YouTube refuses to explain or apologise for parade video actions

The worldwide video-sharing platform has been repeatedly asked by the News Letter what had prompted its actions as sites disappeared and then re-appeared over the last few days.

But it has not offered any further clarity on its decision-making process, or reacted to a call from TUV leader Jim Allister for it to say sorry to people whose accounts have now been re-activated.

The refusal to re-activate some accounts has been described by one account-holder as “heartbreaking”.

The saga began early last week, when it publicly emerged that the company had deactivated what are believed to have been around 10 accounts featuring videos of marching bands.

Many were run by dogged hobbyists who had invested countless hours filming, cataloguing and uploading videos of parades.

Soon after the story broke however, two of the accounts in question, On the March Videos (www.youtube.com/user/titan22nrg/) and Adiprod256 (www.youtube.com/user/AdiProd256/), were re-activated – with the latter account-holder declaring things were “looking positive” as far as the campaign to re-instate the parading channels went.

Then by Thursday morning, the same two sites had been taken down once more.

They have now been re-activated again.

Out of the eight YouTube channels the News Letter has been able to identify, three remain down.

Their videos cannot be accessed, and all that can be seen when they are visited is the following message: “This account has been terminated for violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines.”

YouTube - which is owned by Google - had said that: “Many forms of cultural expression are allowed on YouTube, however we do not allow content that promotes proscribed terror organisations.”

It is understood part of the problem stems from some bands having names similar or identical to those of the sometimes-obscure paramilitary groups and cover names on the government’s proscribed terror list.

YouTube has been asked to respond to further questions, including whether the alleged problems with the channels were being identified by people or by automated computer software; where the decision-makers about any unsuitable content in the videos are based; and whether it would apologise to people whose accounts have been reinstated.

But at time of writing it has declined to say anything further than its statemenet of last week.

The user of the Rufus Moonbeam Facebook account, who runs one of the axed YouTube channels (www.bit.ly/2HYo28N) said their account has been down for a month, and was the first to be removed.

“After four appeals they wouldn’t re-instate my channel, which has been heartbreaking,” they told the News Letter.

“To be honest, I havent been recording any parades this year as my main focus has been parading with my band. But, fingers crossed, I’ll be starting a new channel in the new year and recording part time.”