These days, “they” blocked JP Sears from YouTube:
In case you do not know who JP is, he’s a comedian running “Awaken with JP” series (yes, there was YouTube channel not long ago). JP made (or used to make) a lot of fun with the current “fashion trends,” typical for today’s young generation. Of course, mainstream likes the trends (this is why we call them “trends”). And when they see a comedian making fun, they blindly hit “report.”
We, the ordinary people, are usually “immune” to humor, which does not resonate with our internal beliefs. If someone makes fun with one of these beliefs, we tend to become aggressive. And what better mark of aggression than hitting the “Report” button? It gives us an instant relief, an instant feeling, “I showed him/them now!”
There’s no problem with such action, or at least that was what I used to think. The problem is with “them.”
“Them” are Their Highnesses, The Censors of the large enterprises.
Google has them. Facebook has them. Medium has them (or so I think, it’d be stupid not to have them).
These censors look after the “purity” of the “speech” across their respective platforms. “They” live in a hardware box, as the first censorship level is usually a bot. “They” might live in a crowded Indian urban area, because a good part of them work in offshore call centers. Or “they” might live in a European city (I know for at least a few “customer care” centers in Sofia).
One common part of all these “they” is the strict set of rules, which say what is right and what is wrong for the platform they’re serving. I’m not blaming “them”: a private company should be responsible to none, but their shareholders!
Normally, first-level bots would look after specific words or sentences. Yes, the neural networks nowadays can detect not only “offensive” or “aggressive” words, but also tone, inclination, even sarcasm. If the detection algorithms capture “suspicious content,” and get combined with “too many reports”, then there’s a quite high probability your content will get “automatically marked” as “unsafe” for the respective community.
If you contest the decision, then most probably a human censor will look after it. It depends if you’re “famous” (e.g., bringing money to the platform), or not. Depending on the human censor’s decision, your content might get unblocked (“we’re sorry, we all make mistakes, bots are humans too, errr… not”), or you might get even deeper in the “blocked content hell.” Worst case — you may stay there forever. We’ve seen that (on some gaming platforms, too).
If you’re famous enough on the platform (e.g. bring enough money), you may get a second chance to appeal. In most cases, like 99.99%, it will be your last one. After that, it’s forever. And ever. For the glory of the offended society.
I will miss JP Sears. It won’t be just me. But the word here is not about my feelings.
It’s about “them”.
I think “them” are us. Every, single one of us. Me including.
Every person, who during his online experience got offended and hit the “Report” button. In my past, I had times when the “Report” button was my best friend. Until I realized this very simple truth:
We are the killers of one of the most basic human rights, one of the most important Freedoms: the Freedom of Speech.
I believe the Freedom of Speech gave us the world, which we live today. We might not always like it, but it’s the best world we could build.
A simple comparison between areas, where the Freedom of the Speech is guaranteed, and the areas, where it’s not, will give you a solid ground for liking or disliking. And I also believe that our “speech immune systems” weakened. They weakened in the same way our natural immune system would weaken if we live in a sterile environment.
We weakened our “free speech immune system” by generously using bots, first-level supporters, second-level grand-censors to take care about opinions and people, who do not resonate with the “common public trend.”
We weakened our “free speech immune system” by listening to our immediate urge to “report” everyone, with whom we disagree, for whatever reason! All these instruments act as extensions to our crying, offended souls, who scream “report it, ban it, take it away, I can’t listen to this anymore”.
Our weak “free speech immune system” causes the biggest platforms to act as censors. They try to provide an environment, where everyone would “feel good”. Which is impossible, as the world is quite different. And the final result is: the noisiest crowd wins. The whiniest, the most offended and crying people, who overuse their “Report” buttons drive the direction, in which the world moves.
This direction kills the Free Speech.
We’re already seeing the poisonous fruits of this “new reality”. Blocking JP is one of them. Blocking for humor. Imagine George Carlin living in our times! I bet he’d be almost immediately banned by Facebook and Google. Altogether.
Stop using that f***ing “Report” button. Do your kids a favor! Train your “immune system.”
P.S. This article will also go to my blog, in case it’s “too offensive” for Medium (oh, the irony! Where’s the “Report” button here?)
