YouTube faces criticism in light of recent LGBTQ restriction

#Youtubeisoverparty has been trending on Twitter since September 2016, but starting on March 19, it refocused on a newly discovered LGBTQ restriction, which has been censoring LGBTQ-related videos.

The hashtag was originally started by Philip DeFranco, who has over 5 million subscribers and is mainly known for “The Philip DeFranco Show” in which he voices his opinions about current news, politics and pop culture. Last fall, he posted a video and tweeted using the hashtag about YouTube demonetizing his videos and censoring them because of “excessive strong language.” Although no one is certain exactly when the censoring of LGBTQ-related videos started, the company has been targeted with protests and complaints from the YouTube community.

YouTube created the Restricted Mode feature so that parents, schools or other institutions could censor videos for users under 18 that depict violence, contain profanity or discuss other mature topics. The filter has only recently placed LGBTQ videos in the same category, greatly upsetting many creators and users.

In an emailed statement, YouTube said that “videos that cover subjects like health, politics and sexuality may not appear for users and institutions that use the [restriction] feature.” However, all LGBTQ videos are by definition related to health, politics and sexuality. The problem is that it is unclear exactly what YouTube considers “mature content.”

On March 19, Hank Green, who with his brother John shares a channel of almost 3 million subscribers, tweeted at YouTube, “‘YouTube Restricted’ is supposed to give a way for parents to block potentially offensive content. Apparently that includes the existence of gay people?”

With the restriction, videos with tags like “gay,” “coming out” or “sexuality” are being censored even though they are not explicitly showing sexual, violent or inappropriate content. These may contain more serious or mature topics, but the videos, especially coming out videos, are actually often helpful to younger audiences.

Gigi Gorgeous, a transgender YouTuber with over 2.5 million subscribers, recently posted a video speaking out about this issue. With the Restricted Mode on, less than half of her channel’s 400 videos show up.

“It’s sad given that you can now turn on one button and the entire LGBTQ community is taken away from you,” she said.

In response to the controversy, YouTube has posted an apology to its audience and specifically the LGBTQ community promising to fix the system. It recognized that some videos have been incorrectly labelled and assured users that they are working hard to correct that. Still, these changes have yet to be made, causing dissent among many of the YouTube community.

Freshman Nicole Wong, an avid YouTube viewer, sees this as yet another mistake the company has made recently.

“I know that YouTube has been in the news many times lately and mostly about negative changes,” she said. “Hopefully the company will change this mistake as soon as possible.”

For another fan of YouTube, sophomore Sanya Salehi, it is frustrating to see her favorite YouTubers being censored and not having the experience they want on YouTube.

“In light of recent events, some of my favorite YouTubers are starting to question the platform that they are posting on, and a few are even thinking about quitting or at least taking a break for a while,” Salehi said. “It’s upsetting because YouTube is supposed to be the place where I can always look forward to new and entertaining videos.”