There’s recently been a lawsuit filed by an animal rights group, Lady Freethinker, to try and legally force Google to do more to keep videos of animal abuse off the YouTube website. The lawsuit failed because Alphabet Inc.’s Google is protected by section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a federal law, which shields internet platforms from lawsuits when content is posted on that platform by their users i.e. their clients. That is the tentative ruling by Santa Clara Superior Court Judge, Sunil R. Kulkarni. The word ‘platform’ is crucial to this argument. YouTube is not a ‘publisher’ per se.
“Unless more effective screening is put in place, YouTube will continue to disseminate more videoclips filled with hatred, violence and abuse”. – 2006! Daily Mail Historical Archive.
Staged video of kittens being saved by ‘primitive boy’ from python attack is cruelty to animals
Lady Freethinker argued that Google profits from animal abuse videos such as pythons attacking puppies, which by the way were fake puppy rescue videos with the whole think scripted at the expense of animal welfare. I have complained myself to YouTube administrators for allowing a video of two kittens being ‘murdered’ by suffocation by a deranged boy. I have complained about this video for about two years and if it is deleted by the administrators, another user or the same uploads the same video again where it remains on their website. All you can do is ask YouTube administrators nicely to remove abusive videos and pray 😎. It’s the Wild West on the internet.
YouTube accused of allowing fake animal rescues to be uploaded despite warnings
Lady Freethinker’s claim was couched in reference to state and local laws such as for breach of contract and false advertising.
However, the federal law mentioned above, section 230, states that “no cause of action may be brought and no liability may be imposed under any state or local law that is inconsistent with this section,” the judge ordered.
The case is Lady Freethinker v. Google LLC d/b/a YouTube, et al, 21CV390154, Santa Clara Superior Court (San Jose).
I think this argument centres around the current situation which is that websites like YouTube are platforms for users to self-publish their work. YouTube per se and other social media websites are not deemed to be publishers. If they were legally regarded as publishers, then they could be sued. They are just platforms taking a neutral stance with no direct say or control on what is initially published. They make half-hearted attempts to take proactive action to stop animal abuse videos being uploaded but there is no real control over it.
What I find annoying is that YouTube has rules regarding what can be uploaded but when it suits them, they ignore their own rules. I think this is a breach of their own contract. Perhaps a YouTuber should sue YouTube for breach of contract in the American civil courts. Their rules are designed to protect animals and people (in the sphere of animal videos). If they allow animal abuse videos, they can harm people psychologically. There is a potential claim for damages there.
They can take reactive action by removing videos but even that is done rather badly because they are unable to manage the vast quantities of videos uploaded and this applies to social media websites such as Facebook as well. If animal rights groups want to tackle this problem, they will have to lobby governments and campaign for a change in the law regarding the status of social media websites such as YouTube. Then if the Lady Freethinker lawsuit was filed with that difference in place, I think it would succeed.
Yes, YouTube administrators can be as awful I think as these unscrupulous video makers because they simply do not respond and when they do respond belatedly they are high-handed and in my experience and frankly unpleasant.I think a big problem with these large Internet companies like YouTube and gGogle is that they are essentially run by very young people. They are smart and they are highly paid. But they don’t have life experience like older people. The appear to lack empathy for others and have become very nerdy and insensitive. I really do struggle with the administrators of these big companies. They are very poor communicators as well.
Thank you, Michael. I’d appreciate your signature. Yeah, the one that was suggested to me was a dying kittens one, which were then “saved”. The kittens were floppy and weak – I suspect they had been drugged or something to make the video. :/ There were several channels doing very similar things; floppy cats suddenly revived. Just awful.
Hi Beth, I will sign the petition. I am not sure what video or videos you are referring to but a little while I complained about animal rescue videos on YT that were set up by the videomaker. They placed a puppy or kitten in a dangerous situation such as near a snake or trapped and then rescued the animal. It was all fabricated and blatant animal cruelty. I reported these videos to YT admin but they are so impossibly slow and high-handed as are all these big internet businesses that I stopped checking to see if they had been removed.
Personally I hate YT and FB and….I’d better stop in case a spy for one of these big corporations sees this comment and harms my website in some way.