Google’s alleged double standards on political and societal issues became evident again. YouTube deleted a video showing an Asian-American Uber driver getting attacked.
When there was a spike in violence against Asian-Americans in the first few months of this year, Big Tech corporations, including Google, showed their solidarity by becoming some of the largest voices against Asian-American hate. However, when Google had the chance to actually show it was against Asian-American hate, it didn’t come through.
In mid-May, Vincent Kang, an Asian-American Uber driver, was attacked while doing his job. He uploaded footage of the attack on YouTube, and other platforms, in an effort to get people to visit his GoFundMe page, to help raise funds to cover medical expenses and property damage costs resulting from the incident.
But instead of amplifying the video, to be in line with its activism a few months earlier, Google-owned YouTube deleted the video, for violating its rules.
“YouTube simply said that the videos violated ‘community standards’,” Kang told InquireMore.com via email. “I appealed and they quickly denied it.”
Reclaim The Net contacted Google, and was told that Kang’s video “violated policies on violent and graphic content.” The company referenced YouTube’s page on violent or graphic content, which states, “violent or gory content intended to shock or disgust viewers, or content encouraging others to commit violence acts are not allowed on YouTube.”
The removal of the video put a “strike” on Kang’s account, prohibiting him from uploading new content temporarily.
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