YouTube censored a video mentioning the suicide of Kurt Cobain


Youtuber Jean-Baptiste Toussaint, who hosts the Tales From The Click channel, was surprised to learn that one of his videos had been deleted. The reason ? He mentioned the suicide of singer Kurt Cobain.

On YouTube, some words no longer fit. Videographer Jean-Baptiste Toussaint, who hosts the Tales From The Click channel, learned this the hard way. In a tweet published on January 17, 2023, the creator explains that one of his videos was deleted for an intriguing reason: he would have talked about the death of Kurt Cobain, the singer of the group Nirvana.

My video on Kurt Cobain was deleted because in it I say that he… committed suicide “explains the youtuber in the tweet. ” That poses a real question. Is it no longer possible to tell the story? Should we modify it by inventing another death? he asks himself.

More and more platforms advocate polite language

The reason might seem absurd at first glance: how not to mention the death of Kurt Cobain, including the suicide in 1994, and a known fact that has always caused a lot of ink to flow? This censorship is however very worrying: not broaching the subject of suicide is no guarantee of safety for spectators.

In the email received by Jean-Baptiste Toussaint and shared on Twitter, we can see that the platform explains that the video would not have respected YouTube’s rules on self-harm. The latter indicates that the YouTube users should not be afraid to talk openly about topics related to mental health, suicide and self-harm in a positive and non-dangerous way », although there are some rules to respect. It is thus forbidden to advocate suicide or self-harm “, or to publish content” explaining how to commit suicide or self-harm “.

Jean-Baptiste Toussaint from the Tales From The Click channel // Source: YouTube / Tales From The Click

It is thus not completely forbidden to mention suicide. So why was the Kurt Cobain video taken down? It is not possible at the time of publication of this article to view the Tales From The Click video: it has been removed by YouTube. We cannot therefore confirm that she respected the rules of the platform, even if it is difficult to imagine that the YouTuber specializing in cinema has made the apology for suicide in his video.

Did YouTube make a mistake and will it put the video of Jean-Baptiste Toussaint back online? For the moment, there has been no public communication on the subject of the platform. Nevertheless, the creators have noticed since the beginning of the year 2023 a tightening of the rules of the site. YouTube is thus increasingly strict on the conditions for monetizing videos, particularly with regard to the use of swear words and insults. Several videographers have complained in particular about the demonetization of a large number of their content, retroactively, because of the new rules.

The story thus raises fears of an even more complete ban on discussions around suicide on YouTube. This is already the case on TikTok, where content moderation is very strict and has given rise to “algospeak”, a way of speaking diverted for creators, so as not to be sanctioned. Instead of “suicide”, English-speaking users use the coined term ” to unalive which could be translated as “retiring from life”. There is currently no real equivalent in French – but if the algospeak one day arrives in turn on YouTube, we will have to find one.


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