This week Youtube made headlines over a controversial stance which saw a gaming channel suspended after several videos being deleted on the platform, which showed violent scenes from the game Red Dead Redemption 2 taking place against a suffrage.
In a video called 'Annoying feminist fed to Alligator', the Youtube account Shirrako showed a suffrage get lasso'd, dragged through a swamp, fed to an alligator and then beaten up. It is an undeniably violent act which takes place, but of course this is within the context of being a video game; and similar violent acts have been involved in similar games for generations now, with the Grand Theft Auto series having similarities with the Red Dead franchise.
Anyway, Youtube deemed the clip bad enough to violate policy and eventually the channel was suspended. Since then, the channel and its videos have been restored and overall it has probably had a positive effect for the channel Shirrako due to the surge in publicity it has generated. A Youtube employee said the guidelines were not violated as first thought, which lead to the restoration.
Overall - the whole episode has shown that even video game violence is now being questioned by the Youtube policy which hints towards a change in becoming more child-friendly and politically correct.
As mentioned earlier, it isn't that the act is not a bad thing, it's that it's done within the context of a video game which makes it understandable, the same way that cartoons can be violent; it doesn't mean that the violent act is acceptable in real life.
Watch the video and make your mind up for yourself. Do Youtube have a moral standard to keep to? is the in-game attack against an ideology? or is it just a case of militant feminism destroying good-natured fun?
- Youtube Drama
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