The Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) is calling on YouTube to permanently ban President Trump after a raid on the US Capitol on January 6. The move shows that the newly formed organization, which consists of employees and contractors at Google’s parent company, is dead set on influencing issues that go beyond workers’ rights.
On Wednesday, YouTube removed a video of Trump addressing the attack, citing his policy toward content that claims voters have cheated. However, the union called the reaction “faint” and said the company had not gone far enough. “YouTube refuses to hold Donald Trump responsible for the platform’s own rules by choosing to remove only one video instead of removing him completely from the platform,” wrote them in a statement. The platform “will continue to function as a vector for the growth of the fascist movement as it continues to prioritize advertisers while exposing the public,” they added.
Workers also cite the role of YouTube in growing white nationalist movements. “YouTube may no longer be a tool for fascist recruitment and oppression,” they said. “Anything less is to face deadly violence: from Gamergate to Charlottesville, from Christchurch to Washington DC, from Jair Bolsonaro to Donald Trump. Because Alphabet did not act, it did a lot of damage: to the thousands of victims of hatred and to the world. ”
Alex Hanna, a researcher at Google and AWU member, tells The edge: ‘It’s incredibly important that our union spoke out about YouTube’s complicity in maintaining white supremacist content, misinformation and hate speech on the platform … As workers, we’re in a unique position to speak out against this behavior and Alphabet to be responsible for the social consequences of its technology if it goes against the profit incentives. ”
Other platforms have already taken concrete steps to prevent Trump from spreading falsehoods and inciting violence. On January 7, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in a blog post that Trump will be banned from Facebook and Instagram indefinitely for at least the next two weeks.
Twitter took a slightly weaker stance and closed Trump’s account for 12 hours. The company has said it will suspend the president permanently if it continues to violate its policies.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment The edge.