Orwellian gets tossed around a lot when people don’t like what’s being said. Kafkaesque used to get tossed around a lot, but people pretend to read Kafka less than they pretend to read Orwell these days, so here we are.
When it comes to YouTube censorship, you could use both or either. Orwellian by the way we force ourselves to speak and Kafkaesque in the way that creators can be told they violated a rule and have to fix it. But often, YouTube won’t tell the creator what rule was violated and when. I think that the real danger is not the fickle corporate labyrinth a creator has to navigate; it’s the way creators preemptively change their behavior in unnatural ways to avoid it.
There were a lot of things Orwell got wrong about the future of humanity.
A screenshot from a cover of 1984 by George Orwell – YouTube, Gates of Imagination
Consumerism and bureaucracy have reached a symbiotic stasis where people are awash in the choice, but behind the scenes an army of public servants stand ready to make sure nothing changes. The authoritarian impulse thrives but the west isn’t controlled by a rigid uniparty that abducts people at will.
Then again, he wrote fiction, not future history.
What he did get spot-on was that language would be a key to control.
1984 introduced the world to Newspeak, The Party’s grand scheme to control the mind by controlling thought. As explained in the novel; by restricting the universe of possible words, the party creates a world where revolution against them is impossible because the language to express the ideas simply won’t exist. In Newspeak, nothing is bad because bad isn’t a word. Things can only be ungood.
Is it very bad? No, it’s plusungood.
What about extremely bad? We don’t have a word for that, maybe you’re thinking of doubleplusungood.
YouTube doesn’t like the G word, either, it turns out. pic.twitter.com/JuBAmFaoJg
— Sauer Patch Lyds (@sourpatchlyds) July 26, 2022
Over the years YouTube censorship has taken a lot of forms. There’s been deplatforming, throttling, demonetization, and other techniques for which we don’t have single words. All of them pale before the censorship we impose on ourselves just to be a part of the conversation.
Of course, not all of it is bad, and some of it is even necessary. If you have a stray thought but keep it to yourself because it’s not helpful, that’s censorship. When you feel passionate about something but reign in your hyperbolic tone, that’s also censorship. It’s also what responsible people naturally do.
When, on the other hand, a creator has to say ridiculous things like, “a certain Austrian painter with a funny little mustache that unalived himself,” we are getting into the realms of ridiculousness.
Current censorship situation: YouTube can remove a video for violating a rule without telling you what rule you violated.
I said some things about China in this video. Then it disappeared. That’s all I know.
See any problem here? pic.twitter.com/8pTa3kdPzP
— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) April 12, 2021
NEXT: Star Wars Series ‘Skeleton Crew’ Will Feature ‘Two Moms’ as Parents in Third Episode
I know I’m talking about Hitler. You know I’m talking about Hitler. That genocidal maniac committed suicide 80 years ago and even he knows I’m talking about Hitler.
For some reason, YouTube censors have decided that to talk about suicide and Hitler we have to dance around the most direct and meaningful words.
AND WE DO IT!
Gamers who reviewed Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League had to watch what they said for fear that it will hurt their ad revenue. There are World War Two history videos that are suspiciously light on references to Hitler.
I’m sure that YouTube censorship doesn’t exist to protect Hitler, and I’m relatively certain that deboosting mentions of suicide has to do with an accusation from years ago that exposure to the subject on YouTube was increasing suicidal ideation in young women. There are reasons for YouTube censorship. And from an outside perspective, it seems that each new rule is less a considered strategy on YouTube’s part and more a knee jerk reaction to problems in a peculiar moment in time.
YouTube flagged this video. Apparently we can’t refute Trudeau’s lies without damaging my channel. pic.twitter.com/nMcHkCMAeL
— Mikhaila Peterson (@MikhailaFuller) December 5, 2024
Whether grand strategy or a game of hot potato, YouTube censorship still ends up infantilizing creators and viewers, keeping them controllable. It’s not a boot on the neck of humanity, it’s a state of arrested development that betrays the original promise of the internet.
To connect all of us together without gatekeepers.
There is talk surrounding the incoming US presidential administration about creating a doctrine for protection of content creators. Something that would guarantee they are given helpful and accurate information about the things that get them demonotized, throttled, deplatformed, or what have you.
Dear @YouTube, when did you become the Ministry of Truth? Silencing voices, demonetizing creators, and suppressing free thought isn’t ‘moderation’—it’s authoritarianism. The internet was built for freedom, not your woke overlordship. Do better. #Censorship #FreeSpeech pic.twitter.com/9Ej2SljAzv
— Dallas Ludlum (@dcludlum) November 30, 2024
What we can also hope for (even advocate for) is to find a way that respects both YouTube’s right to keep truly objectionable material off its platform yet allows us, the users, to talk about hard subjects. Otherwise all of this will continue to grow until we each win the final victory.
When YouTube’s censorship will not just be they way we force ourselves to talk, but the way we think.
UP NEXT: Mattel Sued Over ‘Wicked’ Merchandise Misprint That Sent Kids to Obscene Website
