The hashtag #YouTubeIsOverParty was trending on Twitter as awareness has grown about YouTube’s seemingly selective content restriction. According to many creators and fans, a large number of videos discussing LGBT+ subject matter have been blocked on the site’s restricted mode, raising anger and protest among community members and allies.
Restricted mode is an optional feature that, according to Google (YouTube’s owner), is “used by a very small subset of users who want to have a more limited YouTube experience.” The feature is intended to filter out potentially inappropriate, sensitive, or mature videos, and is often used to provide safe viewing for children or in institutions such as schools and libraries. Although Google maintains that LGBT videos are not being specifically blocked, some users have pointed out the opposite and have taken to Twitter to share their findings.
Although not all LGBT videos are blocked on restricted mode and other genres (including some music and gaming) have also been affected, this perceived targeting of the community is very upsetting to YouTube viewers. Google has emphasized that restricted mode is optional and told the Gay Times that the feature “aims to protect children and families from inappropriate videos.” This statement, however, implies that there is something inappropriate or wrong about being gay that children and families shouldn’t see. Many opponents to this position have pointed out the importance of YouTube as an outlet for LGBT youth to connect with others like them, including many of the site’s most popular creators who took to the Internet to share their struggles.
It is fair to mention that individual videos probably aren’t specifically targeted–content is filtered using community flagging and computer algorithms–which introduces the possibility of a flaw in the system causing this upsetting pattern of restriction. Popular queer YouTube influencer Rowan Ellis, however, says in this video that originally drew attention to this issue that she thinks “it’s really important to look at why LGBT content has been deemed as inappropriate. This goes far beyond just a mistake that YouTube might have made and they are going to draw attention to and fix later.”
Until a “fix” comes, viewers will continue to back up their favorite LGBT creators with the hope that YouTube’s filtering system won’t strengthen homophobia or prevent LGBT youth from finding support, as many have for years, through role models on the Internet just like them.