Report: Google to 'Police YouTube Like it Never Has Before'

Google began to “police YouTube like it never has before” Thursday, cracking down further on “offensive content,” according to a report.

“Google will police YouTube like it never has before, adding warnings and disabling advertising on videos that the company determines crosses its new threshold for offensive content,” reported Bloomberg Technology on Thursday. “Google outlined these moves in June, but the implementation comes as debate about extremism and political speech is front-and-center in the national spotlight — and when tech giants like Google and Facebook Inc. face deeper scrutiny over how they moderate information distributed through their digital services.”

Offending videos will not be removed, potentially allowing Google to still make money from them but cutting off monetization for the creators, who will also face other restrictions: “YouTube isn’t removing the selected videos, but is instead setting new restrictions on viewing, sharing and making money on them.”

Google first announced the crackdown in June, where they masked censorship tools under the guise of anti-terrorism measures.

In a blog post, the company announced the introduction of more advanced tools, as well as a higher number of human moderators to “identify problematic videos.”

“We will be taking a tougher stance on videos that do not clearly violate our policies — for example, videos that contain inflammatory religious or supremacist content,” Google explained. “In future these will appear behind an interstitial warning and they will not be monetised, recommended or eligible for comments or user endorsements.”

“That means these videos will have less engagement and be harder to find,” they continued. “We think this strikes the right balance between free expression and access to information without promoting extremely offensive viewpoints.”

Several large and prominent YouTube creators have revealed they no longer make money on videos after a wave of demonetization crackdowns by the company.

The list includes popular conservative commentators such as Diamond and Silk and Prager U, but also includes some of the platform’s biggest creators, ranging from comedy and politics to sex education and gaming.

A popular technique by YouTube is to “age-restrict” videos which aren’t “suitable” for advertisers, resulting in the creator’s inability to make money from advertisements.

Earlier this month, YouTube also declared that if “enough users flag a video as ‘hate speech’ or ‘violent extremism,’ YouTube may impose restrictions on the content even if it breaks none of the platform’s rules,” according to a report.

The company also announced a partnership with the left-wing biased Anti-Defamation League, who previously blamed Trump supporters for the rise of anti-Semitism, added a popular cartoon frog meme to their Hate Symbol Database, and attempted to slander Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon.