Video 1444 should not break rules
If you haven’t seen or heard of this viral video yet, don’t look for it. Video 1444 is a graphic 17-second clip that depicts a Russian man shooting himself on camera. Initially live-streamed on VKontakte (VK), it was soon made available to regularly watch on YouTube for a full 16 hours.
As an avid-enough user of social media, I was lucky enough to get a warning for the video before I was exposed to it. Regardless, most people were not so lucky, and should not have to depend on luck to guarantee never seeing this video.
The case of video 1444 does nothing to extend the limits of what human nature enjoys viewing; there is no denying that some enjoy viewing content just as gory as what was depicted. The deep injustice in this situation is that for most people regularly scrolling, viewing was not optional.
The hypocrisy of these social media platforms lies in the fact that they allow these kinds of videos to be up for long enough to cause drastic harm, yet immediately mark any videos remotely considered as LGBTQ+ content as “sensitive.”
Every day, content creators who upload pro-LGBTQ+ content, are LGBTQ+ or even whisper hints of anything LGBTQ+ have to go through fears of demonetization and censorship everytime they upload non-graphic content to their channels.
It is no secret that platforms such as Youtube, Twitter and Instagram have biased and anti-LGBTQ+ “sensitive content” policies. However, the sheer hypocrisy demonstrated in the flagrant blind-eye turned toward videos like this versus the thorough “content guidelines” screening “diverse” creators have to go through just to upload, it is clear that the standard is ridiculously prejudicial.
Too often, things like this are let slide. This viral video should be seen as a turning point for the standards that YouTube hold and are held to. The fact is, this video is a blatant demonstration of what YouTube is willing to compromise their “zero-tolerance” policy for, and it isn’t looking too pretty.
