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YouTube may hold itself to be a non-bias platform with no political affiliations, but their viewers certainly are not. A large majority of YouTube’s frequent viewers seem be to favoring the Liberals, at leased based on the views and ‘likes’ their videos receive. But is YouTube itself supporting the Democratic Party?
Google, a major financial supporter of Barak Obama, has put itself in a rather uncomfortable position. For years Google has been accused of “filtering” search result, displaying top sites based on their Silicon Valley bias, instead of an impartial algorithm. Whether these accusations are true or not, search engines are meant to be a nonpartisan tool, rather than a political platform.
Google of course purchased YouTube for $1.65 Billion in October of 2006. Since then, the video hosting site has become one of the most popular services on the Internet, as well as a major media platform.
Until today, I always saw YouTube as being impartial. However, at 8:30pm Eastern Time on Friday September 7th I went onto YouTube and saw a democratic video entitled: “Polis 2012 Democratic Convention Speech” in the most viewed of both the daily and weekly videos. For those of you who are unfamiliar with YouTube, to get on the most viewed videosrequires hundreds of thousands of views in a short amount of time - a fairly difficult task. How many views did this video have? The video had 2,314 views and only 7 comments - not nearly enough to be displayed in this exclusive list.
It isn’t unheard of to see the occasional video slip past YouTube’s watchful eyes onto this list, but not without adding unauthentic views. It makes you wonder if perhaps the online video giant has openly stepped out to support the Democratic Party. Regardless of whether it was a mistake or intentional, any video regardless of its message should be treated with impartiality, as to let the American people vote with a clear perspective.
The big question remains - where does it end? Are the public’s search results being displayed through a political filter? Are California media companies secretly promoting videos and messages from political parties? I for one think that some of the biggest issues America is facing today is because of private corporations getting too involved in politics. In this upcoming election America: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”. God bless the USA!
- Jordan Driediger
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