Tag: youtube

‘So Many Threats’: UK Outlines Plan to Control What Public Can See on YouTube

The U.K. is pushing a proposal that could give government officials unprecedented influence over what people see on YouTube and other digital platforms, medical commentator John Campbell, Ph.D., warned this week.

“My concern is that the state is going to mandate what videos are promoted on YouTube,” Campbell said. “That’s basically what this seems to be about.”

In a recent podcast, Campbell examined the U.K. government’s new media green paper, “Watch this space: a new strategic direction for UK media,” and what it could mean for online speech.

He said the proposal could fundamentally change how people discover videos. Instead of seeing content based primarily on their interests or what other viewers are watching, government-backed sources could receive preferential placement.

“It wouldn’t be popularity that determines what videos become top of the YouTube feed, therefore most likely to be watched,” Campbell said. “It’s going to be the ones that the state mandates as appropriate for you because you can’t judge for yourself. … At least that’s the threat from this paper.”

The green paper, published in June by the U.K. Department for Culture, Media & Sport, proposes exploring a “prominence regime” that would ensure public service broadcasters and other designated “trusted” news providers remain easy to find as audiences increasingly consume news online rather than through traditional television.

Campbell suggested the proposals go far beyond the U.K. media industry. “This is going to affect everyone,” he said.

‘If this doesn’t send a bit of a shudder down your spine … it certainly should’

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These YouTubers Helped Bring Down a $65 Million Multinational Fraud Ring – And We Should Commend Them

I hate scammers. I absolutely do.

You’ve probably seen them trying to take action against those who don’t know any better. Conniving types both here in the U.S. and overseas (mainly in India) are using personal information to try to scam older citizens out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. And they’re still at it, sending fake emails and placing phone calls in the hopes of snagging one more victim.

But guess who’s doing something about it. You won’t believe this.

YouTubers.

Usually, people run YouTube channels to discuss controversial topics or simply try to do stupid things in an effort to build an audience. However, there are two that have done something remarkable here – they’ve teamed up with government agencies to bring down a fraud ring that has been responsible for over $65 million in fraud.

The YouTubers in question are Scammer Payback and Trilogy Media. Most of the time, they keep an eye open for scammers and try to catch them in the act. And they’ve inspired other YouTube channels to do the same, stopping these fraudsters before they can hurt actual people.

But according to the United States Attorney’s Office, these two uncovered the scheme, which has since led to convictions across the board. The report reveals that, with the information from these two, 28 alleged members of a Chinese organized crime ring have been charged in four federal grand jury indictments.

And these guys didn’t hold back against their victims. One was even a 97-year-old San Diego widow of a Holocaust survivor who, because of them, lost her entire life savings. (Hopefully she’ll find a way to recover it now that this ring has been busted wide open.)

With the help of these two YouTubers, Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the IRS-Criminal Investigations carried out the search and seizure warrants, later resulting in the arrests. A number of assets were seized because of this, including luxury vehicles like a 2025 GMC Yukon Denali.

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YouTube defends video that falsely claims Sydney massacre survivor is ‘crisis actor’

A Google executive told an inquiry on Tuesday that a YouTube video that falsely claimed a wounded survivor of an antisemitic massacre in Sydney was a crisis actor blooded with makeup had met the platform’s standards and would remain online.

Google Australia manager Rachel Lord was testifying at a government inquiry into the spread of antisemitism in Australia including an attack by two gunmen on a Sydney Hanukkah celebration in December that left 15 dead.

Lord was questioned about a complaint made by survivor Arsen Ostrovsky about a video posted on YouTube. Ostrovsky was attacked online after an image showing blood streaming from a wound in his head was posted on X two hours after he was shot.

Lord said the decision to allow the video to remain on YouTube had been reviewed at “quite senior levels.”

“We have spent a lot of time thinking about where we draw the line and we continue to re-evaluate where we are doing that,” Lord said.

Richard Lancaster, the lawyer leading the inquiry’s evidence, referred to a transcript of the video to avoid showing the images in public.

Four men appear on split screen saying Ostrovsky’s bleeding head appeared “very crisis actor-ish” and mentioned “makeup.” They also describe him as an “intelligence asset” who had a “degree in theater.”

