I’m going to treat this as a “short film” of the day: “COPPA,
YouTube, the FTC, and You!”, by Hoeg Law, who operates the Virtual Legality
YouTube channel from suburban Detroit.
The 6 minute video explains the “canard” by which the FTC
and YouTube have passed some of the legal risk onto content creators, a theory
that content creators might prevail challenging in court. The behavior of Congress seems deceptive,
intended to fool people don’t see logical traps.
The FTC has a comment period running through Dec. 9, 2019,
and there is also a change.org petition, given in the notes for the video.
The situation is likely to result in many fewer channels on
YouTube with content aimed at children or even gaming channels.
The underlying problem is that YouTube’s business model is
dependent on behaviorally targeted ads, and even content providers who aren’t
monetized benefit indirectly from the use of this model (the legal theory is
called agency).
The problem could spread to other platforms but is largely
mitigated when a site requires an account and logon to see content (an
age-gate).
No comments:
Post a Comment