The French YouTube scene has been affected by major turbulence for several weeks. Indeed, videographers are targeted by accusations and other complaints for extremely serious facts…
And Google is not against the idea of applying sanctions against the incriminated youtubers.
Speech is also free on YouTube
Since the advent of the #MeToo movement (which encourages women to denounce the rapes and sexual assaults of which they have been victims) in 2007, the actions of many personalities, both media and politicians, have been brought to the fore. This voice continues in other sectors such as content creators on YouTube.
In France, two cases have been very publicized recently: that of Léo Grasset (known for his channel DirtyBiology), targeted by a complaint for rape, and that of Norman Thavaud (Norman makes videos on YouTube). The latter was placed in police custody on Monday, December 5, 2022 for the reasons of rape and corruption of minors. A preliminary investigation has also been launched by the minors protection brigade. In short, as much to say that the French YouTube landscape is not very good…
Additional penalties to be expected?
Until today, the French subsidiary of the video hosting site had remained very silent on these cases. However, the two creators mentioned above are among the most followed on the platform. Contacted by Mediapart, a spokesperson for the service said he was in favor of the establishment of sanctions against youtubers. And it could even go further, since the famous sanctions would be applied when “ a creator’s behavior, on or off YouTube, harms [leurs] users, to [leur] community, to [leurs]
employees or [leur] ecosystem “.
A strong and almost unexpected positioning from Google. But what exactly are we talking about? Here, there does not seem to be a question of a drastic action such as the temporary banning, or even the permanent deletion of a channel. It would rather be a suspension of monetization and a kind of invisibilization of the videographer. The latter, for example, would no longer see his videos appear in the recommendations or in other sections such as the “Trends” or the home page. To put it simply, the person would still be able to post videos, but potentially could no longer generate income from them.
However, according to the article Mediapart, YouTube does not want to be a substitute for justice and encourages victims to come forward to the authorities regarding behavior outside the platform. A case-by-case study will be orchestrated by the authorities of YouTube in order to establish whether there is reason to sanction a videographer or not.
Source : Mediapart
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