The video also describes Ostrovsky as a Zionist and claims the massacre was a “false flag operation.” Police allege father and son shooters Sajid and Naveed Akram were inspired by the Islamic State group.

Lancaster told Lord the video remaining online demonstrated a “really serious deficiency” in YouTube’s hate speech guidelines.

Lord replied that she appreciated Lancaster’s “feedback.”

YouTube told Australia’s online safety regulator three days after the massacre that the platform was “focused on ensuring Australians and all users around the world have access to high quality information about the tragic events,” Lord said.

Ostrovsky told the inquiry last month that he had been targeted by online hate, abuse, vilification and AI manipulation since he suffered the minor head wound on Dec. 14.

The inquiry was then shown an AI-generated image of Ostrovsky apparently laughing as someone applied fake blood to his head.

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YouTube Warns Independent UK Creators of Impending Censorship Push From Labour Government

American video-sharing platform YouTube told users in Britain that, under pressure from the left-wing Labour Party government, independent creators will likely see their content suppressed.

The British government has been accused of attempting to silence political opposition, with YouTube telling UK creators that proposed new rules would include a “prominence regime” that would force sites like YouTube to give a “privileged position” to the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and other legacy media.

The notice said that artificially propping up establishment media would naturally result in independent media being downranked and obscured from view, as “pushing this group forward means pushing everyone else downward. Mandatory prioritisation of broadcasters would affect how your content reaches your audience, regardless of what your audience actually wants to see.”

“Mandating prominence for established media networks would push the UK’s diverse mix of independent journalists, educators, and digital-first businesses down the line,” YouTube added.

Creators were also told that this would impact their ability to grow their communities, generate views, and ultimately earn money as a business.

The government is said to have told the site that legacy broadcasters had the “trust” of the state to provide accurate reporting, which YouTube noted implies that “digital-first voices are less credible, damaging the foundational trust that sustains the creator economy.”

This comes despite the BBC recently facing significant scandals involving the accuracy of its reporting, including last year when it was forced to apologise to U.S. President Trump after a documentary produced by the public broadcaster deceptively spliced together different sections of his speech on January 6th 2021, to falsely give the impression that he had encouraged supporters to riot, when he did the exact opposite.

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DOJ Sought YouTube Subscriber Data

Federal prosecutors went looking for the personal details of everyone who subscribed to three YouTube channels and a judge refused to let them.

Newly unsealed court records from the Justice Department’s prosecution of people who disrupted a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota show the government reaching for subscriber data that had little to do with the conduct it was investigating.

We obtained a copy of the warrant application for you here.

Journalists and commentators Don Lemon and Georgia Fort were charged as part of the disruption, though both allege they were there as reporters rather than participants.

On February 24, prosecutors filed five search warrants. Three of them asked YouTube to turn over the names, mailing addresses, residential addresses, business addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, and IP addresses for every subscriber to channels run by Lemon, Fort, and activist William Kelly, whose channel goes by DaWoke Farmer.

The applications, sworn out by Homeland Security Investigations agent Timothy Gerber, went beyond the journalists and activists running the channels. They swept toward the audience, the ordinary people whose only link to the case was having clicked the channels’ subscribe button.

Magistrate Judge John Docherty rejected all five, several of them for lack of probable cause. On the warrant aimed at Kelly’s channel, Docherty pointed to a video that “appears to be paradigmatic political speech protected by the First Amendment.” A demand that treats a list of viewers as evidence turns watching journalism or activism into a reason to be identified by the state, which is a steep price for pressing play on a livestream.

Prosecutors tried again on March 6, refiling four warrants, including the three tied to Lemon, Fort, and Kelly. This time they cut the request down to the channel owners themselves, dropping the demand for subscriber rosters and asking only for the same categories of identifying data on the three named people.

What’s interesting here is that the government already treats the list of people who subscribe to a YouTube channel as something it can ask a court to hand over.

Picture that same demand landing in a world where every account is welded to a verified government identity. That world is being built right now.

The numbers tell part of the story. By late 2025, half of US states required people to prove their age before viewing some content, with nine states enacting such laws in 2025 alone. The movement started in Louisiana in 2022 as a single-state experiment and turned into a coordinated national push.

