YouTube says new moderators might have mistakenly purged right-wing channels
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/28/17064470/youtube-infowars-right-wing-channels-strike-ban-moderator-mistake
YouTube indicated that as the platform ramps up human-powered moderation efforts, new moderators may have mistakenly removed or flagged right-wing videos and channels. Bloomberg reported the news this afternoon, quoting a YouTube spokesperson saying that “as we work to hire rapidly and ramp up our policy enforcement teams throughout 2018, newer members may misapply some of our policies resulting in mistaken removals.” The spokesperson said that YouTube’s policies had not changed, and that “we’ll reinstate any videos that were removed in error.”
The Outline reported earlier today that several right-wing channels had been completely shut down since the Parkside shooting, and others had been issued strikes against their account — most prominently the channel of InfoWars founder Alex Jones, who has heavily promoted the theory that shooting survivors are actually trained “crisis actors.” Jones’ channel has received two strikes in the past two weeks, both for violating YouTube’s policy on “harassment and bullying,” but InfoWars reported that the second strike was later removed. The Outline noted that some videos it mentioned had later reappeared, but that the accounts it listed had not been unbanned.