To date, Syrian Archive has preserved and processed 1,771,492 videos from YouTube. Many of these have been <a href="https://syrianarchive.org/en/lost-found">made unavailable</a> for a variety of reasons. After Syrian Archive raised this issue with YouTube, over 650,000 videos were restored and made publicly viewable since July 2017.
Yet roughly 361,943 videos remain unavailable as of May 2020. Some of these videos include documentation of chemical attacks, attacks on hospitals and medical facilities, or destruction of civilian infrastructure. These 361,061 are securely preserved by Syrian Archive and available upon request.
Syrian Archive preserves content from 3,945 YouTube channels on a daily basis. Of this, 306 YouTube channels have been made unavailable as of May 2020 but are preserved in Syrian Archive infrastructure. Some of these channels are long-standing media houses that have been documenting human rights violations in Syria since 2011.
Between May 2020 and June 2020, 5 channels that Syrian Archive includes in its preservation activities have been made unavailable. This demonstrates that the problem of platforms inadvertently removing from public view documentation of human rights violations is ongoing and has not ended.
Social media platforms have become accidental archives, but takedowns have proven they are no place for long-term, safe storage of materials depicting human rights violations. Alternate strategies must be used to archive this material, and Syrian Archive seeks to fill this gap.
Get in touch if you or your media organisation has been affected by content takedowns on YouTube or other social media platforms or need assistance in securely archiving documentation materials.
Contact: <a href="mailto:info@syrianarchive.org">info@syrianarchive.org</a>

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Removals of Syrian human rights content: May 2020

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Removals of Syrian human rights content: May 2020

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