YouTube's Algorithms Aren't Racist, Judge Says

Photo: Sean Gallup (Getty Images)A US federal judge in California has dismissed a racial discrimination lawsuit brought against YouTube and its parent company Google by non-white YouTube content creators who alleged the platform’s recommendation algorithms unfairly throttled and even removed their content. The judge, according to Reuters, said the plaintiffs in the case “do not come close” to proving discrimination on the part of Google. Instagram is Testing Adding Songs to Your ProfileThe ruling brings an end to a three-year legal battle that began just months after the killing of George Floyd. Plaintiffs in the case were four YouTube video makers who alleged the company algorithms racially profiled their content, resulting in smaller audiences. In some cases, the creators claimed the company’s algorithms would shadow-ban channels or remove content entirely without any clear explanations. Ultimately, they claimed those unequally distributed restrictions on their content amounted to a violation of YouTube’s own policies guaranteeing race-neutral content moderation.“Instead of ‘fixing’ the digital racism that pervades the filtering, restricting, and blocking of user content and access on YouTube, Defendants have decided to double down and continue their racist and identity-based practices because they are profitable,” the creators argued in the original lawsuit.Those arguments
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