YouTube CCP Comment Deletion Controversy

Overview

YouTube CCP Comment Deletion Controversy refers to the removal of specific Chinese-language comments on YouTube that criticize China’s Communist Party (CCP). As early as October 2019, YouTubers discovered that the phrases “共匪” (communist bandit) and “五毛” (50-cent party) were being automatically removed, and in May 2020, news outlets and users from other social media platforms reignited the discussion, resulting in a wave of backlash and conspiracy theories as to why these terms were being deleted.

Background

On October 27th, 2019, user Scott Clary made a post to the YouTube Help Center,^[1] asking “Is youtube censoring comments that include 五毛?” The thread (seen below) addressed the issue adding that “Whenever I post a comment with ‘五毛’ it seems to magically disappear.” Several other users commented below his question, confirming that their comments containing the Chinese character were also being deleted.

On November 10th and 19th, 2019, two additional threads were created by other users on the YouTube Help Center,^[2][3] confirming that their comments (also including “共匪”) were similarly being deleted on the platform. All three of these threads have since been locked.

Developments

Online Reactions

On May 13th, 2020, Twitter^[4] user jenniferatntd uploaded a video showing the deletion of these comments on YouTube (shown below) with the caption, “YouTube ‘automatically’ deletes a comment in Chinese, ‘Gongfei,’ which means ‘communist bandit,’ in 15 seconds. This person tested 3 times, same result.” The video received over 1,300 likes, 791 retweets and 128 comments. On May 16th, 2020, Redditor^[5] 1donteven then reposted the video to the World Politics & News subreddit, where it received over 4,500 upvotes and 321 comments.

On May 17th, 2020, Redditor^[6] nbyung09 posted a discussion thread to the r/youtube sub with the title, “Youtube are censoring anti-CCP terms in Chinese.” In the post, nbyung09 stated, “Comments including terms like "五毛" (50-cent army) and "共匪" (Communist bandit) will be automatically deleted. Seems like it has been going on for some time, and if you question it on Youtube Help, your thread would be locked and left unanswered.” The post received 300 upvotes and 79 comments, where various Redditors discussed their thoughts on the reasoning behind the deletions, as well as some skeptics who suggested that it proved nothing malicious.

Later that day on May 17th, Redditor^[7] j0z- made a post to the r/actualconspiracies sub, showing a video of "共匪" being actively removed from the comment section of a video on YouTube (seen below), receiving nearly 900 upvotes and 73 comments.

On May 24th, 2020, YouTuber^[8] ShortFatOtaku uploaded a video to their channel titled, “On Communist Bandits ( 共匪 ),” which discusses the issue and shows similar comment removal. The video (shown below) has since been viewed over 43,600 times, liked 4,200 times and commented on 1,000 times.

On May 26th, 2020, several media outlets then picked up the story and wrote various articles on the topic in detail, helping to spread awareness of the comment deletion. The Hill^[9] and The Verge^[10] each reported on the story, as well as many others. According to The Verge, who received a comment from a YouTube spokesperson, the video hosting platform stated:

“Upon review by our teams, we have confirmed this was an error in our enforcement systems and we are working to fix it as quickly as possible,” said a YouTube spokesperson. The company did not elaborate on how or why this error came to be, but said it was not the result of any change in its moderation policy.

Following widespread coverage of the news, Twitter users began discussing the event below The Verge’s tweet of the story, where The Daily Beast reporter, Lachlan Markay,^[11] speculated on that a possible explanation was the result of Chinese operatives actively working to get the terms added to content filters by mass reporting them (seen below).

Lance Gooden, U.S. Congressman for Texas' 5th Congressional District, then replied on his Twitter,^[12] doubting that the removal of such comments was indeed an accident (shown below).

Search Interest

External References