Amid the growing anti-Asian racism, the STOP AAPI HATE National report revealed that 3,795 cases had already happened between Mar. 19, 2020, and Feb. 28, 2021. Recently, the video-sharing platform YouTube has denied its action to delete an anti-Asian song.
The company employees requested the rap song, "Meet the Flockers" to be removed from the platform. However, the executives made a strong statement not to take down the videos featuring this song.
What do the Executives say About the Anti-Asian Song Removal?
In a report by Bloomberg written on Mar. 30, YouTube employees criticized their executives who denied eliminating the racist song which made its debut in 2014. The track was sung by YG, an American rapper from Compton, California.
The song features a theme about burglary, where the lyrics pointed out the location of the Chinese people. The controversial feud between YouTube and its employees started when workers questioned the Trust and Safety team to consider taking necessary action to take down the video.
However, the team executive of that department has completely refused to accept the request of the workers via an email sent to staff last Mar. 22.
"We find this video to be highly offensive and understand it is painful for many to watch, including many in Trust & Safety, and especially given the ongoing violence against the Asian community," the executives noted.
The rap song's lyrics have sparked hate speech across the affected race. The executives added that the platform, however, exempts those contents, which tackle contexts about the documentary, education, science, and arts.
Moreover, a spokeswoman from YouTube said in a statement that their platform is open to all employees to impart their perspectives in a decision like this.
Apart from that, the spokeswoman said that the platform will continue to foster openness for the protection of the whole YouTube community. For security reasons, the executive chose to not be named.
The platform has already exterminated over 97,00 clips and more than 46 million comments, which fall under the hate speech policy of YouTube during the final quarter of 2020.
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The YouTube Employees' Side About the 'Meet the Flockers' Issue
Since songs are categorized under contents with artistic contexts, revenues are collected by the artists through the ads during the viewing of the videos.
However, this made one employee comment about the memo that was released by the executives. Furthermore, the anonymous employee criticized the "leadership" of the executives, which is in line with their "Racial Justice Initiative."
Moreover, the staff even used Edmund Pettus Bridge as a reference to what happened in 1985, when the police attacked about 600 Black civil rights activists in Selma, Alabama.
On Mar. 25, a virtual meeting about the issue was held between the YouTube executives and employees. However, the latter expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome of the discussion. One worker even lambasted the statement from the executive, who happens to have an Asian-American wife during the townhall meeting.
One employee said that Asian wives are not a credential. Another employee questioned the excuse of the executive to allow the video on YouTube since he knew someone who is Asian.
This article is owned by Tech Times.
Written by Joen Coronel
