YouTube working on ‘fix’
YouTube is apologizing to its LGBTQ users for an ongoing technical issue that filters out some gay and trans-themed videos for some users.
Johanna Wright, YouTube vicepresident of product management, says the “feature isn’t working the way it should” and pledged to “fix it.”
Canadian LGBTQ YouTubers, including pop duo Tegan and Sara, have been calling for the video service to stop such filtering.
The Calgary-raised sisters took to social media to question why YouTube’s restricted setting blocks a wide variety of LGBTQ-friendly content for no clear reason.
“If you put YouTube on restricted mode, a bunch of our music videos disappear. I checked myself. LGBTQ people shouldn’t be restricted. SAD!” Tegan and Sara tweeted.
Among the missing clips were videos from their latest album, including for That Girl and U-turn.
They were joined by Halifax singer Ria Mae, who said her video for Gold, which features the singer in a lesbian relationship, was also being filtered out.
“Young gay kids need to see themselves represented and they need to know it’s normal, it’s OK and it’s not X-rated,” Mae said in a video on her Instagram account. “It sends a bad message to young gay kids and young trans kids that their lives are not normal or acceptable.”
At issue is YouTube’s restricted designation, which lets parents, schools and libraries filter content that may be considered inappropriate for users under 18. YouTube calls it “an optional feature used by a very small subset of users.”
What’s unclear is whether the types of videos in question are being labelled as restricted for the first time, or if this has been an ongoing practice that’s only recently gained attention.
Video producer Michael Rizzi says he’s concerned with the message it sends to loyal YouTube users. He’s seen 176 of his 236 videos disappear in restricted mode, about 75 per cent of the clips he’s uploaded over the past five years.
Rizzi says he wished Google’s YouTube executives would’ve been more transparent about how this happened. Instead, they appeared to sit back as YouTubers made the hashtag #YouTubeIsOverParty a trending topic on Twitter.
“It’s more a feeling of being pushed to the side,” Rizzi says. “It’s a pretty big screw-up on their end.”
In an emailed statement, YouTube acknowledged the filter, saying “some videos that cover subjects like health, politics and sexuality may not appear for users and institutions that choose to use this feature.”
YouTube added later that “some videos are incorrectly labelled by our automated system and we realize it’s very important to get this right. We’re working hard to make some improvements,” it said without offering further details.