Assume that one day, out of the blue, the police handed you a fine that you have to pay, or face jail. This is the first time you hear of it. At no point were you questioned, arrested, prosecuted, or anything. Instead, the government just gives you a fine out of nowhere. Moreover, nowhere in the paperwork for the fine does it say what the actual crime that you allegedly committed was. What law did you break? What exactly did you do? When did the crime happened? There's nothing. The paperwork simply says that you broke the law, and thus you have to pay a fine, but it does not say what your crime was, or which law you broke, or when.
I think anybody would agree that this would be completely ridiculous, unjust, and against the most fundamental of civil rights. At the very least you should know which law you broke, if you are going to be fined for breaking it (besides being given an opportunity to defend yourself.)
Yet, this is exactly what YouTube is doing.
Time and again YouTubers are telling how some video of theirs was demonetized, restricted, or even completely removed, for "community guidelines violations" or for "breaking the terms of service". These messages never say which part of said video broke those rules, or which rule was broken. Many YouTubers have complained that when they dispute the sanction, and directly ask what exact rule they broke, or which part of the video was infringing, they never, ever, get an answer. The notification is always the same blanket "community guidelines violation" message, with zero details or specifics. Even when the video is manually reviewed by some YouTube employee (at least allegedly), and this manual review upholds the sanction, there's never an exact reason for it. It's always the same blanket "we have reviewed the video and determined that the sanction will remain in place", with no specifics.
How are people supposed to know how to avoid violating the rules of the site if they are never told which rules they broke or how? This is a complete travesty and injustice.
I think anybody would agree that this would be completely ridiculous, unjust, and against the most fundamental of civil rights. At the very least you should know which law you broke, if you are going to be fined for breaking it (besides being given an opportunity to defend yourself.)
Yet, this is exactly what YouTube is doing.
Time and again YouTubers are telling how some video of theirs was demonetized, restricted, or even completely removed, for "community guidelines violations" or for "breaking the terms of service". These messages never say which part of said video broke those rules, or which rule was broken. Many YouTubers have complained that when they dispute the sanction, and directly ask what exact rule they broke, or which part of the video was infringing, they never, ever, get an answer. The notification is always the same blanket "community guidelines violation" message, with zero details or specifics. Even when the video is manually reviewed by some YouTube employee (at least allegedly), and this manual review upholds the sanction, there's never an exact reason for it. It's always the same blanket "we have reviewed the video and determined that the sanction will remain in place", with no specifics.
How are people supposed to know how to avoid violating the rules of the site if they are never told which rules they broke or how? This is a complete travesty and injustice.
Comments
Post a Comment