We all have heard about the censorship of sculptures in the Vatican during the Middle Ages. The popes Innocent X and Clement XIII covered Vatican sculptures with fig leaves. Pope Pius IX went further and removed genitalia from the sculptures. Their attitude against nudity was their way of underscoring modesty and conservative approaches.
Previously, we could laugh about this behavior by the popes. But we have now reached an age that brings us back to the same attitude. In 2020, deep in the 21st century, social media giants like YouTube and Facebook are busy with deleting everything which is against their medieval norms. Regularly, my art works suffer from this policy. After many of such cases I have therefore stopped posting my art on Facebook. Facebook’s daughter company, Instagram, is a little more tolerant, but the difference is not big. There too, censorship is operating full-time.
Recently a thumbnail of my video on YouTube was deleted ten times (!!!) within 44 hours. It was deleted by YouTube to protect your sensitive soul. They claim that the chosen picture (Here left, on YouTube as big as a post stamp!) is against their community rules. Because it did not actually go against their community rules, I appealed ten times and they placed it back ten times until they got tired of the bullying game. Do YOU understand this? I don’t.
Part of this way of bullying is, that one cannot appeal to anyone directly. It is always an anonymous NoReply email that lets you know that Big Brother is watching you, correct you and punish you.
Another example: In December 2019 my channel on YouTube reached 100,000 subscribers. Normally, creators who achieves such number receive a Silver Creator Award. I did not. Why? After asking about it, and getting evasive answers it was clear to me: Big Brother was not satisfied about their former collisions with me concerning nudity, and decided to punish me. Or, as they put it: “Creator Awards are given at YouTube’s discretion, and only to creators that follow the rules.”
To remind you, I myself mark my videos as age restricted, which means that people need to log in with a Google account, and be at least 18 years old, to watch any of my videos. And as another consequence, my videos are not eligible for advertisements and I cannot receive income from them. Still, also adults may not know themselves what they may see, even it is decent artistic nudity.
I can live without this award. But it shows how this system works. The sacred Freedom of Speech is kept for things which THEY consider as Freedom of THEIR Speech.
My consolation is that the giants are now also under fire. Facebook decided to (finally!) delete Holocaust-denying posts, and YouTube decided to delete violent videos, which earlier could be watched by anybody. It’s about time!