14 DAY TRIAL // The video posted by Elliot Rodger, the suicidal gunman who killed six students in California last week, has been removed from YouTube. The company claims that it violates the terms of service.
Just a few days ago, Rodger posted a video to YouTube, complaining about all the women that didn’t want to date him and inciting to violence.
The video streaming site that is owned by Google has said that the clips violate its terms of service regarding content that threatens with violence. When they were flagged, YouTube decided to simply remove them, also cutting down on the heated discussion going on the platform on the topics of feminism, misogyny and violence against women.
In one of the videos that were filmed in his car, Rodger said that the day of retribution was coming. “The day in which I will have my revenge against humanity, against all of you,” he said, clearly expressing his intent.
The incident has of course led to some discussion about how nice it would be if companies such as Google were able to flag such content to stop tragic events from taking place.
This is, of course, just a pipe dream that cannot possibly be materialized. The human mind is too complex to be summed up with an algorithm and each individual is different, which makes the task borderline impossible.
Psychologists don’t believe such a thing can be done since mental health isn’t something that can be detected with an algorithm, especially since many people that express extreme thoughts never really go through with their plans. After all, if it were that easy, it would have been done by now.
Google and YouTube have some work ahead of them, however. The videos have been reposted on the Internet, including on YouTube, which means that it will take a long time before the job is complete. Even so, it may never actually go away, which is common with most online data nowadays.
Furthermore, it’s not exactly a surprise that the more someone tries to block access to some type of content, the more it will disseminate.
Facebook has also taken down a page created to pay tribute to the mass murderer, following user pressure, despite originally saying that its terms of service weren’t breached.
Due to supporters of Rodger blaming the women who rejected him for his actions, Twitter was taken by storm by the hashtag #YesAllWomen where misogyny and the problems that women face on a daily basis are discussed.