#Blacklivesmatter

After the tragic death of George Floyd last week, “#BlackLivesMatter” movement quickly spread out to many different cities in the US. An online talk between President Barack Obama and other national/local leaders on the police reform movement was ranked the first in the Trending list.

Protests that took place in the US last weekend went violent in some of the regions, and shops and malls in the area were destroyed and looted. A video footage of Jake Paul, a famous YouTuber, was released through his videographer’s Instagram story. It showed Jake Paul walking around a shopping mall in Arizona with other violent protestors. It was not clear in the video whether he joined the looting, but it was negative enough to raise controversy online. He later posted on his social media that he was not a part of any vandalism or looting, but many people were not convinced, as he is infamous for his past actions on YouTube.

Two of this week’s trending videos were reviews of <Old School Intern>, which first aired on MBC last week. It tells the story of an employee who got a chance to get revenge for his former boss who bullied him at work. YouTuber "Gomong”’s review has received higher views than that of “G Movie“. "Gomong“’s thumbnail is more explicit than the thumbnail of “G Movie”’s review. "Gomong”’s thumbnail is about a scene in which the boss cuts an employee's head with scissors at a restaurant. Many viewers expressed their anger toward the scene through comments and also their expectations for the drama.

BJ Chu Jung, who had been living with Bo Kyeom for two months, went back to her home. Bo Kyeom made an announcement last week about Chu Jung leaving his house, and Chu Jung expressed gratitude on how her Afreeca TV live and YouTube channel were able to grow significantly thanks to Bo Kyeom. Bo Kyeom has steadily uploaded new videos to his channel “보겸 BK”, and his recent video with BJ Elin has reached 1.8 million views in just one day.

• Worldwide

Until now, North Korea’s way of communicating with the world was posting edited versions of their news broadcasts to social media. However, their interest recently shifted to YouTube in order to target younger generations of the world. They have opened up few channels that promote North Korea and its lifestyle. The first channel is “NORTH KOREA TODAY”. It is not yet to be confirmed whether this channel is actually run by North Korean officials, but the channel itself uploads different contents on North Korea. Sujin, from the channel “NEW DPRK”, is a 7-year-old girl who vlogs her daily life in Pyongyang. Un A, from the channel “Truth”(former name: Echo DPRK) speaks fluent English in her own YouTube program “Un A’s Pyongyang Tour Series”. The purpose of these channels can be guessed to promote the prevalent ideology and the local communities of North Korea, rather than educating their own citizens.

“Angle Jjung TV” is a channel that introduces different skills of fishing. It has 213k subscribers, but some of the channel’s videos have reached over one million views. Many viewers seem to be interested in fishing as they leave comments on her fishing skills or the size of the fish. However, it is not difficult to find comments that say, “I’m not even interested in fishing but I’m watching this because you are beautiful.” Fishing was considered to be a boring hobby mostly enjoyed by men, but Angle Jjung TV proved her love and passion toward fishing through her videos. Some left comments saying that they have changed their thoughts on fishing, that it is just like another sport which everyone, regardless of sex or age, can enjoy.

• YouTube fights back against bias lawsuit from LGBTQ creators (June 3rd, 2020)

The fight between a group of LGBTQ YouTube creators and the video platform’s parent company, Google, over censorship faced its first real test on Tuesday as a California court heard arguments from both groups to determine whether the case should be dismissed.

Several YouTubers filed a lawsuit in August 2019 claiming that YouTube’s algorithm suppresses recommendations and makes it difficult to earn ad revenue. The company denies it discriminates against creators. The original lawsuit claims that YouTube uses “unlawful content regulation, distribution, and monetization practices that stigmatize, restrict, block, demonetize, and financially harm the LGBT Plaintiffs and the greater LGBT Community.” The lawsuit alleges LBGTQ personalities are being treated unfairly and in an unconstitutional manner because of both the content in their videos and the fact that they identify as queer creators.

Google disputes those claims, saying the platform’s distribution algorithms are protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. “We have a statute that is not content-based,” Brian Willen, lead counsel for Google in the case, argued during the hearing, adding that “under Section 230, you can’t be treated as a publisher for any speech.” Divino Group’s Peter Obstler, who is acting as the lead attorney representing several YouTubers in the case, claims that YouTube (and therefore, Google) isn’t protected by Section 230 because the statute is unconstitutional.

A few weeks ago, the Department of Justice intervened to defend the statute, essentially siding with Google and asking the court to dismiss the case. The department argued that Section 230 doesn’t limit content that YouTubers can upload to YouTube, and YouTube also isn’t preventing creators from uploading. “We’re alleging that the computer code in the machines is discriminatory,” Obstler tells The Verge. “And that Google is embedding data into people’s YouTube posts that allows the filtering machine to basically filter the content not based on anything they said, but based on whether they’re LGBTQ creators.”

In a slightly ironic turn of events, a new executive order from President Donald Trump is now being used by Obstler to further argue his case. Trump is seeking to revoke Section 230 after a public fight with Twitter over the moderation of his tweets, something Obstler refers to as a “new wrinkle” in the case.

At the heart of this debate is a complex discussion about platform governance, but the YouTubers who filed the lawsuit are looking for more direct responses and answers from the website they use to generate income. Stephanie Frosch, a queer YouTuber with close to 370,000 subscribers, was earning approximately $23,000 a year from YouTube in 2009. Now, Frosch tells The Verge she’s “lucky if I get $100 a month.”

The decision on whether the case is dismissed now sits with a judge. If the case is dismissed, Obstler will take it to the ninth circuit and appeal. “It’s not publishing; it’s discrimination in publishing,” Obstler says. “And I don’t think publishers get to discriminate under the law.”