Censorship on Youtube

We all love YouTube! It’s a fun way to stay connected, be entertained, and bond with others. But whatever if Youtube was making money in ways it shouldn’t? Today I’m going to be discussing the controversial censorship issue regarding YouTube. 

As many people know youtube makes a majority of their money through advertisement of youtube videos. There are two different ways to make money on youtube. As a youtuber you can either have videos play before your video (this happens mostly on bigger youtube videos for a larger audience to see them), or youtubers can mention the product the company wants them too in their video. All of this seems very straightforward but in March 2017 the people who work for youtube realized something bad was happening. Youtube was making money off of advertisements before hate and extremist videos. Also videos of refugees and victims of war passing away or undergoing awful circumstances was also posted. Youtube realized the way ads were placed could be placed on any video despite the content. Other companies reacted to this by withdrawing their advertisements from Youtube like BBC, Starbucks, and even Mcdonalds. This caused YouTube to lose a lot of money, worse off the creators who mainly use youtube to make a living lost more. 

Eventually youtube changed their policy about user friendly videos, but with this came other issues. Youtubers who would talk about slightly inappropriate things or topics with a touchy subject matter were getting their videos labeled as non user friendly. The LGBTQ+ community took a hit because even their videos were starting to be labelled as inappropriate. Independent news channels are even avoiding topics that could be considered controversial because they do not want their videos to be deemed not user friendly.  

This is a worthy topic of exploration because in a way people are being silenced. It is entirely by choice how video creators are going to handle this but it is censorship because youtube can label a news or a member of the LGBTQ+ communities videos as non user friendly and then they cannot make money off of their videos which like said above was some people’s primary source of income. This is truly affecting people’s livelihood and it is not fair to creators who are passionate about their videos, especially if the videos are only slightly inappropriate.

Other news companies are upset about this news companies such as Diggit magazine do not think it’s fair that youtube is censoring people. Despite their opinion, The writers at Diggit are confident new and current Youtubers will be able to find a way to deliver quality content within the rules of the new policies

Writers at the New York Times also have had some things to say. In their article, they talk to Joan Donovan, the Director of Technology and Social CHange Research Project at Harvard. She wondering if the ban on youtube will just result in everyone who’s banned going to another platform to convey their ideas. This makes me personally wonder if all of the white supremacist content creators who do post inappropriate things are going to branch out and create their own hate sites.

The writers at Iowa State Daily are looking at this in no way other places have yet to. They look at it as Youtube is deciding the law of what is inappropriate. In other words Youtube is defining the meaning of hate speech by censoring things they think are inappropriate. The writers pose the question what stops them from censoring someone’s opinion that they just disagree with. They also wonder how this censorship will eventually conflict with the first amendment. I tend to agree with this because who at youtube decides the law of what is right or wrong?

Business Insider’s take on it has some information regarding politics. Youtube is not the only company who has been doing this, twitter is also censoring people just for voicing their opinions. Donald Trump tweeted, “Twitter should let the banned Conservative Voices back onto their platform, without restriction. It’s called Freedom of Speech, remember. You are making a Giant Mistake!”. This issue even has the President talking thus making the topic of censorship a main focus.

I think this issue is important. Everyone uses Youtube, especially children. Children on youtube is already a bad idea just because they can search for anything and find whatever they want when their parents aren’t looking. If I had a child I wouldn’t want him to watch tragic war footage, or white supremacy videos. When it comes to groups like the white supremacists youtube should have a right to censor them because they are spewing hate speech. When it comes to the LGBTQ+ community Youtube should just back off. It’s not YouTubes place to discriminate against people who haven’t done anything wrong.

Here is a video regarding this issue!

