Part of the problem is the need to put something in front of people who go to Youtube and other such platforms. Perhaps if there was no "algorithm" to give you

Part of the problem is the need to put something in front of people who go to Youtube and other such platforms. Perhaps if there was no "algorithm" to give you "suggestions" as to what to watch, there wouldn't be this need to consider the platforms to be liable for what users upload. Present a bare search bar to guests/new users, sort of like the main Google interface and as users view and subscribe to channels, just show them their actual subscriptions, instead of commingling suggestions with subscriptions, leading to confusion about which channels are actually subscribed to (I like to consider myself fairly savvy, and more than once I have found I wasn't actually subscribed to a channel that I watched quite regularly). Stop suggesting things to people based on what they've already watched, and maybe you could legitimately argue "we're not directing people to content, we're merely allowing them to search for content they wish to view". As long as a platform is making suggestions as to what to show users, it could be argued that they should use that power for "good" and be liable when videos are surfaced that are "bad", for various incompatible definitions of "good" and "bad". It's not unprecedented for a privately-owned location to nonetheless be told "you may not censor anyone based on the message they wish to spread". There's no reason why a system couldn't be developed to make the actual uploader of the content the one that is liable, and few people have the wherewithal or the capability to have airtight opsec.