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May 6, 2016 12:52 PM

"As of April 19, anyone in Germany searching for xenophobic videos on YouTube will first be shown clips featuring actual refugees who rebut prejudices; with facts, personal anecdotes, surprising revelations and even humor." Refugees Welcome.

Interview Najlaa.

Interview Jasmin.

Interview Hakim.

Interview Firas.

More on Firas who became Syria's most hugged refugee and makes often comedic videos about his experience in Germany. He even offers beauty tips!

More stories at:
Flüchtlinge Willkommen

posted by xarnop (17 comments total)

I am interested in this, but unsure how they would do the targeting. It's not like people are going to search "xenophobia".
posted by corb at 12:59 PM on May 6, 2016

unsure how they would do the targeting. It's not like people are going to search "xenophobia".

From the article:

The unskippable ads are placed before very specifically selected videos, including those from Lutz Bachmann, the founder of the anti-Islamic organization Pegida, so that individuals looking for those videos will be unable to avoid watching the messages from refugees first.

So it's more like they're hand-picking the specific videos that these get tacked onto, kind of like an ad, so someone pulling up a specifically xenophobic video will watch that first.

Kind of like how there's this particular Mythbusters clip that I cannot watch without Youtube trying to download an ad for Chrysler and it just gets stuck buffering it forever and I never get to see the clip dammit
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:04 PM on May 6, 2016 [10 favorites]

When are they rolling it out to the US?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 1:51 PM on May 6, 2016 [15 favorites]

Are journalists just lazy or do they have no curiosity? Questions that immediately come to my mind include:

How does this work, exactly? Is Youtube actively cooperating with this? Can anyone slap any kind of unavoidable pre-video trailer on someone else's video? How does German (or any country's) law work with this? Can the slappee get it taken off, and if so, is there any kind of penalty for whoever put it on in the first place? Can PEGIDA do the same to videos they don't like?

Answers very much appreciated.
posted by IndigoJones at 1:53 PM on May 6, 2016 [8 favorites]

According to another article :"An ad agency offered to help put together videos to fight the prejudice... By buying Google AdWords for certain racist keywords, they can match each ad to the worst videos. The ads, which were funded by an outside donation, are also meant to help draw attention to the core mission of Refugees Welcome—helping connect refugees with a safe place to live and German roommates who can help them settle in."
posted by xarnop at 2:15 PM on May 6, 2016 [7 favorites]

Deutsche Welle story (in English)
posted by XMLicious at 2:19 PM on May 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Answers very much appreciated. Though I have to say, whatever one thinks of the cause in this instance, this kind of expropriation of other peoples' videos makes me uneasy. I can see all kinds of unwelcome mischief.
posted by IndigoJones at 4:26 PM on May 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

When are they rolling it out to the US?

I find this a rather frightening example of corporate power, actually.
posted by Going To Maine at 5:13 PM on May 6, 2016 [9 favorites]

So essentially they are trying to stop racism by sponsoring it.
posted by Drinky Die at 5:16 PM on May 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

I’m actually troubled now that it seems like this isn’t being done directly by Youtube. But it niggles.

So essentially they are trying to stop racism by sponsoring it.

Capitalism is weird.
posted by Going To Maine at 5:23 PM on May 6, 2016 [3 favorites]

I too find it sad this is the way I found these videos. I do still hope people watch the videos. Corporate activism is sad and carries a lot of wrongs, but the actual causes are still very worthy and the more peole lift them up outside the efforts of the "powers that be" the less we have to wait for corporations to decide the causes are worthwhile. I think it's sad we have to wait for personal care product companies to decide women are allowed to not wear makeup (but still need a beauty bar!!) or to wear clothes that aren't for extremely thin people.

It's complicated and I get some people finding the problematic elements too loud to celebrate the message (I always think both that I'm glad at least if our corporate overlords are going to own everything they will support some good causes? I guess?) But also simultaneously that we need a better way of reaching people and creating networks and communities that sustain ourselves outside these corporations and work to undermine and dismantle their level of control.
posted by xarnop at 6:02 PM on May 6, 2016

I think the criticisms are fine, I do however hope that perhaps someone can make a better post than I that does actually wind up shining light to these voices, I am saddened that perhaps refugee voices take a step back from me pointing to the only links I could find.

I originally just wanted to do a post on Zukar which is a great show and which would have been fine, but instead I tried to scour the net for more links to add on. In doing so probably added negative publicity instead of help. Well shit, how it goes.
posted by xarnop at 7:57 PM on May 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

whatever one thinks of the cause in this instance, this kind of expropriation of other peoples' videos makes me uneasy

And

I would not praise these actions. If we let them do this now, for a cause we believe in, it will be used against us later.

We already let them do this for everything else under the sun, including political parties. This is how internet advertising works. That's what's sinister here, not someone openly talking about one way they're using it.
posted by howfar at 1:02 AM on May 7, 2016 [8 favorites]

So, group A pays money to have their message/ad keyed to messages/ads from group B, thereby countering group B's (in this case harmful, racist, xenophobic) speech by adding group A's own speech, not by limiting group B's speech in any way. Minus the internet algorithmic ad targetting aspect, isn't this how free speech is supposed to work?
posted by eviemath at 2:50 AM on May 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

I think this campaign does set into stark relief what is wrong with relying primarily on privately-owned platforms for the distribution of a peer-to-peer message, and illustrates the profound need for the development of non-governmental, non-corporate, mutually owned and operated platforms. This is a thought I've had a number of times without ever really look into who is working on it, though. Anyone know?
posted by howfar at 3:17 AM on May 7, 2016 [3 favorites]

Youtube ads those like those are apart of a larger cultural shift that's seen people being arrested for facebook posts and relatedly the government ordering the removal of the word rape from police reports on the new year assaults. These ads do less than nothing to address that. There is a tangible fear in women's hearts who go out at night now. And what of a woman who was assaulted typing this into youtube and seeing these. To have herself be framed as a racist because she's afraid of the men who stare at her in the supermarket.

This campaign presents a sanitised truth to the 50 percent of interviews with women you picked (16 percent of the migrants are women from Time), to the twee music, to Firas who's a teddy bear of a man. It's not the Firas women are threatened and oppressed by and the more I think about this the more uncomfortable I get.

I mean, what's more rape culture than editing out the word 'rape' from those police reports?
posted by CyborgHag at 6:55 AM on May 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Can you clarify your position a bit? Do you have reason to think that these videos are targeted at videos of people openly and honestly discussing the Cologne attacks, rather than people promoting Islamophobia and racism? I think it's possible to be simultaneously horrified by the attacks and aware of the real difficulties that are concomitant with large movements of refugees, while also entirely opposing Islamophobia and believing that positive and honest depictions of refugees are important in protecting everyone.

I think it would be useful to me if you clarified your specific objection to these videos, because I'd like to understand.
posted by howfar at 7:21 AM on May 7, 2016 [1 favorite]