So, YouTube has put out its new guidelines. They don't set lines, and they don't guide. youtube.googleblog.com/2019/06/our-on…
These standards are insanely vague, and thus dangerous to the idea of free exchange of content YouTube was originally supposed to promote.
The guidelines state that they are "specifically prohibiting videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion based on qualities like age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation or veteran status."
Read in the most charitable way, this could simply be attempting to get rid of Nazi content, for example. But the language is far too broad to be restricted this way.
So, for example, let's say you do a video on why female athletes are generally paid less than male athletes, and you point out physical discrepancies between males and females, resulting in disparate performance between males and females athletically.
Or say you do a video pointing out that females and males should have their own leagues, and that therefore biological males who identify as females should not be able to compete against females, due to physical differences between males and females. Is this content to be banned?
Or what if you point out that globally, more Muslims than Christians, by polling data, believe extreme things? Is that content that would be downgraded or banned?
Also, when YouTube says that they want to "want to reduce the spread of content that comes right up to the line," they haven't defined the line. So now they've written themselves a blank check to ban whatever content they like, calling it "questionable."
They've now created a set of constantly-moving goalposts, and assured us that we ought to trust them. But it's lack of trust in their judgment and understanding that has already created their public perception problems. These new guidelines will exacerbate that problem.
