YouTube Termination
WE WERE SILENCED
Part of the termination email we received
Last week, our YouTube channel. It was terminated for “repeated or severe violations”—because it algorithmically misunderstood the content as salacious, rather than important (even award winning!) sexual & mental health education and social resources for marginalized community produced by our 25 year old institution with zero prior “strikes.” We abided by their rules. We never moneted content. We proactively marked content for adults. Despite playing these respectability politics, the algorithm nailed us. We appealed & were immediately—and again, algorithmically—denied. With help from some influencers—primarily Pup Amp at Watt’s the Safeword and Race Bannon, kinkster guru of San Francisco—we managed a medium sized social media bonfire. Enough folks got wind of what happened & got us to a quick human review & reinstatement… but it made us feel demoralized, hopeless, furious, & very much targeted. We know we remain vulnerable on all of channels in which we communicate: twitter, facebook, youtube, even this website and our email provider, because of who we are and what we talk about.
We’re very aware of our privilege, and know that many other small (and large) queer creators are silenced every day by algorithms and poorly trained reviewers in social media platforms. We want to learn more and let folks know about it (we haven’t seen data collection about this yet. If you know please let us know. If this happened to you or someone you know please fill out this survey so we can observe and report trends.