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A human rights organization has attracted millions of views on YouTube. These people say that the testimony of their family members missing in the Xinjiang region of China is transferring their videos to the little-known service Odysee. The media giant deleted some videos, two sources told Reuters.
The organization is hailed by international organizations such as Human Rights Watch as attracting attention Human Rights Violation in XinjiangSince its establishment in 2017, it has been criticized by the Kazakh authorities.
Serikzhan Bilash is a Kazakh activist born in Xinjiang. He is the co-founder of the channel. He has been arrested many times for activism. He said that government advisers told him five years ago to stop using “genocide.” One word to describe the situation in Xinjiang—this is an order that he speculated to come from the Chinese government’s pressure on Kazakhstan.
“They are just facts,” Bilash told Reuters in a telephone interview, referring to the content of the Atajurt video. “The people who gave the testimony are talking about their loved ones.”
The Atajurt Kazakh Human Rights channel has posted nearly 11,000 videos on YouTube since 2017, with a total of more than 120 million views. Thousands of these videos are characterized by people talking to the camera about what they say is missing in Xinjiang, China Relatives, United Nations experts and human rights expert groups estimate that at least one million people have been detained in recent years.
According to screenshots seen by Reuters, the channel was blocked on June 15 for violating YouTube guidelines. Previously, 12 videos were reported as violating its “cyberbullying and harassment” policy.
The channel’s administrator had appealed the blocking of all 12 videos from April to June, some of which were restored-but YouTube did not explain why other videos were not seen by the public, the administrator told Reuters.
‘Multiple strikes’
After Reuters asked why the channel was deleted, YouTube reinstated the channel on June 18 and explained that it had received multiple so-called “strikes” videos containing people holding ID cards proving that they were with the missing person. Relevant, violated YouTube’s policy that prohibits personally identifiable information from appearing in its content.
According to a report from MIT Technology Review on Thursday, Human Rights Watch also reminded YouTube that Atajurt was blocked.
YouTube asked Atajurt to obfuscate the ID. But Atajurt was unwilling to comply. The channel’s administrator expressed concern that doing so would jeopardize the credibility of the video.
Fearing to be further blocked by YouTube, they decided to back up the content to Odysee, a website built on a blockchain protocol called LBRY, which aims to provide creators with more control.
So far, about 975 videos https://odysee.com/@ATAJURT:8 have been moved.
A human rights organization said that YouTube blocked some videos from the families of missing people in Xinjiang, China, where more than 1 million Uighurs and ethnic minorities are being held in “re-education” camps.
Atajurt Kazakh Human Rights Tell @Reuters It is switching the platform to Odysee. pic.twitter.com/7tCJdNeXH4
-AJ + (@ajplus) June 25, 2021
Even though the administrator is moving the content, they have received another series of automated messages from YouTube stating that the video has been removed from public view, this time because of concerns that they might promote a violent criminal organization.
“Every day there is another excuse. I never trust YouTube,” Serikzhan Bilash, one of the founders of Atajurt, told Reuters in a phone interview.
“But we are no longer afraid, because we use LBRY to support ourselves. The most important thing is the safety of our materials.”
Last year, Bilash was repeatedly threatened and intimidated by the Kazakh authorities for refusing to stop cooperation with Atajurt and fled to Istanbul. He said that his hard disk and mobile phones and other equipment were confiscated in Kazakhstan many times-which made YouTube The only place they can be used. The entire video collection is stored.
YouTube stated that the information about organizations that promote violent criminals is automated and has nothing to do with the creator’s content, but the video is kept secret to allow administrators to edit it.
“I feel I lost everything”
UN experts and human rights organizations estimate that at least one million people, mainly Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, are being held in Xinjiang’s huge camp systemMany former prisoners stated that they received ideological training and abuse in concentration camps. China denies all allegations of abuse of power.
In recent years, due to stricter censorship of online cyberbullying, misinformation, and hate speech, YouTube has restricted more content. These policies have put many channels in trouble, including those of far-right commentators, forcing them to seek safe havens on social media services, such as advocating a more open Parler.
However, representatives of Atajurt are concerned that pro-Chinese groups that deny human rights violations in Xinjiang are using YouTube’s reporting function to delete their content through collective reports, thereby triggering automatic blocking. The delegates shared videos with Reuters on WhatsApp and Telegram, which they said described how to report Atajurt’s YouTube videos.
They also pointed out multiple YouTube channels that contained videos of Serikzhan Bilash’s face superimposed on animals such as monkeys and pigs. They said these videos defamed Bilash’s character and work.
YouTube stated that channels are always welcome to switch to other channels. Its policy prohibits the publication of non-public personal information (such as name and address) to guide the abuse of attention.
According to YouTube, the service makes exceptions to certain rules for educational, documentary, or scientific videos-but Atajurt’s videos do not fully meet these requirements.
The company said: “We welcome responsible efforts to document important human rights cases around the world.” “We recognize that the purpose of these videos is not to maliciously leak PII… and are working with Atajurt Kazakh to explain our policy.”
Odysee told Reuters that it welcomes and supports Atajurt.
Atajurt plans to continue uploading to YouTube as much as possible.
“We will never delete it,” Bilash said, citing the importance of the service’s large audience.
“The day YouTube disabled our channel, I felt I lost everything in the world… The new channel didn’t have many subscribers,” he said, “but it is safe.”
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