Social media trial: Meta and Google ordered to pay $6 million : NPR

"But this verdict is bigger than one case. For years, social media companies have profited from targeting children while concealing their addictive and dangerous design features. Today's verdict is a referendum — from a jury, to an entire industry — that accountability has arrived," he said in a joint statement with the plaintiff's legal team. 

Meta and Google said they disagree with the verdict. Meta said it is weighing its legal options and Google plans to appeal. 

"This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site," said Google spokesman José Castañeda…

https://www.npr.org/2026/03/25/nx-s1-5746125/meta-youtube-social-media-trial-verdict 

 

More than 20% of videos shown to new YouTube users are ‘AI slop’, study finds

Low-quality AI-generated content is now saturating social media – and generating about $117m a year, data shows…

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/27/more-than-20-of-videos-shown-to-new-youtube-users-are-ai-slop-study-finds

 

Unmasked: the man behind one of the fastest growing far-right YouTube channels | Far right (US) | The Guardian

Johnathan Christopher "Chris" Booth, 37, lives in the unincorporated community of Coral, a part of Maple Valley Township in Michigan's Montcalm county and is married to a senior local Republican official. 

Booth has published more than 70 YouTube videos since May on his Shameless Sperg account, whose graphic design elements feature stylized SS bolts. Titles of his videos-generally a recording of him delivering his views direct to camera-include: "Why I Dislike Jews. It's not complicated", "Black Crimes Matter: Never Relax", and "Jews and FBI hate you and your free speech". 

Typically the videos attract hundreds of comments from like-minded YouTube users. His channel has seen such remarkable success that it has drawn apparently baseless allegations from other far-right creators that he is a "fed". On an X account that frequently advertises his videos, his posts include antisemitic comments and in one response to a post about actor Jim Carrey he writes: "All of them deserve rope. I advocate for national socialism though, under which idiots like this would not fare too well."..

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/02/christopher-booth-far-right-youtube-channel

 

Security Bite: Fake iPhone virus pop-ups have made it on YouTube - 9to5Mac

The ad itself isn't a pop-up but uses an image of a TCC-like prompt to trick unsuspecting YouTube viewers into downloading an app claiming to fix problems that don't exist. It states, "Your iphone is severely damaged by (247) virus! We have detected that your iPhone has been infected with viruses. If you don't take any action, it will soon corrupt your SIM card, data, photos and contacts."

https://9to5mac.com/2025/07/11/fake-iphone-virus-pops-up-have-made-it-on-youtube/ 

 

I Read 28 Posts From This Christian YouTuber...And It Reveals a Lot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEVgS_BxhDc

 

YouTube’s algorithm recommends users right-wing and religious content, research finds

"These results suggest that right-leaning news content is more frequently recommended than left-leaning," the study said. Both accounts were also recommended videos by an anti-vaccine influencer… 

Videos with religious themes — primarily Christianity — were also recommended to all the accounts, even though none of them had watched religious content during the persona-building stage. The accounts interested in mommy vloggers, for example, were shown videos with Bible verses. 

The researchers also found that YouTube recommended videos including sexually explicit content to the child account and videos featuring influencer Andrew Tate, who has been charged with human trafficking and rape (allegations that he has denied) in Romania, even though he is banned from the platform…

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/youtubes-algorithm-recommends-users-right-wing-religious-content-resea-rcna155478

Supreme Court to decide if the government can seize control of YouTube and Twitter - Vox

This anti-capitalist Republicanism, moreover, is hardly limited to DeSantis. Among other things, it's penetrated deep into the Federalist Society — the powerful legal organization that plays an enormous role in selecting Republican appointees to the federal bench. During the Biden administration, the Federalist Society's annual conventions have featured an array of paranoid speakers making grandiose claims about corporate America, such as "massive corporations are pursuing a common and mutually agreed upon agenda to destroy American freedom."… 

