YouTube has “Trusted Flaggers” who help the video streaming site identify extremist content, but the groups participating in the program have confidentiality agreements. The Daily Caller reported this week, though, that one of the groups policing videos is the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The SPLC, which once labeled Ben Carson an "extremist," is helping Google/YouTube decide what content is "extremist" https://t.co/j6DVShsXrQ
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) February 28, 2018
They also provided a map that a would-be mass shooter used to target the Family Research Council https://t.co/Aw99vTcdyU
— Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) March 2, 2018
The SPLC’s close involvement in policing content on YouTube is likely to cause consternation among conservatives who worry that they may not be treated fairly. The left-wing group has consistently labeled pedestrian conservative organizations as “hate groups” and has been directly tied to violence against conservatives in the past. Floyd Lee Corkins, who opened fire at the Family Research Center in 2012, said he chose the FRC for his act of violence because the SPLC listed them as a “hate group.”
The SPLC has also dedicated “Hate Watch” pages to conservatives like “Bell Curve” author Charles Murray, who was physically and violently confronted by a group of protestors after a speech at Middlebury College last spring; a professor escorting him was treated at the hospital.
https://twitter.com/instapundit/status/969201079752843264
Actually, I never did. The SPLC is a hateful cesspool of malignant leftism. https://t.co/pQ9HibIzse
— Roger Kimball (@rogerkimball) March 1, 2018
Becket Adams writes in The Washington Examiner:
In 2015, for example. the group caught well-deserved criticism after it put Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson on its “extremist watch list,” citing the one-time presidential candidate’s “anti-LGBT views.” Later, in 2016, the SPLC labeled women’s rights activist, female genital mutilation victim, atheist, and ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali an “anti-Muslim extremist” because she opposes Islamic extremism. The British activist and extremist-turned-counter-extremist Maajid Nawaz was placed in the same category.
The left-wing advocacy group lumps pro-family and pro-Israel organizations with actual neo-Nazis. If YouTube is serious about monitoring and rooting out actually objectionable content, this is not the way to go. The SPLC will slap the word “extremist” on just about anything so long as it’s right-tilting.
Anything but respectable. https://t.co/9si9S7N6TQ
— PaulSuperapple (@paulsuperapple) March 1, 2018
Journalist Ken Silverstein … "summed it up best in 2010 when he said (SPLC) is 'essentially a fraud' with 'a habit of casually labeling organizations as 'hate groups.'" PS For SPLC, it's surely about keeping donations a-flowin' https://t.co/Y4vx26vqQ2
— Amy Alkon (@amyalkon) March 1, 2018
The @splcenter is a hate group and should be labeled as such by @DHSgov and @TheJusticeDept. https://t.co/ebbRijJgOF
— 'Cuse Me While I Scream (@FeistyMonk) March 1, 2018
any organization that labels @Ayaan anything other than "hero" deserves to be burnt to the ground. https://t.co/4svRAJyxHX
— JMA ?? ?? (@tobasoft) March 1, 2018
* * *
Update:
Southern Poverty Law Center has confirmed @DailyCaller's exclusive report that they are part of Google/YouTube's Trusted Flaggers program. They wouldn't return any of our calls/voicemails/emails but confirmed to ThinkProgress that they're in the program. pic.twitter.com/M8c5VSpZNY
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) March 1, 2018
Related:
BOGUS: Katie Pavlich takes CNN to the shed over ‘hate group’ piece using SPLC’s fake list https://t.co/TWTSZbH9Qt
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 18, 2017
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