YouTube Takes Down Ads Showing Belarusian Blogger's Possibly-Forced Confession Video (restofworld.org) 39
Last Sunday Belarus "forcibly landed a Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius and arrested the opposition blogger Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend, who were on board," Reuters reports.
By Tuesday the Guardian reports there was a "confession" video which the blogger's father said his son had clearly been physically coerced into recording.
And then... YouTube ran advertisements featuring confession videos published by Belarusian authorities of detained journalist and activist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, according to a number of people on social media...
The YouTube advertisements appear to have been purchased by a pro-government channel with less than 2,000 subscribers with a name which translates to "Belarus, country for life." The channel has published a number of viral videos about Belarus and its logo features the Belarusian presidential flag... Screenshots posted online suggest the ads displayed Protasevich's confession video to viewers and directed them to a pro-government Telegram channel with almost 80,000 subscribers. At least one person on Twitter also reported seeing another ad from the same channel featuring Sapega's confession tape.
A spokesperson for Google, which owns YouTube, said the company had identified both of the ads and took action against them according to its inappropriate content policy. "YouTube has always had strict policies around the type of content that is allowed to serve as ads on our platform," the spokesperson said in an email. "We quickly remove any ads that violate these policies." YouTube generally allows advertisers to run political ads, but its rules around inappropriate content prohibit those that "single out someone for abuse or harassment; content that suggests a tragic event did not happen, or that victims or their families are actors, or complicit in a cover-up of the event."
The advertisements raise questions about YouTube's ability to effectively moderate how its platform may be used to amplify questionable content in ads...
Tadeusz Giczan, editor-in-chief of NEXTA, the independent media organization Protasevich previously worked for, said on Twitter that Belarus officials have long used YouTube advertisements to spread propaganda. "Fun fact: for almost a year Belarusian state news agency BelTA has been using hostage videos like the one with Roman Protasevich as paid ads on YouTube with links to their network of pro-govt telegram channels," he wrote. "We tried everything but YouTube says there's nothing wrong about it." Last year, several people complained online about YouTube advertisements promoting Belarusian government propaganda seemingly from the same channel.
YouTube did not immediately answer follow-up questions about whether it had previously taken action against the "Belarus, country for life" account.
By Tuesday the Guardian reports there was a "confession" video which the blogger's father said his son had clearly been physically coerced into recording.
And then... YouTube ran advertisements featuring confession videos published by Belarusian authorities of detained journalist and activist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, according to a number of people on social media...
The YouTube advertisements appear to have been purchased by a pro-government channel with less than 2,000 subscribers with a name which translates to "Belarus, country for life." The channel has published a number of viral videos about Belarus and its logo features the Belarusian presidential flag... Screenshots posted online suggest the ads displayed Protasevich's confession video to viewers and directed them to a pro-government Telegram channel with almost 80,000 subscribers. At least one person on Twitter also reported seeing another ad from the same channel featuring Sapega's confession tape.
A spokesperson for Google, which owns YouTube, said the company had identified both of the ads and took action against them according to its inappropriate content policy. "YouTube has always had strict policies around the type of content that is allowed to serve as ads on our platform," the spokesperson said in an email. "We quickly remove any ads that violate these policies." YouTube generally allows advertisers to run political ads, but its rules around inappropriate content prohibit those that "single out someone for abuse or harassment; content that suggests a tragic event did not happen, or that victims or their families are actors, or complicit in a cover-up of the event."
The advertisements raise questions about YouTube's ability to effectively moderate how its platform may be used to amplify questionable content in ads...
Tadeusz Giczan, editor-in-chief of NEXTA, the independent media organization Protasevich previously worked for, said on Twitter that Belarus officials have long used YouTube advertisements to spread propaganda. "Fun fact: for almost a year Belarusian state news agency BelTA has been using hostage videos like the one with Roman Protasevich as paid ads on YouTube with links to their network of pro-govt telegram channels," he wrote. "We tried everything but YouTube says there's nothing wrong about it." Last year, several people complained online about YouTube advertisements promoting Belarusian government propaganda seemingly from the same channel.
YouTube did not immediately answer follow-up questions about whether it had previously taken action against the "Belarus, country for life" account.
The advertisements raise questions... (Score:4, Insightful)
The advertisements raise questions about YouTube's ability to effectively moderate how its platform may be used to amplify questionable content in ads...
That's like saying Bundy's eighteenth homicide raises questions about whether he was possibly a serial killer.
Google has been looking at "raised questions" in the rearview for a long, long time.
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That's like saying Bundy's eighteenth homicide raises questions about whether he was possibly a serial killer.
Wait a minute... Al Bundy was a serial killer?
I gotta say, they kinda glossed over that in most of the episodes.
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Ted and Al were out-of -wed children of Bill Bundy and I'm pretty sure these are the only people with the name Bundy in the US, since no way would they take the name if they had been his official children.
.
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Note to self: when you add context to a joke like 'very confused look' don't put it in tags. They'll be hidden.
Re: (Score:3)
> Forget to take your meds again?
I don't need medication.
You can just say, "Yes."
Jesus, that's... (Score:1)
Nine million one hundred ten thousand.
And remember, folks... (Score:5, Interesting)
Youtube gives creators basically no way of deciding which ads are shown on their channels. As if irritating your subscribers and having to become absolutely neurotic about copyright strikes wasn't fun enough!
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The 70ies called (Score:3)
They want their forced confession videos back.
That dictator really lives in the past.
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That dictator really lives in the past.
