YouTube apologizes amid furor over blocking LGBT videos
YouTube apologized on Monday for upsetting its community by blocking and filtering videos made by its LGBTQ+ community.
But the initial apology was met with a lukewarm response.
The problem occurred with YouTube’s “Restricted Mode,” a feature designed to “use community flagging, age-restrictions, and other signals to identify and filter out potentially inappropriate content.”
Restricted mode is supposed to protect users who don’t want to see mature content, but has also been filtering out videos that don’t contain mature content.
“Sorry for all the confusion with Restricted Mode. Some videos have been incorrectly labeled and that’s not right. We’re on it! More to come,” the company said in a statement posted to its YouTube Creators Twitter account.
Earlier, the company claimed those videos were not being singled out. “LGBTQ+ videos are available in Restricted Mode, but videos that discuss more sensitive issues may not be,” said YouTube in a statement. “We regret any confusion this has caused and are looking into your concerns.”
Replies to YouTube’s statement on Twitter suggested that many high-profile vloggers, including Jenna Marbles and Thomas Sanders, are not satisfied with the platform’s response. At the time of publishing, many YouTubers are still reporting their videos that include discussions about terminology or their coming out stories as being blocked.
“You blocked my coming out video that addresses labels we face daily, a video MADE for LGBTQ youth — nothing is sensitive,” tweeted vlogger Jordan Doww.
YouTube did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
This article was originally published on CNET.
