The “profit motive” of companies Roberts writes about when censoring content on websites has always interested me, although not always from a monetary standpoint.
In the fall of 2018, two of YouTuber Cody Ko’s videos had been taken down by YouTube, one due to copyright infringement and another due to having broken YouTube’s code of conduct. A few days after Cody had posted a video protesting the takedown of his two videos, however, the video that had violated the code of conduct (pretty blatantly, might I add) was back up on Cody’s channel. I was puzzled. No matter how much I enjoyed the video, I couldn’t understand how YouTube could justify leaving a video up after it had previously been taken down for violating a code of conduct; the basic threshold for how to properly behave on and engage with the website. I wondered if the video’s skyrocketed popularity right before the video was taken down as well as the sharply negative reaction the fans had to the takedown had anything to do with its reappearance. Although I think I was right, it never occurred to me just how much money probably played a part in the video’s reinstatement. By losing the millions of views the video would receive, YouTube was missing out on precious income from the video being played. Instead of choosing to reinforce their morals, YouTube chose to make a pretty penny by turning a blind eye once Cody reposted his video.
Roberts also discusses the effects of managing content on a person. Are the emotional stakes of their job still high, or are content managers enabled to desensitize themselves to harsh videos due to repetitive exposure to content of the sort? How much control do the content managers have over what they chose to keep or delete? If a video rightfully advocating for the marginalized and abused or a video showcasing something illegal or morally wrong falls into the wrong judgment, how will that content’s availability or lack thereof affect the general public gobbling up billions of YouTube videos each day? Is there a way to stop money from involving itself in the content managing process?