Youtube ‘purge’ shows peril for video giant

YOUTUBE said on Wednesday that its moderators had mistakenly removed videos in recent days during what some critics had called an ideological “purge”, highlighting the ongoing challenge for a video giant now hiring thousands of new employees in a push to rein in shocking and dangerous content.

Viewers and producers had recently complained that the site was targeting right-wing voices – including some gun- related channels that had posted content in the days since the Parkland, Florida, school shooting – with suspensions, video removals and “warning strikes”.

The video giant has faced intensifying scrutiny in recent weeks over the content it hosts and promotes, including one video, listed in the site’s top “Trending” ranking, that suggested students who had survived the shooting were “crisis actors”.

Tim Harmsen, the head of the Military Arms Channel on YouTube, said in a video Saturday that he had temporarily disabled all of his videos after moderators gave him a “strike” for three firearms-related videos, including one about an exploding rifle target, they said had violated the site’s guidelines. YouTube bans accounts after three strikes.

He posted a notice from moderators that said, “We don’t allow content that encourages illegal activities or incites users to violate YouTube’s guidelines.” “Right now we’re under attack” by YouTube employees, whom he called“farleftist lunatics”, he said in a video that has been viewed 260,000 times.

YouTube said in a statement that some of the videos were “removed in error” and would be reinstated. “As we work to hire rapidly and ramp up our policy enforcement teams throughout 2018, newer members may misapply some of our policies resulting in mistaken removals,” the statement said.

A source close to YouTube’s operations said the mistaken removals included right-wing but also left-wing and mainstream videos.