When in need, call a specialist – at least in the language. Google has started hiring Arab speaking moderators around the world in order to police YouTube against militants.
“The search giant will not disclose the number of new staff, but sources said it now has Arabic speakers in every time zone to deal with the problem,” Daily Mail reported.
Earlier this week, the Islamic State group had uploaded a 22-minute well produced film of Jordanian pilot Moaz al Kasasbeh being burned alive onto YouTube. The video remained there for several hours before it was removed by moderators. However, by that time, images were already being circulated on Twitter.
YouTube guidelines ban users from uploading videos that ‘incites others to commit violent acts’, but does not filter content before it goes online. Instead, controversial content can be flagged by the public.
The tech giant has handed special powers to users such as the Home Office, which reliably flag extremist content, making it easy for them to report hundreds of controversial videos at a time.
Its moderators then go through the content, and decide whether it is suitable for YouTube, whether it needs to be censored or removed, but the tech giant says it does not have enough resources to monitor every piece of content uploaded.
Google allows ‘graphic violence’ to stay on the site if it has enough documentary value – for example as a news source – but deletes the most extreme footage and prevents any accounts run by terrorist groups.
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