YouTube Purges Far Right And Conservative Channels Over Dangerous Content And Conspiracy Theories

Hateful rhetoric, crazy conspiracy theories, and dangerous contents have been present on YouTube from day one. Allowing such deplorable people to share their views on the video streaming platform has been a matter of debate, but following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, a change occurred. YouTube hired new moderators, which resulted in many conservative and far right channels getting purged.

Extreme members of the conservative factions, especially those who identify as libertarian or are considered part of the alt-right movement have been trying to push the idea of a so-called “YouTube Purge” for some time now. It’s basically described as the attempt to silence conservative voices who are pro-gun, anti-immigration, and pushing white supremacy ideals. Unfortunately, this new move might have given those sentiments fuel, the New York Times reports.

Following the terrible incident in Parkland, a torrent of videos containing misinformation was landing on the Trending page of YouTube, which were primarily made by conservative creators. Many of the videos were accusing the students of the high school where the shooting occurred of being paid actors after they started protesting the lack of gun reform.

By allowing such videos to become prominent on the platform, YouTube received a hailstorm of criticisms. This led to many conservative creators to receive strikes for inappropriate content on their channels.

It would appear that many of these strikes were doled out by mistake, with YouTube admitting to Bloomberg that the moderators might have been overzealous at flagging channels. Some of these content creators have since been granted access to their accounts again after it was determined that their videos did not actually violate any of YouTube’s policies.

Even so, the damage has been done. Operators of conservative channels have another reason to push the “YouTube Purge” idea and the platform just gave them the tools to do so. Conspiracy theory videos are already trending on the site, giving voice to those who spout ridiculous and often dangerous nonsense, which many are avidly listening to.