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FAFO: American YouTuber Sent to Prison in South Korea for Disrespecting Public Statue

An American YouTuber who goes by the name ‘Johnny Somali’ has been sentenced to prison time in South Korea for disrespecting a public statue and basically gyrating and twerking on it.

This was not only disrespectful but incredibly stupid.

Johnny is going to learn a whole new level of respect for American freedom from this episode. It’s amazing how time spent in a foreign prison can make someone appreciate how great things are in the USA.

The Associated Press reports:

American YouTuber sentenced to 6 months in South Korean prison for offensive stunts

An American YouTuber who sparked national outrage in South Korea for provocative stunts, including dancing on a statue honoring victims of wartime sexual slavery, was sentenced to six months in prison Wednesday.

The Seoul Western District Court found Ramsey Khalid Ismael, a self-proclaimed internet “troll” known online as Johnny Somali, guilty of multiple charges, including obstruction of business and distributing fabricated sexually explicit content.

Prosecutors had sought a three-year term for Ismael, who also faced accusations of harassing staff and visitors at an amusement park, disrupting a convenience store by blasting music and upending noodles onto a table, causing similar scenes on a bus and subway, and distributing non-consensual deepfake videos.

The court said the 25-year-old displayed “severe” disrespect for South Korean law, noting that he offended countless people with livestreamed stunts aimed at generating YouTube revenue. The court ordered his immediate detention following the verdict, citing him as a flight risk.

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Prosecutors Open Criminal Investigation into German Christian YouTubers for Criticising Islam

From Apollo News:

The Hamburg Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating two Christian YouTubers for criticising Muslim antisemitism and Islam in a video. …

Together, Niko and Tino run the Christian YouTube channel Eternal Life, where they post videos in which they talk with people about Jesus and his message. …

In February 2025, the public prosecutor’s office launched an ex officio investigation into Niko over statements in a video from 2024. … The Protestant newspaper Idea was the first to report on the investigation against Niko. Apollo News has now learned that the second YouTuber, Tino, is also under investigation for the same video.

Tino and Niko have taken down the offending video, entitled Islam is not peace (Der Islam ist kein Frieden), but reporters have seen it. Apparently it was posted in the context of the pro-Palestine protests that were unfolding in Hamburg at the time and features Niko editorialising on what he sees as the dangers of Islam. The video claims that “Palestinians are working towards the extermination of the Jews, according to the dictates of the Hadiths”, among them the Hadith proclaiming that “The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews and kill them” – a text which indeed is cited in Article 7 of the Hamas Charter. In the video Niko further claims that “hatred of Jews… is a demonic spirit and does not come from God” and that “Islam and the message behind it bring only hatred, power and murder”, concluding that “this religion is not peace, not joy and not life”.

Prosecutors believe these statements may violate Section 166 of the German Criminal Code, which prohibits the “revilement of religious faiths and religious and ideological communities”. Specifically, StGB §166 makes it illegal to publish content that disparages “the religion or ideology of others” or “a church or other religious or ideological community in Germany… in a manner suited to causing a disturbance of the public peace”. That last clause is the most important. I find it very hard to understand how confessional content like this could even potentially rise to the level of incitement. Since Covid, however, German prosecutors have deployed our speech statutes as maximally as possible in the hopes of proscribing all manner of discourse.

This is another in a long series of cases where we find the German state pursuing small-time content creators for posting the most benign things that would have attracted no attention had there been no criminal investigation. The YouTube channel Eternal Life as of today has only about 1,400 subscribers and 17 videos featuring nothing but bog-standard evangelical Christian content. What is more, the offending video had less than 1,000 views before it was removed. Apparently YouTube classified the video as “dangerous” before the prosecutor’s office came knocking, which probably means some internet censorship NGO was responsible for tipping off both prosecutors and the platform.

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YouTube Removes Pro-Iran Channel Producing Anti-Trump Videos

Google, the owners of YouTube, has removed a channel on the platform belonging to a pro-Iran group producing Lego-themed videos mocking Donald Trump.

“Upon review, we’ve terminated the channel for violating our Spam, deceptive practices and scams policies,” a YouTube spokesperson told Middle East Eye. “YouTube doesn’t allow spam, scams, or other deceptive practices that take advantage of the YouTube community.” 