I don't know, intercepting a passenger aircraft in transit on the way to another country, forcing it to land in your own under false pretenses and then arresting someone who never set foot in your country without any involvement of their own country or any extradition requests is quite new and novel.
Re:The missing facts (Score:5, Insightful)
How hell, Vasily. How much did you get paid to write this tripe? You bring up something completely unrelated (Russia's invasion of Ukraine) and fabricated "war crimes" against the guy, but completely leave out Protasevitch being beaten/tortured to "confess" to a "crime". Not to mention the use of military jets to force down a civilian airliner so the guy who was ruffling feathers in Belarus could be taken into custody.
It's as if Stalin is alive and well in your country, using every underhanded dirty trick to silence opposition. Such as outlawing Navalny's political party so its members cannot run for office in Russia.
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Ah yes, BelarusBots think it is fine to force down a plane to arrest a journalist because "He apparently had TWO court orders for his arrest"!!!
But, what we should really be worried about is YouTube's treating RT differently from the BBC.
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The Russian thing sounds like it may have been made up. Pro-Russia-government types love to paint everyone opposed to them as a n@zi. It is part of the Russian psyche, that no matter how bad things get there that at least they saved the world from Hitler, so the gravest insult is to label someone as a n@zi. Countries that quit the soviet union were routinely accused of having been n@zi collaborators. It's almost as dumb as the Americans who say "you'd all be speaking German if it wasn't for us, so stop op
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There is a strong Neo-Nazi movement in Ukraine and Protasevich was part of it.And your reaction to that is 'yeah that sounds like something the Russians would say so it's wrong and also those who say it thereby prove to be Russian trolls'.
You don't need much proof for anything do you?
Re:The missing facts (Score:5, Informative)
True or not, it is irrelevant to the current issue of his being detained merely because he is in opposition to the president. They want to paint him as a bad guy to divert attention. It is an old trick used by authoritarian and dictatorial regimes to pain the opposition as full of criminals or terrorists. anyone who thinks he's actually getting a fair trail in Belarus is either stupid or a part of the Belarus propaganda arm.
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Perhaps the Russians were reminded of the trick by the US portraying Edward Snowden as a traitor?
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This downmodded post only part of the 'official disinformation'. Since Reuters says '"forcibly landed a Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius'
it is worthwhile that this has already been downgraded to 'slyly lured the plane in to land with a false bomb alert'. Since the procedures being followed were correct apart from that. Minsk airport notified the plane of a bomb alert and that the plane was supposed to explode when landing in Vilnius , and proposed Minsk as alternative landing place. Pilots decide
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3. He apparently had TWO court orders for his arrest.
Indeed. So you should arrest him. If he's not in your country then you should issue an extradition request so the country which he is in can validate if the court order is real or if he's being persecuted for a political crime.
There is a process to follow. Breaking international law is not that process. Pretending it's okay by propagandizing an alleged confession is not that process.
This guy could be fucking Hitler himself, but that doesn't mean what has happened was in any way right. The fact that you even
So, what this says about YouTube (Score:3, Informative)
Is that they won't do jack about these kinds of videos, until it has major potential to embarrass the shit out of them.
Interesting that the previous hostage videos were 'ok' but now this one isn't probably because 'media spotlight'.
Does anyone have the previous ads on file? The press should be pointing this out and asking the interesting questions about 'why ban now'?
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Is that they won't do jack about these kinds of videos, until it has major potential to embarrass the shit out of them.
Or back in reality Youtube actively takes down advertiser videos all the time, but is wholly reliant on reports due to the sheer volume of videos that get promoted through their automated platform.
Not everything is some corporate conspiracy.
The press should be pointing this out and asking the interesting questions about 'why ban now'?
Why ask a question when the answer is they aren't banning now. They've always banned shit like this. That it hasn't been fast and efficient enough for you, that may be a far more interesting topic to discuss.
"Coerced confession" not exclusive to Belarus (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"Coerced confession" not exclusive to Belarus (Score:4, Insightful)
I remember a lot of things in history. I just don't know why you think digging up something from 15 years ago is relevant in the current political climate or in any way relevant to a completely different country run by a different government.
Youtube videos reporting on that confession are still online in large quantities.
You seem to be having a problem separating Youtube videos (not under discussion), from Youtube advertisements from a propaganda outlet (what is actually being discussed). Do you have evidence that Washington paid Youtube to make the video of the confession appear on people's feeds along with a button saying "Skip this Ad"?
If not, please pack your strawman back in the box and join us in the discussion at hand.
If you get your news from Youtube (Score:4, Interesting)
or Facebook, then these measures are at best going to have small impact. People who get news from sources that optimize engagement and whose algorithms are designed to reinforce what you already believe are probably not going to change their beliefs because a video or an ad was removed.
I don't know how to 'fix stupid.' (I just ignore anything that even remotely looks like an ad or a political commentary video. And I block the FB pages that try to push that stuff into my face. On both platforms, there are specific classes of content I'm interested in such as updates from friends or hobby videos, and everything else is explicitly ignored. Clearly, though, I'm an exception.)
orly? (Score:1)
"Possibly forced" (Score:3)
More lies from YouTube/Google (Score:2)
"We quickly remove any ads that violate these policies."
Utter bullshit!
Proof: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eYK_SVBAuE
The ad in question has run for almost a year, despite thousands of complaints to YouTube. Just read the comments for an idea as to the magnitude of this scam.
Money trumps ethics every time at Google -- just ask the ethics team (if there are any left).