Letter from Birmingham Jail

The letter from Birmingham Jail was written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. while he was incarcerated. The letter is Dr. King talking about a resistance to racism that does not involve violence. Dr. Kings core meaning behind his letter is that everyone is responsible for justice across the nation. He argues justice cannot be defended only by laws because the laws were also written by human beings. He states some laws aren’t necessary and get put into place that make people’s lives harder, he is in favor of breaking laws that make people suffer but he does not break the law by doing anything violent. Dr. King believes that he isn’t creating tension by following unnecessary laws he believes he is bringing tension that already exists in society to other people’s attention. Dr. King also states in his speech that he believes people who are willing to break the law and go to jail, so he can bring about awareness to how unjust the law is has the most respect for the laws than anyone. Dr. King also had a great quote in this speech “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” (King). Based upon the quote it really proves how hands on Dr. King really was. He believed that if you wanted change you had to demand it since you’re the one its affecting. I believe Dr. Kings messages are still relevant today. I believe that there are so many things in society that have changed because of oppression and people sticking by what they believe. An example of this would be the legalization of marijuana. 30 years ago, it never would have thought to be legal let alone used for medicine, but because people stuck by what they believed that make it a positive change in society that can not only help and make people happy but also boost the economy. If everyone who was oppressed followed how they handled their situation like Martin Luther King believed best, people’s lives would change for the better.

Technology

The topic I chose to write and read about is technology. Technology is a cool and important topic because it is constantly being improved in the modern world and can be used to help us in the future as well as make our lives much easier!

The first article I read about was all about how wearable technology could predict if people are getting sick. They discovered this by measuring heart rate spikes when people begin to get sick through wearable tech. Research shows that if we had access to 24/7 Fitbit data scientists could identify rates of the flu and outbreaks on a daily basis. This would be revolutionary for health because it would cut the rates of people who get the flu and it would help to make it less of an outbreak. The flu is one of the most contagious illnesses that people have to worry about and if we could detect it early we could help others by not letting it be as contagious and we could contain it. I fiond it fascinating that scientists can use something people wear everyday to prevent a possible outbreak.

The second article I read about was about the emergence of wireless charging into future technology. Everyone hated when apple decided to remove its headphone jack and this article is taking about all phones being charged wirelessly. Smartphone companies are going to eventually get rid of the headphone jack to replace it fully with wireless charging. Wireless charging currently is slow and not reliable and wastes a lot of energy. The bugs on it are still being worked out. Although just like the headphone jack change, people will still probably buy the phone and eventually grow to like the change. It is definitely where all companies are going to go in the future with their smartphones.

The third article I read is about how Instagram may be beneficial to introverts. In the article I read a woman realized she had a gene called BRCA1. This gene when mutated can increase the chance of getting breast or ovarian cancer. This article is about how she makes friends and finds positivity about her gene rather than going to support groups. The article goes further in depth about how it’s easier to have difficult conversations through social media as well as find support groups. This article is important because nowadays people argue how awful social media can be on ones mental health. I believe instagram could be good for an introvert for finding support groups.

The fourth and final article I read was about how the company 23 and me created a drug based on the genetic data from their customers. The company 23 and me sends you an analysis of your DNA. It can tell you if you’re prone to illnesses and you’re genetics. The company recently developed a drug based on its client’s reports. The company is allowing the Spanish drug company Almirall to design a drug which would block some small proteins that can be linked to inflammatory, skin conditions, and Crohn’s disease. This is surprising to some customers because they don’t know where their data is going. Although the company is revolutionary because it is finding cures for diseases affected by genetics based on their client’s data.

         Based on the research above I was very happy I chose technology as my topic. We learned about how two companies can use data to detect or cure illnesses, we learned about how a woman used social media for her advantage and not just her entertainment, and we learned about a new feature that could affect all of our phones in the next few years. Technology will always be growing and it’s important for us to be up to date on it.

Below are the links to the websites i read from the topic onezero:

https://onezero.medium.com/wearables-could-improve-flu-forecasting-but-they-miss-the-most-vulnerable-d244c6016f1b

https://onezero.medium.com/dont-be-shocked-if-your-next-phone-has-no-ports-at-all-50a132df0d64

https://onezero.medium.com/why-instagram-is-great-for-introverts-190b6ec153b3

https://onezero.medium.com/its-no-surprise-that-23andme-created-a-drug-from-customers-genetic-data-14a28a2fbf0c