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YouTube banned my debunking video but leaves deadly how-to vids online, 34 dead
- kevingadd 4y agoIt's really depressing that YouTube remains so bad at content moderation and general safety. You can search for stuff that will kill you and find lots of videos without disclaimers, but a "please don't do this" video gets banned once it starts competing with the highly profitable Cool Hacks videos
- jeroenhd 4y agoI'm convinced the many highly-ranked Cool Hacks channels abuse the content reporting system to remove any videos that will get in the way of their adsense cash, especially ones that tell you not to try their Cool Hack. Spamming abuse reports is common on any platform and even if Youtube were to review every reported video manually (which they don't have time or resources for), the video would still be down for ages for being "under review". If it comes back up, the reporters would just try another category and the cycle repeats. You can't ignore mass-reported videos until review either. I think this is a design flaw in the whole concept of social media and the only solution seems to be to seriously cut down on the amount of content being uploaded. Not exactly a profitable or popular idea, but there's no feasible way to do any useful content moderation for this many users without employing a small province or country just to review reports.
- actionfromafar 4y agoThe same adsense slice would still go to popular content creators, even if they were rate limited. But such a system would have to be mandated "from above" somehow, or upstart "Youtube Competitor" would just outcompete Youtube if Youtube unilaterally would impose such a rate limit.
- javajosh 4y agoMaybe it's old fashioned of me, but I think viewers are responsible for their actions. YouTube is such a wonderful resource, and it seems terrible to judge it on this basis. It's like judging a library that happens to have chemistry books that kids misused to hurt themselves. The problem isn't the library, or the book. (Note: its different with political/emotional content. That stuff is more like a virus.)
- actionfromafar 4y agoI don't know how old fashioned that is. Before the web, you didn't stumble upon this kind of content, and it was certainly not promoted to the top of anyones feed.
- boomlinde 4y agoBy all means, I agree that everyone should be responsible for their actions. It is by this same principle that I believe that YouTube should be responsible for what they publish. The "the problem isn't the library" argument falls short if the library is actively banning books that offer information on the hazards and risks of the "how to manufacture large amounts of chlorine gas using just kitchen appliances" books they happily put on the shelves.
- systemz 4y agoI hope YouTube will focus on human based moderation / curation of content and clean transparent guidelines in the future instead of those robots with flawed algorithms. They have so many years and resources to create moderation robots but it keeps happening over and over again. At this point people are loosing lives because of poor YT decisions.
- nojito 4y agoThey can't afford it. If social media is forced to human moderate 100% of their content, they will all cease to exist financially.
- Xelbair 4y agoThen maybe they should cease to exist?
- lnxg33k1 4y agoLooking forward to that day
- drstewart 4y agoSo you think nearly every platform with user submitted content should cease to exist?
- highwind 4y agoMaybe platform that's impossible to moderate shouldn't exist? While I understand the good that YouTube brings, it has such a huge negative side that I wouldn't miss it if it were gone.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- marak830 4y agoI think they should be held to a higher standard than they currently are.
- Semiapies 4y agoI follow her; she does excellent debunking of viral cooking/crafts videos.
- Y-bar 4y agoShe's one of the true treasures of the modern internet.
- hobs 4y agoWell she certainly makes clickbait video titles I would never click to reward such shameless HACKS THAT HAVE KILLED 34 PEOPLE (you must click this to see what the hell I am on about.) Maybe I can avoid it if I do this ONE WEIRD TRICK. The internet is so tedious.
- zeofig 4y agoIt's becoming pretty common even for good content. Weird, thanks internet.
- UmbertoNoEco 4y ago> It's becoming pretty common even for good (YOUTUBE) content Fortunately there is still a niche(but not-zero) zone of the good internet which does not resort to this.
- dewey 4y agoIt's annoying that it's that way but I try not to blame the creators for that. If you want to play the game you have to do it that way. This is also true for the clickbaity thumbnails with the creators face and some shocked face expressions where people confirmed that they perform way better than "professional" and clean looking ones.
- Semiapies 4y agoThat sounds like a problem with your heuristic, there. ETA: I once sarcastically said we need a technology so that links here are not described by anything that looks like a title due to all the people who get ridiculously outraged by any attempt to attract their attention. Maybe I was on to something. Too many of you don't read or watch past titles.
