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YouTube thought my Steam Deck video was 'harmful and dangerous'

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Here is your daily dose of what the heck? YouTube and the mighty algorithm decided for no apparent reason, that my Steam Deck video was "harmful and dangerous".

Over the last few months the GamingOnLinux YouTube channel has managed to gain around triple the amount of followers it once had. This is mainly due to the Steam Deck, and my decision to cover updates to it both in articles and in short concise videos (and people seem to really like the format).

According to YouTube though, this video was just a step too far:

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An email lands in my inbox from YouTube, noting it was removed for violations against their "harmful and dangerous policy". That's right, the Steam Deck is a dangerous weapon and we should all need to carry around a license or something? Perhaps having two of them and dual-wielding is just too much for YouTube.

Thankfully, after going through the appeals process, the video was restored.

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It's another reminder that moderation bots are stupid and having all your eggs in one basket is not a great idea either.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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52 comments
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1xok Aug 19, 2022
I'll bet you a pancake it had something to do with MASSIVE and Deck. Because some people attribute divine abilities to AI, it is often hard to underestimate it in practice. And the team is probably not really a team.
setzer22 Aug 19, 2022
I still don't understand how they hooked a machine learning algorithm into an automated system that could ruin some creator's livelihood and called it a day...

Next up, our taxes are going to be decided by some black box deep neural model based on how good of a citizen we are...
Purple Library Guy Aug 19, 2022
Quoting: setzer22I still don't understand how they hooked a machine learning algorithm into an automated system that could ruin some creator's livelihood and called it a day...

Next up, our taxes are going to be decided by some black box deep neural model based on how good of a citizen we are...
Isn't that what China is calling "Social Credit"?
Pengling Aug 19, 2022
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Quoting: KlaasIt depends. The next video recommendations have a tendency to point towards conspiracy theories, dangerous crafts hacks and other weird stuff.
Quoting: randylThe recommendations on my page personally aren't filled with conspiracy theory stuff so much as content I'm just not interested in.
I get what Klaas describes, and the weird "Up Next/Related" content that gets chucked at me has zero to do with what I actually watch - that mainly being video game playthroughs either to seek out what I might like or to watch someone else's views on stuff that I wouldn't enjoy playing myself, food-science videos, and generally-humourous scambaiting streams and documentaries, plus listening to video game music and 1970s/1980s/1990s tunes.

I have personalised recommendations turned off, but until recently the non-personalised "Up Next/Related" stuff was still fairly relevant (i.e., other scambaiting content, different people's playthroughs of similar games/genres, funny reviews and taste-tests of expired food) - then a few months ago it suddenly started suggesting weird conspiracy-theories, dangerous "crafts", random people's/organisations' rants/vlogs/streams on subjects of no interest and relation to what I watch, and other stuff that generally appears to be trying to funnel me towards clickbait. If I want to look through it, I have to scroll down to see more relevant stuff at the side of a playing video, and the weird things get higher billing than the relevant ones.


Last edited by Pengling on 19 August 2022 at 8:07 pm UTC
elmapul Aug 19, 2022
Quoting: Pendragon
Quoting: GuestCue the post obligatory post on Odysee comment with all the other Open Source / FOSS people. ;p

Youtube really does suck though ... case in point: look up "Totally Not Mark" on Youtube

i dont get it, whats up with this channel? its a plagiarism or something?
Purple Library Guy Aug 19, 2022
Quoting: Pengling
Quoting: KlaasIt depends. The next video recommendations have a tendency to point towards conspiracy theories, dangerous crafts hacks and other weird stuff.
Quoting: randylThe recommendations on my page personally aren't filled with conspiracy theory stuff so much as content I'm just not interested in.
I get what Klaas describes, and the weird "Up Next/Related" content that gets chucked at me has zero to do with what I actually watch - that mainly being video game playthroughs either to seek out what I might like or to watch someone else's views on stuff that I wouldn't enjoy playing myself, food-science videos, and generally-humourous scambaiting streams and documentaries, plus listening to video game music and 1970s/1980s/1990s tunes.

I have personalised recommendations turned off, but until recently the non-personalised "Up Next/Related" stuff was still fairly relevant (i.e., other scambaiting content, different people's playthroughs of similar games/genres, funny reviews and taste-tests of expired food) - then a few months ago it suddenly started suggesting weird conspiracy-theories, dangerous "crafts", random people's/organisations' rants/vlogs/streams on subjects of no interest and relation to what I watch, and other stuff that generally appears to be trying to funnel me towards clickbait. If I want to look through it, I have to scroll down to see more relevant stuff at the side of a playing video, and the weird things get higher billing than the relevant ones.
I've seen a bit of stuff from the content creator end of this. Saw a couple of youtube videos from people involved in stuff around medieval weaponry and culture, saying that the policy changed recently-ish and seems less interested in users' personal preferences and more in more global ideas of popularity, to the point where even their subscribers are often not notified of their stuff, and their views are plummeting because people interested in their kind of content are no longer being shown their videos as viewing options.
It doesn't help that Google owns some content creation now, and of course has relationships with big advertisers who are also big content creators . . . there's no reason to trust Youtube to be a level playing field.
Pengling Aug 19, 2022
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Quoting: Purple Library GuySaw a couple of youtube videos from people involved in stuff around medieval weaponry and culture, saying that the policy changed recently-ish and seems less interested in users' personal preferences and more in more global ideas of popularity, to the point where even their subscribers are often not notified of their stuff, and their views are plummeting because people interested in their kind of content are no longer being shown their videos as viewing options.
I'm not at all surprised - I suspected that it'd be something like that, as it's fair to say that the stuff I consider weird (keeping in mind that I definitely don't fall into "average" viewing-habits) is also stuff that I know generates a lot of profits out in the wider world.
Pendragon Aug 19, 2022
Quoting: elmapuli dont get it, whats up with this channel? its a plagiarism or something?

it's a long story -- cliffnotes: Youtube fail-whaled hard on their communication and incompetence in navigating a simple problem involving international differences in copyright and fair use


Last edited by Pendragon on 19 August 2022 at 9:04 pm UTC
StoneColdSpider Aug 19, 2022
Quoting: Penglingthanks to The Algorithm. (I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but I admit that this one made me raise an eyebrow considering how profitable "craft hacks" videos are known to be. )

"The Algorithm" is only as good and as biased the person who wrote it.....
RedWare64 Aug 19, 2022
Quoting: StalePopcornMaybe an Odysee mirror? I'm not sure if they've implemented a 'st0opitr0n' bot yet.
If Liam hasn't done it already, he can create a GOL channel on Odysee and sync it to the YouTube channel. Whenever he uploads a video on YouTube, the same video automatically uploads on Odysee. So even if YouTube takes his video down, the same one is still up on Odysee and Liam will not need to do any additional work for preservation.
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