YouTube fears implications for content producers

YouTube published a note on the Fake News PL, which is scheduled to be voted on in the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies, next Tuesday (2). The video platform fears “huge implications for the entire internet, including YouTube’s content creators”.

According to the platform, the project, reported by federal deputy Orlando Silva (PCdoB-SP), includes “ambiguous aspects” and “may create exceptions for the application of our policies, generating inequalities among creators”. Among the points of concern, the platform pointed out the exemption of some content creators from obeying the “rules on misinformation” and the risk of “giving the Government maximum authority over what may or may not be on YouTube”. “Passing this Bill through an accelerated process will make it much more difficult to resolve problems like these and avoid a disastrous outcome,” he says.

In the note, the platform also reinforced that without “clear control” of what can be removed, “abuses” can be committed without any reason or possibility of appeal. “Legitimate content could be removed without much explanation,” he says.

“In practice, this means that, in order to avoid legal punishment, services like YouTube will be encouraged to aggressively remove content for fear of being held accountable. In this scenario, the loser is freedom of expression: millions of creators in Brazil who come to YouTube every day to express their ideas and participate in important debates may have their opinions removed from the platform”, points out the platform.

The internet video network also highlighted that the “preventive actions” imposed in the project do not take into account what is already done by YouTube to prevent the propagation of videos against misinformation, hate speech, violence, harassment, child safety. “In Brazil alone, in 2022, YouTube removed more than one million videos that violated our policies”, he points out. Finally, YouTube pointed out the need to debate the proposal before voting in plenary and created the #maisdebate2630 campaign.