As the Verge's Nilay Patel colorfully explained, running a profitable social media company "means you have to ban racism, sexism, transphobia, and all kinds of other speech that is totally legal in the United States but reveals people to be total assholes." These sorts of assholes also apparently have many friends in the Florida and Texas state legislatures…

https://www.vox.com/scotus/2024/2/15/24049045/supreme-court-first-amendment-netchoice-moody-paxton-youtube-twitter-facebook

Michigan man indicted after making YouTube threats against Biden, Whitmer, LGBTQ+ people - mlive.com

When the FBI began investigating, the YouTube account had a display name of "kill all federal agents on sight and hang biden" with a URL of "@killthefeds420." Agents determined that between Feb. 18 and March 7, the account published at least 14 posts stating a desire to kill President Joe Biden, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Democrat politicians in general, and LGBTQ+ people...

https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2023/04/michigan-man-indicted-after-making-youtube-threats-against-biden-whitmer-lgbtq-people.html

Two GOP judges just gave Texas control over Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube - Vox

…The Texas law, in other words, would effectively turn every single major social media platform into 4chan — a cesspool of racial slurs, misogyny, and targeted harassment that the platforms would be powerless to control, unless they wanted to enact such sweeping content moderation policies that their platforms would become unusable…

https://www.vox.com/2022/5/12/23068017/supreme-court-first-amendment-twitter-facebook-youtube-instagram-netchoice-paxton-texas

YouTube permanently bans Dan Bongino for posting covid-19 misinformation - The Washington Post

…Bongino is one of a small handful of conservative figures who have been handed permanent suspensions from the big social media companies…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/01/26/youtube-ban-dan-bongino/

Anti-Mask GOP Candidate for Michigan Guv Banned From YouTube for Life

… Soldano repeatedly disobeyed rules barring posts that refute health authorities…
https://www.thedailybeast.com/garret-soldano-anti-mask-gop-candidate-for-michigan-guv-banned-from-youtube-for-life

The YouTubers who blew the whistle on an anti-vax plot - BBC News

"Bad-mouthing vaccines in the West undermines trust in our democracies and is supposed to increase trust in Russia's vaccines, and there is only one side that benefits and that is the Kremlin."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-57928647

A Former Alt-Right YouTuber Explains His Methods - The New York Times

Focus on conflict. Feed the algorithm. Make sure whatever you produce reinforces a narrative. Don't worry if it is true...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/15/technology/alt-right-youtube-algorithm.html

Trump and his allies are banned from these platforms - The Washington Post

"Given the current extraordinary circumstances and the President's incendiary rhetoric, we believe this is a necessary step to protect our community and prevent Twitch from being used to incite further violence..."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/11/trump-banned-social-media/

Keith Olbermann leaves ESPN to host political show on YouTube - The Hill

ESPN's Keith Olbermann is leaving the sports network again so that he can focus on political commentary.
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/520061-keith-olbermann-leaves-espn-again-to-focus-on-political-commentary-with-new

World's biggest film festivals unite for 10-day streaming event

More than 20 film festivals around the world have joined together to stream movies for free on YouTube after the coronavirus pandemic closed cinemas and forced the cancellation of annual showcases in Cannes and New York.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/apr/27/worlds-biggest-film-festivals-unite-for-10-day-streaming-event

PragerU Fails Again

https://youtu.be/zH9sCuDvAik

Federal court tosses conservatives' First Amendment suit against YouTube - POLITICO

YouTube is not a "state actor" bound by the First Amendment, the court ruled. ....
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/26/youtube-court-first-amendment-117769

Google and YouTube reportedly pull hundreds of Trump ads for violating policies

Google and YouTube reportedly pull hundreds of Trump ads for violating policies
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/dec/02/google-youtube-trump-ads-pulled-report

YouTube may push users to more radical views over time, a new paper argues - The Verge

Why it's not about an open platform versus a closed one....
https://www.theverge.com/interface/2019/8/28/20836019/youtube-ceo-quarterly-letter-radicalization-pipeline