Share
Commentary

Group That Regularly Calls Conservatives Hateful Now Policing YouTube Videos

Share

The Southern Poverty Law Center has confirmed The Daily Caller’s exclusive report that they are policing content on YouTube as part of the platform’s “Trusted Flaggers” program.

The left-wing nonprofit — which has more recently come under fire for labeling legitimate conservative organizations as “hate groups” — is one of the more than 100 non-government organizations and government agencies in YouTube’s “Trusted Flaggers” program, a source with knowledge of the arrangement told TheDC.

The law center declined to return several requests for comment from TheDC but on Thursday confirmed their participation in the program in a statement to left-wing blog Think Progress.

“The Southern Poverty Law Center is greatly concerned about the spread of white supremacist propaganda online and believe that tech companies should enforce their own terms and service agreements,” SPLC Intelligence Project director Heidi Beirich told Think Progress.

The left-wing group has consistently labeled pedestrian conservative organizations as “hate groups” and has been directly tied to violence against conservatives in the past.

Trending:
Prince Harry Named in Major Sex Trafficking Lawsuit Against Rapper

Floyd Lee Corkins, who opened fire at the Family Research Center in 2012, said he chose the FRC for his act of violence because the SPLC listed them as a “hate group.”

The SPLC and other “Trusted Flaggers” work closely with YouTube’s employees to crack down on extremist content in two ways, YouTube public policy director Juniper Downs told a Senate committee in January and a Google spokesperson previously confirmed to TheDC.

First, the flaggers are equipped with digital tools allowing them to mass flag content for review by YouTube personnel.

Second, the partner groups act as guides to YouTube’s content monitors and engineers designing the algorithms policing the video platform but may lack the expertise needed to tackle a given subject.

Are you concerned that conservative YouTube accounts might get censored?

“We work with over 100 organizations as part of our Trusted Flagger program and we value the expertise these organizations bring to flagging content for review,” a YouTube spokesperson, who would not specifically comment on the SPLC’s participation in the program, previously told TheDC.

“All trusted flaggers attend a YouTube training to learn about our policies and enforcement processes. Videos flagged by trusted flaggers are reviewed by YouTube content moderators according to YouTube’s Community Guidelines,” the spokesperson added.

“Content flagged by trusted flaggers is not automatically removed or subject to any differential policies than content flagged from other users.”

YouTube admitted to The Daily Caller News Foundation on Thursday that their content moderators recently purged a large number of conservative and right-wing channels on the website.

However, YouTube claimed the censorship was a mistake and attributed it to human error.

Related:
NFL Pundit and Former Player Roasted for Suggesting Fans Wear Pink Nail Polish to Support Projected No. 1 Pick

A version of this article appeared on The Daily Caller News Foundation website.

Please like and share this article on Facebook and Twitter if you the SPLC’s judgement regarding “hate groups” is not to be trusted.

Truth and Accuracy

Submit a Correction →



We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Tags:
, , ,
Share
Founded by Tucker Carlson, a 25-year veteran of print and broadcast media, and Neil Patel, former chief policy adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, The Daily Caller News Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit providing original investigative reporting from a team of professional reporters that operates for the public benefit. Photo credit: @DailyCaller on Twitter




Conversation