{"id":338056,"date":"2023-02-18T15:30:12","date_gmt":"2023-02-18T20:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/?p=338056"},"modified":"2023-02-18T02:03:24","modified_gmt":"2023-02-18T07:03:24","slug":"new-youtube-ceo-neal-mohan-supports-censorship-of-misinformation-boosting-authoritative-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/2023\/02\/new-youtube-ceo-neal-mohan-supports-censorship-of-misinformation-boosting-authoritative-sources\/","title":{"rendered":"New YouTube CEO Neal Mohan supports censorship of \u201cmisinformation,\u201d boosting \u201cauthoritative\u201d sources"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Tom Parker, Reclaim The Net<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\" Similar policies to the old boss.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, former\u00a0YouTube<\/a>\u00a0CEO\u00a0Susan Wojcicki<\/a>\u00a0announced that she would be stepping down and that YouTube\u2019s Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan would be the new CEO.<\/p>\n

During Wojcicki\u2019s tenure, which ran from February 5, 2014 till February 16, 2023, YouTube made many unpopular decisions such as introducing far-reaching \u201chate speech<\/a>\u201d and \u201charassment<\/a>\u201d rules,\u00a0restricting creators that produce content that\u2019s \u201cmade for kids\u201d<\/a>, and\u00a0hiding public dislikes<\/a>. Wojcicki also made\u00a0many<\/a>\u00a0public<\/a>\u00a0statements<\/a>\u00a0in support of censoring creators based on broad and subjective terms such as \u201cmisinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

TRUTH LIVES on at\u00a0https:\/\/sgtreport.tv\/<\/a><\/p>\n

But Mohan, who joined\u00a0Google<\/a>\u00a0in 2007 and became YouTube\u2019s Chief Product Officer in November 2015, was a high-ranking and influential YouTube executive for much of Wojcicki\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n

The Chief Product Officer is responsible for all product-related matters and is usually in charge of product strategy and product vision. And\u00a0according to Wojcicki<\/a>, Mohan has led YouTube\u2019s Trust and Safety team \u2014 the team that\u2019s responsible for censoring content and crafting censorship policies.<\/p>\n

Mohan and Wojcicki also worked together long before either became YouTube executives. Wojcicki said she brought Mohan to Google in 2007 and that she has worked with him since he joined the company.<\/p>\n

Mohan would often promote and defend controversial YouTube policies while Wojcicki was CEO.<\/p>\n

He\u00a0repeatedly<\/a>\u00a0supported<\/a>\u00a0YouTube\u2019s policy of artificially boosting so-called \u201cauthoritative\u201d sources instead of the independent creators that helped to build the platform.<\/p>\n

Mohan made one of his most infamous statements on this topic in 2020 when he said\u00a0creators \u201cespousing\u201d opinions \u201cin their basement\u201d can\u2019t provide context on the news<\/a>. Mohan used this basement analogy to justify the importance of boosting \u201cauthoritative voices.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2019, Mohan\u00a0revealed that YouTube was working on its controversial \u201ccreator-on-creator harassment\u201d rules<\/a>. These rules resulted in creators being\u00a0hit with harsh punishments for going \u201ctoo far\u201d with insults, mockery, and jokes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mohan also\u00a0announced YouTube\u2019s decision to retroactively delete several videos from comedian Steven Crowder<\/a>\u00a0because they violated this new harassment policy, despite the videos being compliant with YouTube rules when they were uploaded. At the time, the practice of retroactive enforcement was rare on YouTube but since this announcement, it has become increasingly common.<\/p>\n

In 2020, Mohan announced several censorship initiatives including\u00a0an \u201cIntelligence Desk\u201d that targets emerging \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and a\u00a0ban on videos that \u201cmight\u201d encourage people to ignore stay-at-home advice<\/a>. He also\u00a0confirmed that YouTube\u2019s strict coronavirus misinformation policy would apply to the comments section<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Mohan\u00a0discussed Youtube\u2019s efforts to censor \u201cnew misinformation\u201d preemptively<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0highlighted YouTube\u2019s \u201cunprecedented action\u201d when deleting over 70,000 Ukraine war videos<\/a>. He also\u00a0described censorship of Russian disinformation as \u201ca constant ongoing endeavor.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Not only did Mohan lead YouTube\u2019s censorship team and have responsibility for the YouTube product during seven of the nine years when Wojcicki was in charge but he, like Wojcicki, has thrown his support behind censorship based on buzzwords such as misinformation.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnsuring that our platform is not a place for misinformation to spread, other types of\u2026what we deem to be violative content is my number one priority, the top priority of\u2026all of us at YouTube,\u201d Mohan\u00a0said in 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While Mohan has yet to make any changes since taking the helm at YouTube, his past statements and actions indicate that the trend of increased censorship based on subjective buzzwords and preferential treatment of mainstream media outlets on YouTube is likely to continue under his reign.<\/p>\n

Read More @ ReclaimTheNet.org<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Tom Parker, Reclaim The Net: Similar policies to the old boss. Yesterday, former\u00a0YouTube\u00a0CEO\u00a0Susan Wojcicki\u00a0announced that she would be stepping down and that YouTube\u2019s Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan would be the new CEO. During Wojcicki\u2019s tenure, which ran from February 5, 2014 till February 16, 2023, YouTube made many unpopular decisions such as introducing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[148797,148796],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338056"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}