Video-hosting platform Vimeo removed three videos from conservative author Dr. Michael Brown, according to a post on Brown’s website.
“This is not about our videos, which are uploaded onto several sites, including YouTube and Bitchute, wrote Brown. “It’s about Vimeo’s policies, which are part of the larger issue of ambiguous social media guidelines.”
In his post, Brown reported that a representative of Vimeo outlined a number of possible reasons for the ban, including “mean-spirited vibes.”
The Vimeo rep, named James, explained that, “Specifically, Vimeo moderators will generally remove videos that: Make derogatory or inflammatory statements about individuals or groups of people; Are intended to harm someone’s reputation; Have an overall mean-spirited vibe.”
Let’s put aside the unclear nature of the opening line (the words “specifically” and “generally” are a bit contradictory). And let’s forget, for the moment, that rather than our videos making “derogatory or inflammatory statements about individuals or groups of people,” we were exposing others who did this very thing.
Continuing his article, Brown criticized Vimeo for the vagueness of its terms.
What if Vimeo moderators concluded that these three videos were “intended to harm someone’s reputation”? What, exactly, does that mean?
What if we posted a video detailing the atrocities committed by Kim Jong-un? Would that fit into this category? What if we posted a video exposing a contemporary white supremacist?
Or, on a less extreme level, what of the countless videos posted by Christian critics about other Christian leaders whom they consider heretics? Are any (or all) of these videos “intended to harm someone’s reputation”?
But these two categories pale in comparison with the third one, namely, videos that “have an overall mean-spirited vibe.”
What in the world does this mean? How does one quantify this? What is the precise, non-emotive definition of “vibe”?
Supposedly a competitor to YouTube, Vimeo has not sought to distinguish itself from its rivals by supporting free speech. In June this year, it was one of the platforms that banned the undercover journalism organization Project Veritas after its stories exposing big tech’s political bias.
Breitbart News has reached out to Vimeo for comment.
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Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News.