There are layers of opaqueness here. Not only are creators unaware of whether or not their removed content is actually deleted, but, as expected, there has been no reply and no explanation from YouTube so far.
In Meechan’s words, “This is bullshit and I promise you they won’t respond.”
In the comments on his post, Twitter users are dealing with this lack of transparency by trying to decipher what might be behind the move.
Some think that YouTube is simply bearing a grudge against Meechan, while others believe it’s a case of algorithms and bots running riot.
User Jack Johnson, however, recalled the case of Nicholas Fuentes, saying that the same thing happened to him on YouTube and ended up leading to his ban.
https://twitter.com/JackJoh80590190/status/1235945955230396421
“I think it means they are readying to delete your channel,” this commenter suggested.