Explosive Media’s content largely consists of animations ridiculing the US war effort against Iran and poking fun at the US president.

YouTube did not specify how the channel had violated its policies, but the company has previously been described as being “aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps”.  

One of the group’s videos depicts Trump hurling a chair at US military figures, while Iranian generals press a red button with the label “Back to the Stone Age,” referencing a threat made by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Another depicts Trump with a flaming bottom, holding a sign that reads: “VICTORY! I am a loser.”

A number of videos reference Shia Islamic mythology, including depictions of Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who is a key symbol of resistance and spiritual leadership for Shia Muslims. 

Writing on X, Explosive Media hit out at Google for suspending its channel, saying it had been done because its content was “violent”. It wrote: “Seriously! Are our LEGO-style animations actually violent?” 

Explosive Media, known in Persian as Akhbar Enfejari, has denied it is backed by the Iranian government and its videos have reached millions of viewers across a range of social media platforms.

Its most recent video prior to being suspended appeared to show Trump carrying out the war in Iran to distract from the Epstein files and at Israel’s behest.

It also implied that Epstein and his associates had engaged in cannibalism, for which there is no evidence. An earlier video referenced other victims of US violence through history, including Native Americans, the Vietnamese and the children of Gaza, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It also quoted Malcolm X. 

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Elizabeth Warren Targets MrBeast: Sends 12-Page Letter Demanding Answers on Crypto Push to Children

Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced Thursday that she is investigating YouTube superstar MrBeast over his company’s recent move into cryptocurrency and financial services.

In a 12-page letter sent to Beast Industries, the company run by Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, Warren raised concerns about the firm’s February acquisition of the teen-focused banking app Step and its plans to offer crypto-related products.

Warren specifically questioned whether the company is marketing cryptocurrency investments to children, who make up a huge chunk of MrBeast’s audience.

Despite Step’s statements that any crypto activity by minors would require parent or guardian approval, Warren claimed the app had previously published materials encouraging kids to pressure their parents into crypto investments.

“I have questions for MrBeast,” Warren wrote in a post on X announcing the letter.

The Massachusetts senator, a longtime critic of the cryptocurrency industry, also pressed for details on Beast Industries’ banking partner, Evolve Bank & Trust. The bank has faced past enforcement actions from the Federal Reserve over deficiencies in its anti-money laundering programs.

“Beast Industries is primarily an entertainment and consumer product company — and any foray into financial services, particularly services aimed at children — must be done with great care and in compliance with the law,” Warren wrote in the letter.

Beast Industries responded to the inquiry in a statement to Mediaite, saying the acquisition was intended to help young people build better financial futures.

“Our primary motivation behind this deal is to improve the financial future of the next generation,” a company spokesman said. “Now that we’ve completed the transaction and have ownership control, we’re examining all existing offerings and marketing approaches to ensure that Step’s future is developed thoughtfully and deliberately, meets our very high quality standards, and is in compliance with applicable laws and regulatory requirements.”

The company added that it “appreciates Senator Warren’s outreach” and plans to engage with her office on the project going forward.

MrBeast is one of the largest YouTubers among younger viewers due to his high-production giveaways, challenges, and philanthropy videos.

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The Verdict Against Meta and Google That Could End the Anonymous Internet

A Los Angeles jury has found Meta and YouTube negligent in the design of their platforms and awarded $3 million to a plaintiff identified as K.G.M., a young woman who testified that years of near-constant social media use contributed to depression, anxiety, and body dysmorphia. The jury assigned 70% of the responsibility to Meta and 30% to YouTube. Punitive damages came to another $6 million.

The verdict is being reported as a landmark for child safety. It also represents a significant legal mechanism for dismantling anonymous internet access, built in plain sight, with bipartisan enthusiasm and a CEO’s enthusiastic assistance.

K.G.M.’s attorneys built their claim not around what users posted, which Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act largely shields platforms from liability for, but around how the platforms were designed.

Infinite scroll, algorithmically amplified notifications, engagement loops engineered to maximize time on site. The argument treats social media architecture the way product liability law treats a car without brakes. A defective product that the public needs to be protected from.

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