The Family Friendly America

By: Gio Moz

Youtube: the video sharing service that started in an office garage in 2005, began as a website you could find funny videos on, learn a thing or two, listen to music, and much more. There were limits as to what was posted, which is understandable as the same goes for the rest of the surface web, but as an American citizen, you have your rights. Freedom of speech and Freedom of expression are some of the liberties we have that make America a free country, yet today, it seems as though these rights are being stripped from us without us even realizing it, and youtube is a culprit for taking part in the Family Friendly America that is no longer supportive of the founding rights that make this country.

“The right to express any opinions without censorship or restraint,” is the definition of freedom of speech from google, which is ironic because google owns youtube, which is currently censoring the creators of youtube. It seems the media is doing what it can to censor our rights, and one way it is happening is by removing “offensive content” on youtube. Also according to google, the definition of offensive is “something that causes someone to feel deeply hurt, upset, or angry.” If according to google, that is the definition of offensive, then what is so offensive about the word “Chritian”?

A Christian speaker named Chad Robichaux was the owner of a youtube channel, a veteran, and an MMA fighter. He created an ad for a veterans outreach ministry for people in need, and it was denied for having the word “Christian.” Chad responded to youtube on twitter where he showed a screenshot of youtube’s message to Chad claining “The following keywords violate google ads advertising policies. Please remove unacceptable content to continue. Unacceptable content as keyword: Christian.” Youtube’s official twitter account replied with a tweet explaining “We know that religious beliefs are personal, so we don't allow advertisers to target users on the basis of religion. Beyond that, we don't have policies against advertising religious terms like christian.” After seeing this, people may believe that youtube is trying to keep words like Christian out of ads to keep their site to an audience as open as possible, and keep a wide target group, without offending anyone, which is somewhat understandable. Do not let this fool you, as I can personally share from my experience on youtube that i have had a certain ad that I don't like seeing on youtube, but instead of getting offended, I skip the ad, because that's how people should handle things they don't like. Ignore what you don't like and it will go away. That ad is by Tom Steyer, and it is about impeaching President Donald Trump, which is Ironic because I personally like Trump, so it seems that the ads aren't even as personalized youtube claims they are.

What I get out of this is that youtube is trying to make viewers more Liberal, and yet family friendly. It seems this way because it is anti-trump and doesnt want an ad using the word “Christian.” Google is also making youtube Corporate media unofficially. It used to be about independent content, but their updated algorithm is showing less recommendations for independent channels , and more CNN and MSNBC. “Our channel has been getting fewer and fewer views from youtube’s recommended video algorithm. WHen you watch videos on youtube, it suggests other things to watch alongside or below the video. The idea is to keep you watching as long as possible,” says David from the David Pakman Show, an independent youtube channel. “We used to get a lot of recommended video views from youtube’s algorithms. We estimated that we had lost about 2 million views per month from this algorithm, recommending our videos more and more infrequently.”

At the end of it all, I don’t think a lot of people will be affected by this change in algorithm. I personally see what is going on here, and a lot of other people do too, but I am more worried for the generations to come, that grow up watching youtube and what they show on the front page as they will grow up watching what the media wants them to watch, and believing what the media wants them to believe. I hope they can see through this, and develop their own opinions aside from what they are told to believe, rebel what they are told to do, and be their own person, instead of a figure that they are told is ideal, or what they should be like.