Kenya’s most senior blogger, The Boy Child President or as he would prefer to be called- the master of independent platforms Cyprian Nyakundi has penned down his advice to Kenyan content creators after YouTube suspended comedian Flaqo Raz.
Over the weekend, Kenyan YouTuber Flaqo Raz- who’s real name is Erastus Otieno woke up with a surprise after his hard work and content created for years was wiped in one tab when his YouTube channel was deleted over a copyright claim.
“We’d like to inform you that your channel Flaqo Raz has been terminated because we concluded it was linked to a channel that was disabled for having three or more copyright strikes. You can find more information by checking the email inbox of your linked account,” a message from YouTube explaining the reason his account was deleted read in part.
Advice To Creators After Flaqo Suspended By Youtube
Blogger Cyprian Nyakundi, who was banned permanently from Twitter and his content on Facebook saw its reach limited by Machine Learning bots posted this advice on a newly launched Kenyan based platform called GSCROLL
You people call them by their brand names but we call them the masters of the universe or big tech tyrants.
They wield a lot of power and influence society. That explains why Google’s 2012 Anti-SOPA Petition garnered millions of signatures in hours after Google’s homepage displayed a “thick black censorship stamp” across the multi-coloured company logo.
They can censor the president of the United States and nothing happens! That tells you that nothing is going to change because big tech is part of the system! How do you ask?
These companies have become very wealthy and powerful. Those that have managed to watch the Social Dilemma and the Big Hack can attest that we, the humans are now the commodity to be sold in the marketplace like pancakes.
Back in 2017, The Economist published a story titled, “The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data.” And they were right, NSA, FBI and other agencies cannot allow big-tech to go down, since, through backdoors, their work is now easier. We are just manipulated beings. These companies also make the US a lot of money and are part of the economy hence almost impossible for Trump to do anything to them, even as he threatens anti-trust actions and threats to shut them down!
Kenyan creators, led by Flaqo Raz must start embracing independent platforms. They can create their own websites where they first host their content then post on alternative big-tech platforms later.
It is really depressing to grow an audience and work hard to create content for many years and be suspended, losing everything. A few years ago, many people celebrated the suspension of Nyakundi and others on social media thinking that they would not be next.
You must not be radical like Nyakundi to be terminated for a platform, just a few haters can consistently report your content and since big tech uses machine learning Algorithms to manage users, they’ll use the data to reduce your reach or suspend you.
Big tech doesn’t view you as human, they view you as a statistic and that is why even after you complain after being suspended, humans never handle your inquiry but their trained ML Bots.
Censorship is a double-edged sword and it is not gonna stop. After Flaqo, who is next?
You must never feel too big on a platform, that is RENTED SPACE, my Friend, the owner will one day come for it. Grow independent platforms!
