Youtube is promoting distressing conspiracy videos about the Las Vegas shooting.
A video claiming the shooting was staged gained over 250,000 views in one day, and has been shared widely across social media in the last week -- upsetting victims and their families who are suffering the consequences of this horrendous act.
In an era of fake news, it’s important for prominent sites like Youtube to stand on the side of truth. Promoting videos like these sows confusion and division.
Tell Youtube it’s time to pull the plug.
Tell Youtube to ban videos promoting fake news about these sorts of tragedies!
A user searching Youtube for “Las Vegas shooting videos” leads to a wide range of viral videos that suggest that law enforcement and others have purposefully deceived the public.
Others have called the shooting -- the worst is modern American history -- a “false flag”, a term typically used to refer to events they claim are staged by the government to advance an agenda.
Stephen Melanson, whose wife and daughter were both shot in the attack and survived, said he believed the Google-owned company should take down the videos. “When I see my wife fighting for her life with a gunshot wound to her chest, and my daughter was also shot, it’s pretty conclusive evidence that it did happen.”
This isn’t a free speech issue: Youtube is a private organisation that needs to exercise editorial control over its content to make sure that, in the wake of an attack like this, those grieving aren’t put through any further distress.
Tell Google-owned Youtube to take down these videos promoting lies!
More than 110,000 SumOfUs members like you signed our petition telling Youtube’s parent company Google to stop funding climate deniers.
We’ve shown people-power works in the past -- let’s make it work again and get Youtube to do what's right.
More information
The Guardian. 4 October 2017.