<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font face="Roboto" class=""><span style="font-size: 16px;" class="">From: Oliver Ressler <<a href="mailto:oliver@ressler.at" class="">oliver@ressler.at</a>></span></font></p><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" class="">Hi all,</span></p><div style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" class=""><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px;" class="">On August 2, 2021 YouTube deleted my entire YouTube Channel without any prior warning or communication. The email from YouTube reads:</span> </div><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" class="">“We have reviewed your content and found severe or repeated violations of our Community Guidelines. Because of this, we have removed your channel from YouTube. [...] Spam, scams or commercially deceptive content are not allowed on YouTube.”</span></p><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" class="">The videos YouTube removed constitute an archive of 31 films I made between 2000 and 2018. These are films shown hundreds of times in exhibitions, film festivals and social movement contexts. They have appeared in several biennials and in museums such as the Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid and the Centre Pompidou, Paris.</span></p><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" class="">I immediately appealed the removal of my YouTube Channel, following the recommended steps. Since then I have received no further response from YouTube. Meanwhile, </span><a class="link-build-content" target="_blank" href="http://xhloq.mjt.lu/lnk/ANEAAKrR2NYAAcp6HpgAATG_5SsAAYCrwnwAJU16ABRC7gBhEkQAdQJl74qrT7OBKshSVAaqLgAUIX0/1/b9VvziNOoj0MZIHGvWWknw/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vYy9vbGl2ZXJyZXNzbGVyZmlsbXM" style="color: inherit; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: rgb(28, 128, 255); font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" class=""><u class="">https://www.youtube.com/c/oliverresslerfilms</u></span></a><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" class=""> remains offline.</span></p><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" class="">I began making complete films available on my webpage and on Vimeo many years ago, but for a long time I was reluctant to involve YouTube as an additional online platform. I felt uncomfortable about using a Google-controlled platform for films centered on a critique of capitalism, climate breakdown, forms of organizing and resistance.</span></p><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" class="">When I set up my YouTube Channel in 2020, mid-pandemic, I did so for strategic reasons. YouTube is not only the world’s largest video platform, it is also the second-largest search engine. I hoped it might constitute a way to reach people who neither visit art exhibitions nor are politically organized.</span></p><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" class="">But whether algorithmically or by direct human intervention, YouTube has now declared my work a “scam”, slapping the epithet on a body of work that often focuses critically corporate scams and builds an archive of democratic organization.</span></p><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" class="">I am not astonished that YouTube shut down my channel, but I am angry.</span></p><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" class="">They shut down a platform summarily then afterwards pretend to offer an appeal process. This is like carrying out a punishment first, and only then offering the penalized the opportunity to appeal afterwards.</span></p><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" class="">Just how seriously Google takes the right to appeal is laid bare here by the lack of any response from one of the world's richest corporations after more than seven days. They know very well that they operate in a lawless field skewed in their favor.</span></p><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" class="">What YouTube is engaged in here is outright political censorship. They make use of their de facto monopoly to act as they please.</span></p><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font face="Roboto" class=""><span style="font-size: 16px;" class=""><br class=""></span></font><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" class="">Censorship is nothing new to me. I have experienced it in various forms over the years. What is different this time is that the censor is not a state or province, but a private entity. That a corporation is allowed to be in a position to censor says a lot about the lack of democratic oversight in the global media industry.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" class=""> </span></p><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" class="">I believe democratic oversight will only ever be achieved by collectivizing Google. And yes, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and all the rest as well of course. This is a necessary step to regain control over our lives.</span></p><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" class="">In the meantime, if you see value in having these films available on YouTube again, please consider sharing this through your networks, tagging YouTube. Concerted public opposition is the only power that will make them reverse their decision, the one thing that could ever influence their future actions.</span></p><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" class="">There are two texts on this case:</span></p><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a class="link-build-content" target="_blank" href="http://xhloq.mjt.lu/lnk/ANEAAKrR2NYAAcp6HpgAATG_5SsAAYCrwnwAJU16ABRC7gBhEkQAdQJl74qrT7OBKshSVAaqLgAUIX0/2/wsXfD8KirJ3hJgyIb-iOmg/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudGhlYXJ0bmV3c3BhcGVyLmNvbS9uZXdzL29saXZlci1yZXNzbGVyLXMteW91dHViZS1hY2NvdW50LXN1c3BlbmRlZA" style="color: inherit; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: rgb(28, 128, 255); font-family: Roboto; line-height: 24px;" class=""><u class="">https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/oliver-ressler-s-youtube-account-suspended</u></span></a></p><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: rgb(28, 128, 255); text-decoration: none; font-family: Roboto; line-height: 24px;" class=""><u class=""><a class="link-build-content" target="_blank" href="http://xhloq.mjt.lu/lnk/ANEAAKrR2NYAAcp6HpgAATG_5SsAAYCrwnwAJU16ABRC7gBhEkQAdQJl74qrT7OBKshSVAaqLgAUIX0/3/Mg5VIIT7NEgnH8WIlJOjHQ/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYXJ0bWFnYXppbmUuY2MvY29udGVudDExNjM4MC5odG1sP2ZiY2xpZD1Jd0FSMnhkMkJjbHhiMzA3WmNnc2hPd0NHT2dyT1NlODRaNXFJelU0Q1pPcWlmS0lQdXpoMUNZMVQzVENVIw#" style="color: inherit; text-decoration: none;">https://www.artmagazine.cc/content116380.html?fbclid=IwAR2xd2Bclxb307ZcgshOwCGOgrOSe84Z5qIzU4CZOqifKIPuzh1CY1T3TCU#</a></u></span></p><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" class="">Best wishes</span></p><p class="text-build-content" data-testid="t-9lTpj74" style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" class="">Oliver</span></p></body></html>