YouTube criticized after removing videos of robot fights for showing 'the deliberate infliction of animal suffering'
- YouTube reportedly removed multiple videos from its platform of robots fighting, claiming they showed "the deliberate infliction of animal suffering."
- Multiple robot makers have posted to social media to say their YouTube videos were removed for content violations, even after moderators manually reviewed the marked videos.
- Many of the robot-fighting videos have since been allowed back onto the platform.
- YouTube's efforts to moderate content have been widely criticized not only by robot builders, but by the LGBTQ community, right-wing politicians, and child safety advocates.
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Robot makers and builders are calling out YouTube for taking down videos of robot fights for allegedly depicting animal cruelty.
Multiple YouTube creators, including many who have been contestants on the TV competition BattleBots, received emails from YouTube notifying them that some of their robot-fighting videos have been taken down from the platform. According to these robot builders, YouTube wrote to creators that their videos were taken down for showing "the deliberate infliction of animal suffering or the forcing of animals to fight."
"Today is a sad day," one affected robot maker, Jamison Go, wrote on Facebook. "Robot builders across the world cried out in agony as YouTube's algorithm falsely identified personal videos of robot sport as 'animal cruelty' and 'cock fighting'. Today I lost nine videos but others lost hundreds or more."
Another creator, named Sarah Pohorecky, told VICE that one of her videos was recently removed, and that her account was given a strike for violating YouTube policies.
Many of the robot-building videos have since been reinstated on YouTube. YouTube said these robot-building videos were "mistakenly removed," and issued a statement that the platform regularly uses when it reinstates videos it has previously decided to delete:
Here is one of the robot-fighting videos that YouTube originally said depicted animal cruelty:
YouTube's content moderation policies have been widely criticized. Previous to drawing the ire of robot builders, YouTube has been critiqued for failing to remove videos containing hate speech, favoring its money-making top stars, inadequately protecting children on its platform, and demonetizing LGBTQ content.