In 2010, Google launched a transparency reporting system, aiming to provide users with information about the number of videos removed from YouTube and the reasons behind the removal,

A video of Hung Vlog

As of 2019, Google had removed 15,000 pieces of content, or 81 percent of requests from local management agencies.

Most of the content requested for removal was posted on YouTube.

YouTube removed 11.4 million videos in total in Q2 2020, a record high number in the last three years. This shows that YouTube depends heavily on AI-based automatic censorship system, which often misses videos with unhealthy content.

Vietnam had 222,000 videos removed in Q2, ranked 12th among the countries with the highest number of removed videos.

Vietnam ranked sixth last year with 260,000 videos removed in Q3 2019. The US, India, Brazil, the Netherlands and Russia are often among the leading countries.

Google’s reports also show statistics about comments and the YouTube channels removed. However, there is no independent report for each country.

There are still no statistics for Q3 2020, but the two videos removed by Hung Vlog are just a small part of the total videos with unhealthy content on YouTube.

Hung Vlog only removed his videos after the Bac Giang Department of Information and Communications examined the videos and decided to impose fines of VND7.5 million and VND10 million for two consecutive violations he made within one month.

The two videos include one on making soup with unplucked chicken posted on September 5, and on stealing money and breaking piggy banks (to go out) on October 3.

Hung Vlog was told to remove the videos because he was sharing information that doesn’t suit Vietnamese traditional habits and customs.

Hung Vlog has three YouTube channels, namely Hung VLog, Hung Gamer and Hung Troll, and earns big money from them. His income could be from VND299 million to VND4.7 billion a month, according to Social Blade.

Nguyen Thanh Nam, another controversial YouTuber, also removed his six videos which faced heavy criticism from the public.

However, it is still too early to say if the ‘YouTube environment’ in Vietnam has become clear.

Experts say that as long as YouTube maintains the scheme of suggesting videos based on the number of views and its autoplay scheme, ‘toxic videos’ will still appear and reach more viewers. 

Phuong Nguyen

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