Youtube Gets Sued For Alleged LGBTQ Rights Infringement

A group of LGBTQ rights defenders in the US recently arraigned Google and YouTube in federal court. This band, including a handful of LGBTQ social media celebrities such as Chase Ross, Bria Kam, Chrissy Chambers, Brett Somers as well as the executives of GlitterbombTV.com, Alleges that YouTube’s ‘ad-friendly’ policies were actually not friendly to them in all ramifications.

The litigation brought before the US district court in California accuses YouTube of such activities as limiting video contents tied to famous LGBTQ identities.

The Emerging Rights War

Following the recent developments, a lawsuit was filed on Tuesday against YouTube and its parent company – Google. These LGBTQ users leveraged upon the company’s purported ideology of “creating a platform of self-expression for all” and making a shit-load of money while at it. This perception of ‘freedom of expression’ and ‘freedom of information’ was however received differently by LGBTQ users, once they sensed a pre-planned discrimination towards the contents they upload on YouTube. 

Accordingly, the court order highlights that YouTube engaged in;

“unlawful content regulation, distribution, and monetization practices that stigmatize, restrict, block, demonetize, and financially harm the LGBTQ+ Plaintiffs and the greater LGBTQ+ Community.”

The Plaintiff acknowledged that Google/YouTube supervises over 95% of all the digitally distributed video-based contents on a global scale. And as such, YouTube is registered as the largest for-profit channel dedicated to free speech and expression in the history of the world.

Furthermore, the Prosecuting party maintains that the Defendants generated an excess of $25 billion on an annual basis. Claiming that such profits are derived from regulating, distributing, and monetizing the free speech and expression of the 2.3 billion YouTubers worldwide. 

Google Apology

Still, Google upholds that it has always been a silent propagator of LGBTQ rights in the past. Demonstrating this, Google asserts to have advocated for gay rights around the world and officially sponsoring the San Francisco Pride parade. Nonetheless, this is not the first time Google/YouTube would be charged with such malfeasance. 

The social media giant took to Twitter during the 2018 ‘Pride Month’ to relay an apology with regards its biased ads sharing policies. But this time, the LGBTQ community does not seem to care about Google’s apology but rather a call for the restructuring of Google’s business model.