YouTube Disabled Our Comments Again (Are Any Humans Left at YouTube?)

[00:00:00]I'm feeling a little bit distraught and burned out from what I just learned. So, if I seem out of it and not myself in this video, that's why. I was just in the middle of editing this week's video.

[00:00:11]It's with an autistic person who's non-speaking and also has epilepsy. The goal of this video, like all of our videos, is to share her story, but also to model how you can form a bond and a friendship with a person who communicates a bit differently. After finishing editing, I logged into YouTube Studio, which is an app that organizes all of our videos, and you can see all of the data. I noticed that a few of our recent videos had comments turned off.

[00:00:39]And I went through and scrolled through our whole catalog of videos, and 45 videos over the past 24 hours had comments deleted and restricted. I received no notification or explanation why this happened, and I have no ability to turn the comments back on. If you've been following this channel for a while, you probably remember this happened before. From 2019 to 2021, YouTube restricted comments across our entire channel for over 2 years. Viewers couldn't comment at all. For the past 11 years, we've interviewed disabled people from across the world, and the comment section has become something truly special on the internet. In our comment section, you can commonly find disabled adults mentoring newly disabled young people and their families. You can find parents of disabled youth sharing tips and tricks, as well as educators of disabled kids doing the same thing. You can find disabled people and kids and teens of all backgrounds in all different conditions, networking and sharing advice and tips and stories.

[00:01:41]These comments aren't separate from our mission. They're a big part of it. Some of the videos affect it. were fundraisers for rare genetic conditions.

[00:01:50]And I can feel my heart beating a little fast now because this part of the video is going to make me a bit angry and sad.

[00:01:57]One particular interview that was affected was one with John Hudson from 2022. John Hudson recently passed away and this specific video raised over $200,000 to go to research for a cure and treatment for his rare condition. For years, people have found that fundraiser through the pinned comment on the video.

[00:02:22]And they also found on this video when they went to it thousands and thousands of people explaining why it's important to donate to this cause to help John Hudson and other people like him. This fundraiser continued to raise money for this cause even to this day. And now with the comments now gone, that pinned comment is gone. And also all of those people who took time to explain the importance and significance of this fundraiser, all of their comments are gone. And as somebody who's done this for 11 years, I know that that means this fundraiser is basically done. Um, yeah, that's incredibly frustrating. And John Hudson isn't the only video impacted where the person or child has since passed away. Many families over the years have told me that it brings them great comfort to return to their child or their spouses or friends video after they passed away and that it is so comforting to them to read the comments.

[00:03:24]And it breaks my heart to know that that just won't happen for them anymore. When YouTube restored our comments in 2021 after 2 years, the comments that were there previously were permanently deleted. millions of people leaving their thoughts, tips, tricks, advice, feelings was permanently disappeared.

[00:03:44]For SPSK, these comments aren't just engagement.

[00:03:49]They're a part of our history. They document how people responded to these stories. They capture connections made, how perspectives change, and how community formed around the people that we feature. So overnight, this happened to 45 of our videos in their comment sections, and I'm not sure if the process is finished or if more videos will be impacted in the coming days. And I also don't know who to ask. Like you hear probably many creators saying these days, it's nearly impossible to get in contact with a human at YouTube or any platform. I really want everyone to know that this isn't a decision I made. I didn't go back and restrict these comment sections. It seems to have been an automated decision by YouTube's AI, and I do understand YouTube's responsibility to protect people online, and I fully support that goal. But the people I meet and the people I interview want to share their story. They want to connect with people in their community.

[00:04:48]I also hope there's room for educational documentaries like these on YouTube where the comments have spent 11 years building understanding, offering encouragement, and helping people know they're not alone. If someone at YouTube happens to see this, my hope isn't simply that our comments will come back.

[00:05:09]My hope is that we can find a better solution than trusting AI to make very complex decisions about moderation.

[00:05:17]Although I am feeling a bit burned out from what feels like an endless struggle to help an algorithm understand this channel's purpose of creating an inclusive world for everybody. I do plan to continue sharing these stories and giving people a platform to share their thoughts and feelings and opinions like I always have. And I hope with every video you watch on this channel, it makes you want to be a little bit more kinder to the people you