Quote:
Originally Posted by legion
The problem I have with youtube is that they initially let ANY content on their platform without moderation. They worked very hard to attract videos from all over the place. Then the second they were the dominant platform, they started banning, shadow banning, demonetizing, and deleting content they didn't agree with--often content they actively courted a few years earlier.
It seems their master plan was to draw everyone into their platform then, once there were no viable alternatives, destroy any content they did not agree with.
|
Put yourself in their position for a minute, though. Youtube, worried about negative repercussions of certain content--let's say it's some Charles Manson type figure urging teenagers to commit suicide--pulls it. Just like that, they jump into the wonderful world of content moderation. They'll take a beating from whomever they censor, but that's hardly the biggest concern. The big swinger is the cost to the company and attendant liability of reviewing literally billions of uploads from all over the world. At present, this is a task largely being done by humans (AI is not advanced enough), and the burnout rate is incredible. Imagine spending your day screening videos of all the horrible things folks can dream up doing.
Here is a 2017 article where youtube claimed it would be hiring 10,000 reviewers in 2018. Not sure if they did, but that's a gigantic expense and a swan dive into an ever increasing morass of cost and potential liability.