How a Mistake by YouTube Shows Its Power Over Media

After Novara received the email that its channel was deleted, its internal Slack messaging channel was flooded with panicked messages about what to do next. Staff members worried it had been a coordinated campaign by critics of their coverage to file complaints with YouTube, triggering its software to block their channel, a tactic sometimes used by right-wing groups to go after opponents. Ms. Sarkar, who has more than 350,000 followers on Twitter, is often a target of racist and misogynistic abuse online.

An editor, Gary McQuiggin, filled out YouTube’s online appeal form. He then tried using YouTube’s online chat bot, speaking with a woman named “Rose,” who said, “I know this is important,” before the conversation crashed.

Angry and frustrated, Novara posted a statement on Twitter and other social media services about the deletion. “We call on YouTube to immediately reinstate our account,” it said. The post drew attention in the British press and from members of Parliament.

Within a few hours, Novara’s channel had been restored.

Later, YouTube said Novara had been mistakenly flagged as spam, without providing further detail. “We work quickly to review all flagged content, but with millions of hours of video uploaded on YouTube every day, on occasion we make the wrong call,” YouTube said in a statement.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/business/youtube-novara.html