A recent report claims that Google-owned video platform YouTube is removing videos of robot fights for “animal cruelty.”
A recent report from the Independent claims that videos of robot battles are being removed from YouTube over claims of “animal cruelty.” The platform has reportedly removed hundreds of videos from popular robot battle events claiming that they are in breach of the rules of the site surrounding animal cruelty. To be clear — these are videos of remote-controlled mechanical robots constructed by engineers smashing into each other, they are not alive or sentient.
The Independent reports:
YouTuber and robot enthusiast Anthony Murney was one of the first to highlight the issue, who blamed a new algorithm introduced by YouTube to detect instances of animal abuse.
“There is a new algorithm that’s trying to take down robot combat videos,” he said in a video on Monday.
“It’s a disgrace… [we want] to get YouTube’s attention to stop this because it’s ridiculous.”
Several other channels dedicated to robot combat have also produced videos pointing out the issue in an effort to get YouTube to restore the content.