[Klathmon]

1. Doing this could basically cause the same result, as the cost of more support could easily make it so that they need to start charging or denying who can be a content creator. Neither of us have numbers, so it's all just guesses, but I'd be willing to wager that spending a TON of money and training on new CSRs wouldn't really change all that much, especially when telling someone explicitly "you were banned because X" is almost never a good idea, all this would do (in my opinion) is create a much more expensive, slower, and more annoying version of the same problem.

2. I think this would help, but it's not going to prevent mentally ill people from being mentally ill. They aren't going to say "oh well this removal was justified and was consistent with the others", they are going to find a perceived wrongdoing and will latch on to that, because they are mentally ill.

3. I've come to the conclusion that this is literally impossible. You can't be politically neutral. People aren't politically neutral, and therefore the things they create or moderate can't be politically neutral (whether they mean to do it or otherwise). Even algorithms that are created by people can show biases.

[manjushri]

WRT #3, the problem seems to be moreso consciously executed covert and overt political censorship/demonetization of undesireable speech rather than the problem of unconscious biases of developers. It's as simple as refraining from censorship

[Klathmon]

But when "refraining from censorship" ends with advertisers (your main source of income) pulling out, your options become "censor videos" or "shutdown the service".

"Not playing the game" isn't ever an option here.

[manjushri]

>But when "refraining from censorship" ends with advertisers (your main source of income) pulling out, your options become "censor videos" or "shutdown the service".

False dichotomy, there are other business models that don't require selling out to the whims of advertisers.

[Klathmon]

And YouTube is trying out those other business models, however the extreme vast majority of users don't want to pay, and the content creators already have the option to self-host, self-fund, or even use YouTube un-monetized and setup and run their own in-video ads.

YouTube is mainly an ad supported product, and just because other business models exist doesn't mean that you can call curation of the content "censorship".

This would be the exact same situation if say a website used a "subscription" model where you paid per month, then the credit-card processor decided that the content was "unethical" and dropped the video service as a customer. And that's not theoretical, it's happened to many porn hosting websites out there.

"Not playing the game" isn't an option, no matter what at the end of the day you need to "censor" some stuff (even if just to avoid getting in legal trouble), and that "censorship" will always be more strict than absolutely necessary, as the risk for a "not removed but bad video" far outweighs the downsides of a "removed but ultimately not bad video".

We are in the golden age of information in my opinion. It has never been easier to self-host and self-fund your own content in a way that is basically uncensorable. Use it! But don't go trying to change or destroy other platforms that explicitly don't want that content, or want to pursue another business model. This isn't a zero-sum game.

[Melchizedek]

>You can't be politically neutral

No, but it's pretty easy not to be censorship happy, far left SJW activists.