SouthFront faces systematic ‘false flagging’ on YouTube from people that seek to oppress the freedom of speech on the platform and to damage SouthFront’s capabilities to provide an independent look at the geo-political and military issues of our time.
TIMELINE
1. On February 15, 2016, YouTube deleted our old video “Foreign Policy Diary ‘War on Terror’ [remastered]” released on April 30, 2015, because it allegedly includes some content “violating YouTube Community Guidelines”. (LINK)
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2. SouthFront immediately appealed the decision. This video, like all of our content, was made with informational purpose in mind and was aimed to provide independent coverage of the threats of international terrorism.
On Feburary 18, 2016, the “YouTube Community Guidelines strike” was removed. (LINK)
However, the video “Foreign Policy Diary ‘War on Terror’ [remastered]” remained deleted. SouthFront did not attempt to re-upload it.
3. On August 17, 2017, “The Battle for Mosul: Concept Versus Reality” released on December 12, 2016 was deleted because it allegedly included some content violating “YouTube Community Guidelines”. (LINK)
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4. SouthFront immediately appealed the decision. The “Community Guidelines strike” was removed and the video was restored on August 18. (LINK)
5. On September 6, 2017, SouthFront’s YouTube channel received another “Community Guidelines strike”. YouTube once again removed our old video “Foreign Policy Diary ‘War on Terror’ [remastered]” and assigned a Community Guidelines strike to the channel.
September 6, 2017. Click to see the full-size image
6. However, the video was not restored after the February 15, 2016 incident and SouthFront did not attempt to re-upload it. The video was recently restored by YouTube without any notification to SouthFront Team. A low number of likes and views confirms this.
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7. On September 8, 2017, SouthFront’s video “Syrian War Report – September 8, 2017: US-led Coalition Rescues ISIS Commanders From Deir Ezzor?” was removed because it allegedly violated “YouTube Community Guidelines”. Our channel received another one more “Community Guidelines strike”. (LINK)
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8. With two community guidelines strikes, SouthFront was not able upload new videos and to to host live streams on YouTube. Work on YouTube was blocked. (LINK)
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Click to see the full-size image
9. SouthFront appealed the both strikes. Late on September 8, YouTube removed the strike assigned for “Syrian War Report – September 8, 2017: US-led Coalition Rescues ISIS Commanders From Deir Ezzor?” and restored the video. However, the strike assigned for the video “Foreign Policy Diary ‘War on Terror’ [remastered]” remained. (LINK)
The project re-gained ability to upload new videos on Youtube. The live streams option remained blocked.
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10. On September 13, YouTube officially rejected SouthFront’s appeal to remove the last remaining “Community Guidelines strike” for the video “Foreign Policy Diary ‘War on Terror’ [remastered]” from the project’s channel. (LINK)
The appeal is rejected. Click to see the full-size image
11. The decision ignored the mysterious situation with the video “Foreign Policy Diary ‘War on Terror’ [remastered]” and did not explain how it had been restored. The remaining “Community Guidelines strike” impacts SouthFront’s ability to provide exclusive content. The project is not able to host live streams on Youtube until December 6, 2017.
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12. Summing up the described events, it becomes clear that SouthFront has faced a preplanned illegal campaign launched by some persons from the YouTube internal team.
SouthFront is waiting results of the investigation of this case by the YouTube staff. We want to know who was responsible for re-uploading/restoration of the video “Foreign Policy Diary ‘War on Terror’ [remastered]”. How was the video restored?
This series of hostile and disingenuous actions, as well as prejudicial treatment of some members of the YouTube staff against SouthFront poses a real threat that SouthFront’s YouTube channel might soon be closed down or frozen. In this case, SouthFront informs that you can watch all SouthFront videos at the project’s website, http://southfront.org
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SouthFront: Analysis & Intelligence Team
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