YouTube, Google Class Action Alleges LGBTQ+ Discrimination

Google and YouTube have been hit with a class action lawsuit by LGBTQ+ YouTubers who claim that the company discriminates against them by branding their videos as “shocking,” “offensive,” and/or “sexually explicit.”

The YouTube lawsuit claims that Google has exercised, “unfettered and absolute discretion to control, regulate, restrict, and manipulate the public video content and viewership of consumers on YouTube.”

The plaintiffs claim that Google has a dislike and a commercial bias against members of the LGBTQ+ community who post videos or who are the target of those videos. 

Meanwhile, the plaintiffs claim that Google uses their “absolute power” to make money off of videos that espouse hate, are violent, or entice bullying directed at the LGBTQ+ community.

The YouTube class action lawsuit states that Google is “engaged in a discriminatory and fraudulent scheme to profit from the unlawful and fraudulent regulation of speech on the platform in which compliant and quality LGBTQ+ content is restrained and demonetized.”

The plaintiffs also claim that Google suppresses and demonetizes the LGBTQ+ YouTubers content only because they identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or queer. The plaintiffs state that Google forbids gay users from advertising on the platform solely because they identify as such.

The YouTube class action lawsuit alleges that this is not the first time that Google has been accused of discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community. 

The plaintiffs state that in 2016, the company admitted that the restraints they put on videos discriminates against LGBTQ+ videos, where they suppressed videos that reference same-sex relationships or videos that focused on “pop culture from a feminist and queer perspective.”

In addition, the Google class action alleges that Google admitted that they use Restricted Mode filtering to censor videos that were posted by members of the LGBTQ+ community based on the orientation and identity of the YouTuber, rather than from the content of the video.  

The YouTube lawsuit states that Google then promised to remove this restricted filtering of videos posted by the LGBTQ+ community and to change their policy to make sure that LGBTQ+ YouTubers were not being censored solely based on the speaker’s identity.

Despite this promise, the plaintiffs claim that the disparate treatment of LGBTQ+ videos is still unchecked on the platform.

“Defendants have brazenly abandoned YouTube’s Four Freedoms and hijacked the YouTube Community and the Mission that defines that Community, by continuing to engage in and defend identity, viewpoint, discriminatory, and illegal content-based regulation, distribution and monetization policies that harm YouTube’s LGBTQ+ Community and other YouTube Community members,” the plaintiffs allege.

The YouTube class action lawsuit claims that Google also denied plaintiff The Divino Group the right to advertise on the platform, which would increase their viewership. The lawsuit states that the company was not allowed to run an ad to promote a Christmas holiday video “because of the gay thing.”

An article by CNN states that Google apologized to The Divino Group and the advertisement was eventually run.

The plaintiffs bring this action over violations of the California Constitution, the California Unruh Civil Rights Act, a claim under the California Business and Professions Code, Breach of Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing, and the Lanham Act.

The YouTubers are represented by Peter Obstler, Eric M. George and Debi A. Ramos of Browne George Ross LLP.

The Google, YouTube LGBTQ+ Discrimination Class Action Lawsuit is Divino Group LLC, et al. v. Google LLC, et al., Case No. 5:19-cv-04749, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On Feb. 3, 2020, YouTube and Google filed a motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed by YouTube content creators who claim that the video sharing site discriminates against them because of their LGBTQ+ identity.

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