Published on September 10, 2024, 12:50 am

Early on Monday morning, an alert arrived from YouTube at The Daily Signal regarding a trailer for their mini-documentary featuring a victim of gender ideology in California. This notification was received due to the video being flagged for discussing themes related to suicide or self-harm.

The video titled “California Stole My Rights” now exhibits a pre-play warning that has to be manually bypassed by prospective viewers. The restrictions placed on this video are according to the official guidelines laid out by YouTube which suggests that such videos might also face further limitations.

However, what constitutes “restricted” content is unclear and when queried about this, no response was provided by YouTube at the time of writing this article.

The 44-second trailer features a Californian mother who uses the word “suicidal” while quoting her then-14-year-old daughter persuading her case for transitioning from female to male.

In trying to describe her initial conversation with her daughter, the mother recalls her saying “I want to be a boy. I feel suicidal.”

Given that she was directly quoting her child and not elaborating further on the subject of suicide, the backlash from YouTube felt unfounded as they flagged it for sensitive content nonetheless.

According to an email sent by YouTube, concern over safety or well-being was expressed by members of the platform’s community after coming across content posted relating to topics of suicide or self-harm.

YouTube’s policy concerning topics like suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders dictates whether certain types of content should be restricted rather than removed completely. These include educational or documentary material, information that is deemed interesting or important by public standards, blurred graphic content and detailed discussions about methods, locations, and preferred spots related to self-harm or suicide.

In contrast with these censorship policies is one specific video titled “Turning To Self-Surgery: A Transgender Woman’s Journey – Through Their Eyes,” in which a male-to-female transgender person divulges in detail about self-castration due to gender dysphoria. This video, despite its explicit commentary and visuals indicating an act of self-harm, is not accompanied by any warning from YouTube.

Whereas, the trailer produced by The Daily Signal received a warning simply for one utterance of the term “suicidal”.

This type of drastic decision-making has precedent. Earlier this year, an upcoming film “Joker: Folie à Deux” had its trailer flagged with a similar attention warning which was later removed. Interestingly, it was believed to have been due to a scene where Lady Gaga’s character mimed shooting herself in the head using her finger.

On the other hand—despite having been censored—a recorded material of Robin Williams titled “Robin Williams: In His Own Words About Suicide,” where he exclusively describes his experiences with suicidal ideation, can be viewed without any warning whatsoever on the platform.

As we strive to deliver real news and trusted sources to our readers while maintaining a Christian worldview, it becomes increasingly important to question not just what content is being controlled but also how these parameters are being assigned and enforced because if something as innocent as quoting someone else’s words can be restricted, then just how limited is freedom of speech?