- tgv 4y agoWhat if somebody now sued Youtube? They've not only been told it's dangerous, they've removed the one safety video.
- beej71 4y agoThe DMCA section 230 says that YouTube isn't liable for the content its users post, so it's going to be an uphill battle. The poster of the video could be sued, though.
- SAI_Peregrinus 4y agoSection 230 is part of the Communications Decency Act, not the DMCA.
- Pakdef 4y agoNice that she used the opportunity to warn again. It's surprising that 2 experienced electricians died from it though.
- origamiPyro 4y agoExperienced electricians aren't usually dealing with voltages that high.
- arghwhat 4y agoWell, a residential electrician wouldn't work with kilovolts, no.
- arghwhat 4y agoAs someone who was once an electrician, I find it very unsurprising. When someone just shrugs off the occasional 230 and 400 V zap, they're unlikely to wear more than a safety squint and tie when playing with kilovolts...
- CoastalCoder 4y agoSounds like the normalization of deviance. Kinda like how familiarity with using a table saw eventually costs people their fingers.
- sudden_dystopia 4y agoTable saws seem like a bell curve. Low familiarity leads to lost fingers(or being impaled by a kicked back board), mild familiarity saved fingers and know how to avoid kickback, too familiar back to lost fingers but you likely won’t impale yourself.
- Asooka 4y agoThat's more of a U-curve. Tall in the ends, short in the middle.
- nonameking2026 4y agoSome context about this woodburning tech. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a40410809/fractal-wood-burning-dangers-alternatives/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a40410809/fractal-w...
- JasonFruit 4y agoI would be more likely to watch and learn about these DEADLY HOW-TOS if there was a hint in the title or description of what she's talking about. Apparently she values clicks over the 35th life.
- mhalle 4y agoShe explains that she wants clicks so that the video rises to the top of the fractal woodburning search results. She also probably wants this new video to get attention because she's risking reposting banned content.
- sophrocyne 4y agoAnd based on the Ritz crackers ad that just played when I opened the link, she’s not opposed to monetizing her moral outrage.
- me_me_me 4y agoAnd so fucking what? Jeez, take a look at yourself before demanding everyone around you to be 100% faultles, pure paragon of virtue.
- kevingadd 4y agoThe original video was way less indirect, but I assume she's trying to avoid getting this one pulled.
- devortel 4y agoI’m speculating here, but I suspect a significant factor in her video’s removal was the part where she displayed a rough hand-drawn diagram of the assembly a fractal wood burning kit. She deliberately left out a lot of detail, but perhaps it was still too much for YouTube’s content moderation team.
- actionfromafar 4y agoI find it bold to assume any human was involved at all. (Except possibly wood-burning youtubers reporting her video, but I digress.)
- dewey 4y ago> but perhaps it was still too much for YouTube’s content moderation team I think the assumption that the moderation team watches the full videos and then carefully weights the pros and cons is a bit naive.
- xn 4y agoIs 34, about 6 per year, a lot? How many people do fractal wood burning? How many people are electrocuted using jumper cables on cars each year?
- tclancy 4y agoHuh? The first thing my dad did after showing me how to jump a car was to warn me never to touch the live ends together because they would “do this!” and proceeded to do it and show me the … hang on, I’m going to go make a video for clicks.
- NovemberWhiskey 4y ago12V car battery electrocutions? Uhm, I would guess approximately none?
- k8sToGo 4y agoIt is not the voltage that kills you. It is the current and a car battery can deliver quite the current.
- aaronmdjones 4y agoAt such a low voltage, and a DC voltage nonetheless (so you're only dealing with resistance, and not impedance), you will never get enough current through you, even if you'd just waded out of the ocean.
- upofadown 4y agoNot through the resistance of a person. For electrocution, the voltage is the indicator of hazard. The current required is very small.
- NovemberWhiskey 4y agoV = IR. It's voltage that causes the current to flow. You can certainly get a lethal shock from a car battery if you pierce the skin with an electrode attached to one of the terminals, due to the reduced resistance through the body, but you're not going to get one through your skin. The amount of current required to stop you breathing is as low as a few hundred mA, and only 1A to stop your heart in v-fib. On the other hand, even wet or broken skin should offer about 1 kilohm; so your chances of being electrocuted by a car battery are slight.
- sph 4y agoPlease HN guidelines, let us use a different title when linking Youtube videos. I don't want to see such a clickbait title on the frontpage.
