Anita Sarkeesian, the blogger who made headlines after receiving a massive amount of greenbacks for her Kickstarter campaign to examine the role of women in video games, recently hit some trouble with the second episode of her Tropes vs Women series.
The second episode arrived on YouTube on Tuesday, and shortly after it went up Sarkeesian received an e-mail from YouTube saying that "one or more" of her videos had been flagged by the Community as "inappropriate." Granted, the video by Sarkeesian's own admission "contains a handful of graphic scenes involving violence against women," but given the amount of vitriol she's received ever since beginning her Kickstarter, that's likely not the reason the video was flagged.
"Looks like my harassers abused YouTube's flag function to get my new Tropes vs Women video removed. Not the first time it's happened," Sarkeesian theorized.
According to YouTube Community Guidelines, "YouTube staff review flagged videos 24 hours a day, seven days a week to determine whether they violate our Community Guidelines. When they do, we remove them. Sometimes a video doesn't violate our Community Guidelines, but may not be appropriate for everyone. These videos may be age-restricted. Accounts are penalized for Community Guidelines violations and serious or repeated violations can lead to account termination." The staff at YouTube also claims that the amount of flags a video has doesn't immediately result in a video's removal. However, it's unclear just what prompted YouTube to remove the video in the first place.
Whether you agree or disagree with Sarkeesian's view points, they hardly fall under any justification that would require removal. You can watch videos of how to make weapons at home, amputations, and in certain cases, full fledged pornography, and yet, somehow, an unpopular opinion with a certain demographic is reason enough to have a video flagged and removed. Gotta love the anonymous cogs that keep the internet machine turning...
After Sarkeesian appealed the video's flag, it was eventually restored. Interested parties can check it out below. In the interest of getting caught up, you also check out the first episode here.