(Reclaim The Net) Google has published its Transparency Report covering the second quarter of 2022, that reveals 122,660 videos were removed from YouTube in this time for violating the giant’s policy on “misinformation.”
Some observers are saying that this is the first time Google has included this category in a quarterly report about the removal of content from its video platform, adding “misinformation” to things like pornography, “hate speech,” child safety, etc.
Content removed for “misinformation” accounts for 2.7 percent of all deleted videos in the period from April until June. More videos disappeared from YouTube for allegedly spreading misinformation than those flagged as promoting violence and violent extremism, and for “other” undefined reasons.
In this time, YouTube removed a total of 4,496,933 videos, most (1,383,028) for violating child safety guidelines, followed by violent or graphic (900,014) and sexual content or that containing nudity (666,315).
Google says that it makes decisions on which videos to censor by enforcing its Community Guidelines, and relies on real people and technology to flag content for removal. On the human side, the giant has something called the Trusted Flagger program that includes NGOs, government agencies, and individuals.
A huge majority of removed videos, however – 4,195,734 – were first flagged by Google’s automated system, followed by user reports as source of first detection (256,109 videos), individual “Trusted Flaggers” (34,490), and NGOs (10,555).
According to the report, a government agency was behind the removal of 45 videos in Q2.
The report also reveals that YouTube aims to delete as many videos as possible that it decides are objectionable before they can be viewed by anyone. The company received 223,286 appeals, and reinstated 26,796 videos.
