(Technology Review) YouTube has been taking down videos of robots fighting, mistaking them for videos that show “deliberate infliction of animal suffering.”
The removals were first noticed by YouTuber Maker’s Muse, and affected a number of channels run by contenders on the TV show BattleBots, a robot-fighting series. Sarah Pohorecky, who had multiple videos removed, told Motherboard that 10 to 15 other contestants had been affected. They received emails from YouTube stating that videos of animals being forced to fight are not permitted on the site. YouTube said it has since reinstated the videos, and notes that people can challenge the decision when their content is removed from the site.
But why were they removed in the first place?