YouTube has started restricting most of our recent videos. They can still be viewed by turning off "Restricted Mode," but this is only possible to do if you have control of your computer. I.e. people accessing our content from the library, schools, and other public institutions may no longer have the ability to do so. 馃
Restricted videos include last week's conversation with Jarrod Shanahan and Eman Abdelhadi, a recent panel discussion on disability representation in YA, conversations on supermax prisons, science history, attacks on trans people, New Orleans, Rojava, and more.
Why now? An event in April with Tomas Rothaus and @crimethinc attracted significant far Right attention, and these restrictions are likely the result of a concerted, bad-faith effort to remove our content. Many of the impacted videos feature authors published by @pmpress and AK Press.
Our bookstore will challenge these restrictions, but it's felt for a while that the writing is on the wall for liberatory projects on corporate platforms. We've already moved to reduce our dependence on Google and Meta elsewhere. No doubt this will nudge us further towards independent spaces. (- L)
