Social media giant, YouTube is investigating how videos critical of the Chinese Communist Party disappeared overnight from the platform.
According to a report by The Guardian, the removal of the content has triggered complaints of censorship by prominent figures including Palmer Lucky and Senator Ted Cruz.
YouTube tried to explain, saying the videos were filtered off the site in error by the artificial intelligence being used in place of human handlers who have been forced to work from home due to Coronavirus restrictions.
The media giant was forced to launch an inquest into the removal of content after technology entrepreneur, Palmer Lucky tweeted about the censorship of content critical of the Chinese Communist party.
The founder of virtual reality company, Oculus tweeted;
“YouTube has deleted every comment I ever made about the Wumao, an internet propaganda division of the Chinese Communist party.”
He went ahead to accuse the media giant of starting a new era policy censorship when it comes to China.
Republican Senator, Ted Cruz reacted to the apparent censorship of anti-chinese sentiments, saying it was disturbing.
“Why is Google/YouTube censoring Americans on behalf of the CCP? This is WRONG.
“Big Tech is drunk with power. The Sherman Act prohibits abusing monopoly power. DOJ (Department of Justice) needs to stop this NOW.”
The senator tweeted in support of Palmer Lucky.
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The Donald Trump led white House has always accused large tech firms of being biased against conservative views and called for them to be fined for anti-trust violations.
In response to Palmer Lucky, YouTube said it did not make any policy changes, same as Google, it’s parent company. It said it’s filters were designed to remove spam and hateful comments from the platform.
According to a spokesperson for the digital giant;
This appears to be an error in our enforcement systems and we are investigating.
“Users can report suspected issues to troubleshoot errors and help us make product improvements.”
The company had announced back in March that more content may be deleted than usual because of its dependence on artificial intelligence due to a present lack of human handlers.
This however may not be unconnected to the growing cold war between China and the United States.
Asides from the trade war that was on before the Coronavirus hit, Trump’s white House blames China for the spread of the virus.
Trump has openly accused China of not doing enough to contain the virus within its borders as well as hiding the true nature of the effects from the rest of the world until it was too late.
He also accused the WHO of being too China-friendly, threatning to cut funding to the global health body.
China in response has resorted to propaganda to discredit the allegations by the US President knowing fully well that he is not well loved in the mainstream media.
The Chinese government accused Trump of trying to hide his own failures by blaming China and the WHO.