I chose to post my full report on the city council's new surveillance tech to my own blog instead of YouTube, and it got taken down in 48 hours.

The report had video of the public meeting and my analysis of the facial recognition software they're buying. YouTube said it violated their policy on 'harmful misinformation' because I cited a study from a university the platform doesn't trust. My blog host got a complaint too, but they held firm. Now the only place to read it is on a self-hosted site with maybe 200 views. If I'd just posted a clipped, neutral version on YouTube, it'd have reached thousands. But then it wouldn't have been the whole story. Has anyone else had a legit news deep-dive get flagged like this? What's the best place to host this stuff now?

4 comments

4 Comments

angelaw781mo ago

Right, so public meeting footage is 'harmful misinformation' now. Makes perfect sense.

elliotm572mo ago

Was it really the study or the video footage?

susan_adams2mo ago

Look at the takedown text they sent me. It directly quotes the title of the university PDF and calls it "proprietary data," which is weird for a public study. The video mention feels like a side note, honestly, just a way to find the link. The main target was clearly the document.

blake7922mo ago

Elliot's got a point, but the video was from a public meeting. The takedown notice specifically named the university study I linked.