Daybreak - Why YouTube, Instagram creators pay the price for safety on social media

Episode Date: March 13, 2024

From shadow-banning, content flagging, suspension and even account deletion, content creators are grappling with a variety of censorship methods on social media platforms—all in the name of maintaining community guidelines.But with social media platforms relying more and more on AI and machine-learning tools identify and remove violating content, even content aimed at creating sexual, social, and political awareness ends up being taken down.  And sex-ed and news content creators on platforms like Instagram and Youtube are seeing their reach, discoverability, and income take a hit.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too? It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Ramon Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing and extensive post-production. Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording.

Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get an alert as soon as we release our first episode, please follow intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. Sex, politics, social issues. Most content creators who work on these subjects on social media platforms have been managing to win the numbers game.

I mean, in terms of views, followers, shares. There's a misconception that many people have that, you know, if you provide information to young people about sex, they're all going to go rush out and have sex. But in fact, research indicates that young people who have access to sex education, I'm less likely to take risks with their own or another person's health or safety. The country's country's against. India Alliance has finally the list jarringed, which everyone was going to take sex education, for example.

It is something that's been conspicuously missing from Indian education curriculums. But sex educators on social media like Lisa Mangal Das, Tanaya Narendra, who's popularly known as Dr. Coutreous, Seema Anand, and many others like them, have been tackling this gap through their posts and videos. They bust myths around sex, talk about sexual wellness and health and a variety of related issues. And over time, they've built a solid set of followers who find value.

in the work that they've been putting out. It is the same with a lot of creators on YouTube who talk about news and politics. At a time when television news is more circus than news, very often people trust content creators more than television news anchors themselves. And all of this has been possible because these creators had a platform

that allowed them to reach the masses, like Meta's Instagram. And for a lot of them, it is now their full-time career. But lately, things have been changing and not in a good way. If you use Instagram at all and you follow any of these accounts, I'm sure you've seen stories or posts by these creators talking about how their content was flagged down without a good reason, or that they are being shadow banned and that their reach has taken a dip. It is one or the other form of

censorship that they're facing, whether it is content flagging, suspension, shadow banning, or even account deletion. Your post goes against the community guidelines. That is a go-to sentence that social media platforms have been using to take down content. But platforms like Instagram and YouTube have been making efforts to reduce scams and deceptive practices for years, because it is their responsibility. But with time, the methods that they've been using to do this are getting stricter. And as these guidelines get tougher, the consequences are getting clearer than ever before. They use a combination of human and AI resources to identify the supposed problematic content.

But the more that they rely on AI, the more the chances of misunderstanding. For example, what happened to Dr. Coutarus? Her reel on female condoms was flagged for adult solicitation by Instagram. So, in their effort to make social media platforms a safe space, content creators are being left as collateral damage. Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host, Nick Da Sharma, and I don't chase the news cycle. Instead, thrice a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I will come to you with one business story that is worth understanding and worth your time.

Akshara Ashok, a creator who has 241,000 followers on Instagram, declared that she was going to stop posting sex ed and mental health-related content. But these are the subjects that made her handle Happy Fluff Con. comics popular. People found her content relatable. She's an illustrator who uses her comic characters to take on issues like patriarchy, body positivity, mental and sexual health, women rights, and LGBTQ issues. So what changed? Akshira just got tired of having her content taken down again and again by Instagram because according to the social media app, they went against the platform's community guidelines on adult sexual solicitation.

She is not the only one that this has been happening to. A growing set of influencers and creators who work around these subjects are very upset with the platform. For someone like Akshara, Instagram is the main source of income and all her collaborations with the likes of Amazon Prime Video, Disney Hot Star and Google revolve around her Instagram handle. Similar things are also happening to creators on YouTube. The ones who talk about current events, news and politics are facing restrictive rules on the platform, which, ironically, was once upon a time known for being an open space for such content. My colleague, the Ken reporter Shivani Warma, spoke to eight sex ed creators, including two doctors. And they all told her how these restrictions have increased this year.

And the worst part, it is hitting them where it hurts the most. It is taking a toll on their reach, discoverability and most importantly, revenue. So who decides what gets flagged, taken down or restricted on social media platforms? Danaya Nareendra, who goes by Dr. Coutris, explained to Shivani how most of her content is around periods, contraceptives, abortions, etc. But she said, and I'm quoting, Meta's AI, will suddenly decide that the said content is soliciting sex and there is no human intervention. End quote.

Meta says that it uses a combination of AI and people to moderate content on its platforms. A company spokesperson told again that it has built features such as account status to help creators understand why their content may not be recommended and how they can delete any content that is affecting their account or appeal the decision if they think there was a mistake. For the most part, it is AI and machine learning tools that identify and remove the violating content. And in case the AI misses it, human reviewers are asked to enforce the guidelines. YouTube also has similar processes in place.

But a bunch of Instagram creators complained to us saying that very often it is unclear whether the content was reviewed by a human or by an AI system. Plus, there is a very clear lack of access to human support. Only one of the eight sex-ed creators that spoke to the Ken were assigned a partner manager by their social media platform. So how is a social media platform able to tell what is what? Meta, for example, restricts content categorized as nudity, sexual activity, or adult solicitation. But the problem is that we have no idea how it differentiates between them when it's

comes to educational, humorous, or satirical content. And because of this, the engagement numbers that creators usually see has been taking a hit. For example, Karishma Suarup, a sexuality educator who goes by the moniker talk you never got on Instagram, saw a dip in her post reach from 40 to 50,000 to just 10,000. Intimacy coach, Pallavi Bernwal, experienced a 25% drop in her revenue. So how are content creators reacting to all these restrictive methods? Stay tuned to find out. Dr. Couturist told Shivani that now, instead of focusing their energy on creating authentic,

scientifically accurate content, they have to keep up with the strategies of social media platforms to ensure that the AI does not flag them. To her, this is a complete waste of time. Some sex-set creators told again that they weren't even informed about. about the takedowns. They only found out when they check their profile settings. So in response, some appeal and the other, they just delete the flat content. Now, to protect their accounts, creators are also taking to archiving their posts. Akshira did it for 30 of her sex-ed posts, which make up for half of her collaboration income.

Lisa Mangledas, who's been a sex education content creator for the last seven years, says that sensitivity is a subjective matter. She says, and I'm quoting, why is Instagram deciding what one can see or cannot see? When content on sexuality and pleasure is automatically restricted, even if it is educational, it is not a level playing feel. End quote. Daybreak is produced from the Newsroom of the Ken,

India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only offerings. A full subscription unlocks daily long-form feature stories newsletters, subscriber-only apps and podcast extras. Head to the ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the website. I am Snigda Sharma, your host, and today's episode was edited by my colleague Rajiv Sien.