If you are not on social media, you don’t exist.
It is no longer that important what kind of life you’ve got offline, what matters is your online presence.
Modern platforms where people share their opinions were created by specific corporations, with clear rules. And it turns out that it is the developers of the platform that determine the direction of users’ discussion.
For example, you can talk badly about whites, but if you criticize blacks, you might get banned. And I’m not talking about skin color, but rather two different groups in vacuum.
The lion’s share of social communication takes place in social media. Our attentions is focused on it, which means that the rules by the corporations affect our behavior. And moreover, even our consciousness.
You don’t have to go far for examples.
There is this one site that started as a warm and fuzzy video hosting site and has now turned into the main platform of the 21st century. Gone are the times when its creators stated their mission naively: “it’s just a site where every users can watch videos, upload and share them.” And off it went: selling to Google, monetization, advertising, billions made on content for children, fraud, expensive production, and numerous rules that are supposed to regulate this media monster.
At first, there were unambiguous rules, such as not allowing porn or gore content. But later, restriction on sensitive and controversial topics were added. They literally called it “controversial topics”. So that the authors would think twice: does my content offend anyone? Does it have positive vibe?
And more recently, Youtube has reached a new level – it added self-censorship.
Now, absolutely all Youtubers evaluate their content based on how well it suits the platform and advertisers. We are obliged to indicate if a video contains obscene language, for example.
But not everything is so simple.
When the author thinks: well, okay, let’s say I said “f***,” but because I said it 30 seconds after the start of the video, and the word is not in the title, I will keep my monetization. But if it’s in the tile – then you’re screwed – and you won’t get any money.
But that’s okay, this concept is easy to understand logically. Just wait for 30 seconds and you can curse a little. But when it comes to insults, it becomes less clear.
Look, if a video contains criticism of some groups and the goal is not to insult them, then it seems ok. But at the same time, if these groups can be offended in principle, then it is no longer allowed.
Even if all your content is made within educational and news context. How to draw the line between not wanting to offend someone and having the opportunity to be offended is not clear.
For example is content featuring violence. It is better to show such scene as blurred or censored, and you also aren’t allowed to show lawlessness on the part of law enforcement. Luckily, they’ve recently made exceptions for educational content.
So, when we post our videos, we have to think about whether it hurts someone’s feelings, and whether we are showing the scenes of violence.
Here is an important point: we begin to think about it ourselves when writing a script, editing it, oming up with visuals, so as not to violate the rules of the platform. And with constant self-editing, it leaves its footprint on our consciousness.
You will be afraid to say anything against BLM or feminist whether you want it or not.
