A Central Illinois church, YouTube and the importance of local digital preservation – WCBU

A Pekin pastor is calling for less automated moderation of internet content and for organizations to back up their history after his church’s YouTube channel was deleted without warning. Nathan Noyes, pastor of Gethsemane Church in Pekin, went to YouTube in June to upload recent church videos only to discover YouTube deleted Gethsemane’s channel. It allegedly violated the site’s spam, deceptive practices and scam policy. Countless videos — documenting church activities and history — were lost. Noyes is advocating for more humans reviewing internet-content appeals not just so this does not happen to others but because he thinks it is better for free speech. “Free speech is how we have conversations and even debates, and find out what is the truth,” Noyes said. “If we shut down [and] have this cancel thing where you just cancel somebody and then don’t even [give] a reason, I really think that’s un-American, and it’s a travesty.” Courtesy of Gethsemane Church Pastor Nathan Noyes of Gethsemane Church in Pekin. Noyes received no warnings or strikes before YouTube took down the channel. Noyes reached out to YouTube in several different ways, but his appeals were repeatedly denied. “We’re flagged because of AI, and then we’re
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