93-year-old YouTuber back in business after being kicked off platform over porn allegation
CBC
A 93-year-old retired University of Toronto professor recently had her YouTube channel cancelled on the grounds that she was broadcasting pornography.
Metta Spencer, a sociologist whose online broadcasts regularly feature world leaders in the fields of peace, climate change, pandemics, famine and, ironically, cyber risks said she spent weeks trying to convince YouTube Canada that the porn clips were the result of a hacking attack, without success.
"They cut me off," she said. "I have [hundreds of] hour-long forum discussions that I have produced, and they were all on YouTube and they took them all out."
Spencer's YouTube channel, To Save the World, was reinstated on Monday after calls were made to YouTube's parent company, Google, by CBC Toronto.
"YouTube's community guidelines outline what type of content isn't allowed on YouTube, including explicit content," a Google Canada spokesperson said in an email to CBC Toronto. "Posting content that violates our community guidelines can result in channel termination. In the case of this channel, we have carefully reviewed the account appeal and have removed the video that violated our policies, and reinstated the channel."
Spencer said the web of FAQs, email addresses and websites that are recommended in the event a user wants to appeal a channel's cancellation were useless.
"I'd be ashamed to have you see me when I'm in the throes of that kind of emotional frustration," she said.
But Carmi Levy, a tech expert based in London, Ont., said Spencer's frustration trying to make contact with a helpful human is common among social media platform users who find themselves suddenly suspended or cancelled.
"Hardly a day goes by that I don't get some message in one of my inboxes, telling me a story that is very much like this. Depressingly similar," he said.
Levy said large companies like Google have no incentive to make it easy for users to get help.
"Ask anyone whose TikTok account, for example, has been shut down for violations of their terms of service even though they didn't cause them," he said. "There are no longer human monitoring teams or human digital safety teams."
Spencer's problems began on Oct. 27, as she was broadcasting a panel discussion on climate change — one in a series that she's been producing for six years.
The forum was being hosted on Zoom and broadcast live on YouTube.
"Suddenly we had a 'Zoom bombing,'" she said. "Somebody busts in and starts showing pornographic videos ... and I couldn't get rid of them. They'd taken over my computer."
As teachers continue to raise concerns about challenges in their classrooms, the Saskatchewan government has pledged to do better when it comes to education — including a plan to expand specialized support classrooms.
Three family members are suing the Alberta government and a company that operates an Edmonton group home, alleging both failed to take steps to prevent the death of 15-year-old Noah Gitsel.
This First Person column is the experience of Shannon Flaman, who lives in Red Deer, Alta. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.
City staff are working on long-term plans to prevent toxic and smelly algae blooms at the Hamilton harbour – and short-term plans to mitigate blooms when they happen – but are cautioning residents that it's not the type of problem with a quick fix.
Another blockade of the Ambassador Bridge wouldn't play out like what happened in February 2022 — thanks to police being empowered to act faster and harder, according to a report that's going to Windsor city council next week.
On the first day of 2025, Alberta's default electricity rate is set to be replaced by the new "rate of last resort," in what the province says is a bid to protect consumers from a volatile electricity pricing landscape.
Canadians and Americans sit next to each other in the stands of a small Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., hockey arena to watch the Soo Thunderbirds face off against their cross-border rivals, Michigan's Soo Eagles.
A number of school bus routes in northwestern Ontario have been cancelled Wednesday after a dump of snow overnight in the region. A number of weather advisories also remain in effect in the region, including snow squall warnings in the Greenstone area.
Waterloo regional councillors have voted down a motion that would have asked the Waterloo Regional Police Service to cut $4 million from its proposed 2025 budget.
Residents of a neighbourhood in the heart of downtown Charlottetown hope to have a community garden in place on some vacant land by the time spring arrives.
Planting trees is a popular way to mitigate climate change, but in northern and Arctic regions, it may not be an effective solution.