Remember how Google's motto used to be "don't be evil"?
This exclusive from Reuters says that YouTube has blocked the channel of Atajurt Kazakh Human Rights, which has 11,000 videos with over 120 million views that expose the evils of the Chinese communist regime in their labor and reeducation camps in Xinjiang.
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.
After Reuters put pressure on YouTube, the tech platform reinstated the account, saying the ban was due to IDs in the videos used to prove that those giving testimony on human rights abuses were related to those being imprisoned and tortured by the Chinese government.
They reinstated the channel on June 18 but asked Atajurt to blur the IDs.
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 https://odysee.com/@ATAJURT:8 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.
"There is another excuse every day. I never trusted YouTube," Serikzhan Bilash, one of Atajurt's founders, told Reuters in a phone interview. "But we're not afraid anymore, because we are backing ourselves up with LBRY. The most important thing is our material's safety."
YouTube's response was to basically tell Reuters and the channel to take a hike.
YouTube said channels are always welcome to move to alternatives.
