Published 12:32 IST, December 17th 2019
Aussie YouTuber's videos being demonetised because of his accent
Australian YouTuber recently realised that his videos were being demonetised by the website and flagged for 'strong profanity used in a hateful derogatory way.
An Australian YouTuber recently realised that his videos were being demonetised by the website and flagged for 'strong profanity used in a hateful derogatory way'. Fynnpire has reportedly been doing videos on the site for the last two years and depends on the revenue generated from his clips to feed him and his family. Soon he was annoyed when he saw that YouTube had restricted on one of his videos. The viewership on a few videos was also dropping off suddenly. YouTube has an automatic transcribing service to upload captions onto the video and it picked up odd words that aren't there. Funnpire believes that YouTube keeps putting swear words and slurs into his transcriptions because of his Australian accent.
While talking to an international media outlet, Fynnpire gave an example. In one of his video, he said, “Alright give me this car”. But, the website transcribed the video and thought he said an abusive word after which they sent him a message that the video was using a 'strong profanity'. He also said that another video of his was flagged because of YouTube thought he made a racial slur.
He told the media outlet he started the video with, “My name is Fynnpire, we're back, we're playing Undead Development. We're continuing on with this map today”. But again YouTube though Fynnpire said 'wetback', which is considered a slur against Mexicans living in the United States. Australia's most popular YouTuber Lazarbeam also tweeted that he had been facing a similar issue.
YouTube cracks down on racist, sexist Insults
In a recent step taken by YouTube, the company reportedly announced that it will be taking down videos that lob insults at people based on race, gender expression, sexual orientation or other “protected attributes”. According to international media reports, the company will also prohibit veiled threats of violence, taking a step further into moderating what people can say on the videos they create and upload. The news came after the site was allegedly accused of allowing and fostering hate speech and extremism and creating spaces for harassment to linger online, along with other digital sites that allow people to upload their own material. The video streaming site has been reviewing its policies and guidelines for about two years, Matt Halprin, the company’s vice president of trust and safety, said in an interview. He said the company tries to find a balance between allowing freedom of expression and keeping hateful speech to a minimum.
Updated 12:53 IST, December 17th 2019