Super Flagger

YouTube (a video-sharing website owned by Google) started a “super flagger” program in 2014 that allowed special individuals to “flag” certain videos that are found objectionable and help to remove them from YouTube. Many YouTubers viewed the “super flagger” program as censorship, allowing the government to remove any dissent from YouTube.
 
 
Financial Times
March 12, 2014 9:08 pm
Google gives UK ‘super flagger’ status to raise YouTube concerns
By Sam Jones, Defence and Security Editor
Google has given British security officials special permissions for its YouTube video site, allowing them to have content instantly screened if they think it threatens national security.
 
The new “super flagger” powers underline growing concern among governments that are scrambling to contain the proliferation of jihadist material prompted by the war in Syria but are likely to stir concern among civil liberties campaigners.
     
The Wall Street Journal—Digits blog
3:16 pm Mar 17, 2014 EUROPE
YouTube Enlists ‘Trusted Flaggers’ to Police Videos
By ALISTAIR BARR and LISA FLEISHER
Google has given roughly 200 people and organizations, including a British police unit, the ability to “flag” up to 20 YouTube videos at once to be reviewed for violating the site’s guidelines.
 
The Financial Times last week reported that the U.K. Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit has been using its “super flagger” authority to seek reviews – and removal – of videos it considers extremist.
 
The news sparked concern that Google lets the U.K. government censor videos that it doesn’t like, and prompted Google to disclose more details about the program. Any user can ask for a video to reviewed. Participants in the super flagger program, begun as a pilot in 2012, can seek reviews of 20 videos at once.
   
The Verge
YouTube has an elite group that hunts and kills content
By Chris Welch on March 17, 2014 06:00 pm
Most average, everyday YouTube viewers are only able to flag videos for inappropriate content on an individual basis. But it turns out a growing group of “super flaggers” receive a powerful bonus privilege: they’re able to flag up to 20 videos at once for an expedited screening process. A report from The Financial Times last week revealed that British authorities are among these super flaggers, and they’re constantly scouring the video site for extremist propaganda. Today The Wall Street Journal went into deeper detail on the program, though it turns out governments play a smaller role than you might think.
 
Roughly 200 people and organizations are included in the pool of trusted flaggers, the Journal says, and less than 10 of those slots are filled by government agencies. Rather, the vast majority are “individuals who spend a lot of time flagging videos that may violate YouTube’s community guidelines.” Google is essentially granting extra power to users that have already shown a commitment to policing the site for clips that run up against the rules.
   
Digital Trends
YOUTUBE USING 200 ‘SUPER FLAGGERS’ TO HUNT DOWN OFFENDING CONTENT
By Trevor Mogg —  March 18, 2014
With 100 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, it’s impossible for the site’s employees to keep tabs on the mass of content continuously pouring in. While most of it is innocuous enough, some prohibited material slips through the net, including pornography, gratuitous violence, and abuse of various forms.
 
In a bid to catch such material more quickly, Google-owned YouTube has hired around 200 individuals and organizations to flag any material they deem to be in contravention of the video-sharing site’s guidelines, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
 
A person with knowledge of the matter told the Journal that most of those in the “flagger program” are individuals, though some are said to be “government agencies or non-governmental organizations such as anti-hate and child-safety groups.”
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COMMENTS
Dirk Diggler—17 hours ago
They are not flagging offensive material as you can find tons of it still available on YouTube. They are flagging videos and comments of dissenters. Nazi Germany 2.0. THEY WILL FLAG ANYONE WHO DOES NOT AGREE WITH THE GOVERNMENT NARRATIVE. Good luck everyone….
 
YouTube
Youtube Hires Hundreds of Trolls Dubbed ‘Super Flaggers’!
DAHBOO77
Published on Mar 18, 2014
More info at link:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/yout…