YouTube Targets Video Critical of Chinese Government
Questions concerning tennis star Peng Shuai amid allegations she was raped by a senior leader of China’s Communist Party led to YouTube taking action against one podcast.
A since-deleted social media post from Peng accused former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of forcing her to have sex against her will three years ago, according to Fox News. The post was dated Nov. 2. Chinese censors deleted the post and have blocked her account on Weibo, a Chinese platform similar to Twitter.
Because Peng has not been seen since the posts, her whereabouts and her allegations have mushroomed into an international incident.
All that was fodder for the podcast “Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar”
Then YouTube entered the picture, and with the push of a few buttons, there were no longer ads running before the video, according to The Washington Free Beacon. That punishment meant the podcast would make no advertising revenue off of the video.
Co-host Saagar Enjeti said it was possible YouTube was caving to big companies that do a hefty business in China.
“It’s possible that this could be the result of influence from the CCP,” he told the Free Beacon.
“Or, at the very least, YouTube has to understand advertisers like Nike and other massive multinationals may be worried” about their ads appearing near content that casts the Chinese communist totalitarian government in a poor light.
In a Twitter post, Enjeti mocked the YouTube move.
Sorry @YouTube. We meant to say Peng Shaui is safe and sound and just can’t wait for the Olympics in China which ofc is the best country in the world!
For real though this is why @krystalball and I built Breaking Points as subscription first: https://t.co/d9o4c2Nbnc pic.twitter.com/0g8oRYeZe5
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) November 19, 2021
The Free Beacon reported that YouTube’s claim was that the video “isn’t suitable for all advertisers.”
Enjeti said that when the ads were stripped, he first assumed it was YouTube’s automated content moderation system and asked for a manual review of the video.
The decision to not allow ads remained the same.
YouTube demonetized coverage of Peng Shuai’s disappearance, stripping ad revenue from CCP-critical creators.https://t.co/HFzoOE8HfA
— santi ruiz (@rSanti97) November 19, 2021
YouTube’s spin was that the video “was never demonetized.”
Instead, it went into a pen of content YouTube has flagged that requires advertisers to opt in specifically if they want to advertise on a video thus designated.
The furor over Peng has been such that China released videos showing Peng. But the dialogue in the videos have raised some eyebrows.
I acquired two video clips, which show Peng Shuai was having dinner with her coach and friends in a restaurant. The video content clearly shows they are shot on Saturday Beijing time. pic.twitter.com/HxuwB5TfBk
— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) November 20, 2021
“Tomorrow, isn’t tomorrow November 20?” Peng’s coach says.
A woman in the video says “21st,” before the coach says, “November 21st.” They do this again with the woman saying, “Tomorrow is the 21st,” and the coach saying, “November 21st.”
Gordon Chang, author of “The Coming Collapse of China,” verified the dialogue for Fox News, while noting how odd it was.
“You would say ‘tomorrow, the 20th,’ or ‘tomorrow, Saturday,’ but they go out of their way to use the full date,” Chang said.
He noted that it would also be odd to record such a random conversation, and that the quality of the video makes it hard to know when it was made.
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