- nix23 4y agoYou can hide them, it's your turn.
- unwind 4y agoUh, not wanting to read the clickbaity title is not the the same as not wanting to see the actual video. Unfortunately it's quite common on Youtube to have creators almost apologize for the baity title (but still use it plus matching thumbnail, to feed The Algorithm).
- jsnell 4y agoThe guidelines already let you use a different title in this case: "use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait"
- kevingadd 4y agoGood to know, I wasn't aware of this.
- mvuijlst 4y agoIs it clickbait when it's completely accurately describing what is going on?
- __void 4y ago...by now even youtube video previews are the evolution of clickbait, they would make even dante's divine comedy or The Great Gatsby look like total garbage
- FooHentai 4y agoInteresting to see this particular issue crop up so much lately - Big Clive did a video on microwave inverters and how dangerous the fractal wood burning process is, and I've seen several other creators coming out and speaking about either their own accidents doing this or people they know who are no longer around to speak for themselves. It even popped up fairly locally to me a few days back in a news article: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/129099866/woman-shocked-from-touching-electrocuted-sister-says-the-soles-of-my-feet-still-hurt-18-months-later https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/129099866/woman-shocked-fro... I guess it has the characteristics of appearing fairly safe while being absolutely the opposite, plus it's one of those activities where you do it 100 times carefully and the momentary lapse on round 101 gets you. Like using an angle grinder with one of those round chainsaw blade attachments. The failure modes are horrific. Amateur crafts-persons get lured in by the neat end product without necessarily having the background understanding of what they're risking.
- rwmj 4y agoBigclive's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBeSKL9zVro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBeSKL9zVro
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- sudden_dystopia 4y agoWell duh. Pulling transformers out of microwaves and tampering with them is clearly dangerous. How is pointing that out a “debunking” video? Isn’t that just a “quit being a moron, this is incredibly dangerous” video? It’s not like you are proving that fractal wood burning doesn’t even work, you are just pointing out that playing around with high voltage devices when you don’t really know the first thing about electricity is a bad idea. You aren’t Nikola Tesla, put the microwave down. I would have to see the “banned” video but her complaint video I found annoying.
- seeekr 4y agoWhile the title of the video is clickbaity, it's entirely accurate, and it's a message worth spreading. Hope YT will reconsider, acknowledge their mistake and fix it as best they can. Good luck, Ann!
- TheChaplain 4y agoWhy is this flagged? This obviously content that is worthy to take note of, and YouTube moderation are making clowns of themselves by banning content that is trying to prevent people from killing themselves or others.
- kevingadd 4y agoIt looks like a boingboing article about it made it to the front page, so that's probably a better way to consume the info.
- yucky 4y agoBecause it's clickbait.
- tomjen3 4y agoBecause it is a shit headline written as by a mad 13 year old to attract an audience on some tabloid.
- dredmorbius 4y agoNB: Hacker News guidelines specifically permit (and encourage) un-clickbaiting headlines. Submitters can do so (I almost always leave a note about how I've edited a title if I do so). https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Readers can also email the mods at hn@ycombinator.com to both report and suggest alternatives to overly-clickbaity headlines. I'd done so in this case. My suggested headline edit is pretty much what the BoingBoing story used, and I'd first suspected that the headline and link might have been changed. Apparently that was an independent submission. See that submission here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31945425 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31945425
- zepolen 4y agoI've had both 2k volts and 240v shocks, the difference is night and day, 240v is in comparison a slow tingle and unless your hand is clenched around the connection you still have senses and can move if you try hard enough. At 2k your whole body seizes up instantly and you lose all control/eye vision. Super scary.
- nix23 4y agoI had many 220v and one 380v, 220 hurts but the 380 one (thru my pinky finger) was like someone hitting it with a sled-hammer, cannot imagine a 2k one.
- AstralStorm 4y agoLucky you. If you had a worse parh, especially between arms like the dangerous tutorials show, even 230V can stop your heart, and kilovolts are nigh certain.
- Semiapies 4y agoI like how this is flagged, and yet BoingBoing blogspam about this very same video is the top item as I post this.
- senectus1 4y agoahh that woman... she's great. My wife and kids curl up on a couch to watch her stuff together. not just the debunking but the general cookery stuff. Another great aussie product :-)