YouTube has been hit by a discrimination lawsuit by a group of Black video artists. Filed in federal court, the suit accuses YouTube of discriminating against African-American video makers and viewers by using race to filter or monetize content.
The suit also names as defendants YouTube’s parent companies Google and Alphabet. Additionally, the suit is seeking class-action status, Yahoo reported.
“Under the pretext of finding that videos violate some vague, ambiguous, and non- specific video content rule, defendants use computer driven racial, identity and viewpoint profiling and filtering tools to restrict, censor, and denigrate” Black people, the suit claimed.
YouTube uses metadata and other “signals” from videos to make decisions about filtering content or placing money-making advertising based on race, according to court filings.
“Defendants continue to knowingly, intentionally, and systematically block, demonetize, and deny plaintiffs and other persons similarly situated, their contractual and other legal rights to access YouTube based on the color of their skin or other protected racial traits, rather than the material in their videos,” the suit argued.
Words like “white supremacy,” “police brutality” and “Black Lives Matter” are triggers for YouTube filtering software, the suit said. As such, YouTube algorithms systematically removes such content or limits how much it can earn from advertising, The Washington Post reported.
In the lawsuit, the creators claim that YouTube has absolute control over access to 95 percent of all video content available on its platform. YouTube “rigs the game by using their power to restrict and block plaintiffs and other similarly situated competitors based on racial identity or viewpoint discrimination for profit.”
Catherine Jones, creator of the YouTube channel “Carmen CaBoom,” said YouTube removed her channel alleging nudity, even though she said none of her videos contained nudity. Other videos by the same creator were excluded because of alleged hate speech, which she argues is untrue, Kiss 951 reported.
Another creator, plaintiff Nicole Lewis — whose “Nicole’s View” channel earns $6,000 to $7,000 per year — said 17 videos were removed or archived for unknown reasons, according to the lawsuit. Meanwhile, Kimberly Carleste Newman said 700 or more videos from her channel, the “True Royal Family,” have disappeared, and she wasn’t told why, the lawsuit said. Lisa Cabrera says her 4,423 videos have generated 20 million views, but 68 of them were removed with no explanation, according to the suit, The Independent reported.
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The lawsuit is not the first time that YouTube has been accused of discriminating against content. It’s just the latest in a series of allegations that YouTube’s software, which can automatically remove videos suspected of violating the company’s policies, discriminates against certain people, such as LGBT+ groups, The Independent reported.
YouTube spokespeople declined to comment on the lawsuit to The Independent.
