A falling Out? The Unregulated Dictating to the Regulated.
In a story on RadioToday, it was reported that Google had deleted the YouTube channel of talkRADIO. For those of you not in the know, talkRADIO is a station in the UK which in all fairness is a more conservative outlet which carries content which appeals to that audience.
They have every right to have a voice and working under the guidelines of Ofcom (the UK media regulator) they comply with clear rules on fairness, truth etc.
At the time of writing this, no explanation has been published by YouTube as to why the channel was removed. Was it accidental? Will it, and the archive of videos be restored? Time will tell.
What's concerning is that a media platform such as YouTube which is not regulated by any specific body would take this action without notice. Each YouTube channel has a health check in the back end for the admin to see whether the channel is at risk based on YouTube's own rules. However, if no specific reason was given for the take down and there is no restoration, this highlights the risks of having your content on a third-party distribution service to which you have limited control when it comes to influencing how they handle your account.
Google / Alphabet / YouTube is a private enterprise, and they can do what they like to protect their systems, audiences etc, but there must always be continuity. Now, if there was an outpouring of audience reports against the channel, or the content was deemed by YouTube as unacceptable for whatever reason, then they have the right to handle it however they wish.
This reminds us that hosting your own assets and having local resources is essential. The global distribution and audience of YouTube is incredible, so of course media outlets like using it as an archive, discussion platform and place to be found as the World's second largest search engine (after Google).
In terms of YouTube being unregulated, they have a form of self regulation driven by compliance with laws in different regions to address things such as copyright and offensive materials. However, this isn't a case of the unregulated forcing regulated media to bend to their whim, YouTube needs to satisfy audiences, advertisers, and different regulators across the globe, so the only reason they would really take a channel down - after all remember that every channel generates revenue for YouTube - is because that there is a risk factor, whether that is audience backlash, risk of regulatory penalties within a jurisdiction or alienation of advertisers.
Whilst I do not like content on all media channels, I support their right to express their views as long as there is journalistic integrity, fairness and balance. If a media outlet fails to have these, then that is a different matter. In the case of this story, I do not believe that talkRADIO have done anything to breach the Ofcom rules, and therefore whatever has happened may well be for another reason, but that is speculation.
I hope that things come to a swift resolution for the parties involved.