FreeSpeech and Censorship: Thread

[grarpamp]

https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-youtube-takes-down-xinjiang-videos-forces-rights-group-seek-2021-06-25/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5uns79sHr1AZiUw1ikV7PQ
https://odysee.com/@ATAJURT:8

 "A human rights group that attracted millions of views on YouTube to
testimonies from people who say their families have disappeared in
China's Xinjiang region is moving its videos to little-known service
Odysee after some were taken down by the Google-owned streaming giant,
two sources told Reuters."

Long-time Slashdot reader sinij shares their report: Atajurt Kazakh
Human Rights' channel has published nearly 11,000 videos on YouTube
totaling over 120 million views since 2017, thousands of which feature
people speaking to camera about relatives they say have disappeared
without a trace in China's Xinjiang region, where UN experts and
rights groups estimate over a million people have been detained in
recent years. On June 15, the channel was blocked for violating
YouTube's guidelines, according to a screenshot seen by Reuters, after
twelve of its videos had been reported for breaching its
'cyberbullying and harassment' policy. The channel's administrators
had appealed the blocking of all twelve videos between April and June,
with some reinstated — but YouTube did not provide an explanation as
to why others were kept out of public view, the administrators told
Reuters.

Following inquiries from Reuters as to why the channel was removed,
YouTube restored it on June 18, explaining that it had received
multiple so-called 'strikes' for videos which contained people holding
up ID cards to prove they were related to the missing, violating a
YouTube policy which prohibits personally identifiable information
from appearing in its content... YouTube asked Atajurt to blur the
IDs. But Atajurt is hesitant to comply, the channel's administrator
said, concerned that doing so would jeopardize the trustworthiness of
the videos. Fearing further blocking by YouTube, they decided to back
up content to Odysee, a website built on a blockchain protocol called
LBRY, designed to give creators more control. About 975 videos have
been moved so far.

Even as administrators were moving content, they received another
series of automated messages from YouTube stating that the videos in
question had been removed from public view, this time because of
concerns that they may promote violent criminal organizations...
Atajurt representatives fear pro-China groups who deny that human
rights abuses exist in Xinjiang are using YouTube's reporting features
to remove their content by reporting it en masse, triggering an
automatic block. Representatives shared videos on WhatsApp and
Telegram with Reuters which they said described how to report
Atajurt's YouTube videos.
An activist working with the group told Reuters he's also faced
offline challenges — including having his hard disks and cellphones
confiscated multiple times in Kazakhstan.

This meant that the only place where they'd stored their entire video
collection was YouTube.