A video last year that was viewed more than 4. Many opposition activists already feel the international political world is turning against them as the Syrian government and its allies make major battlefield gains.In the Syrian context, that often turned political. Many videos were lost, including footage of a 2013 chemical attack in a Damascus suburb. Some were convinced the YouTube shutdowns were because of political pressure. Supporters and opponents of the Syrian government have waged digital wars reporting each other’s channels or videos, prompting YouTube to close some.A YouTube spokesperson said the machine learning can remove "a lot of content at a scale. And when we make mistakes, we act quickly to correct them," the spokesperson said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with company regulations.".3 million times showed a child covered in blood and dust after surviving an airstrike in Aleppo, as government forces advanced to recapture the city from rebels.YouTube previously relied in part on a system of community flagging of content deemed inappropriate.Under pressure in Europe and the West to do more to rein in extremist content。

YouTube introduced a number of new measures, including machine learning, which trains itself to recognise patterns in enormous numbers of videos and police "objectionable" material, which then is reviewed by plastic cap compression molding machine human experts to determine if it should be taken down.Mizyan Altawil, spokesman for SNN, said his network is no stranger to scrutiny of its content, but this time the shutdown was different, with no prior warning.Another prominent news platform, the Shaam News Network, has nearly 400,000 videos on its YouTube channel, viewed some 90 million times.But the closures’ suddenness and breadth stunned those documenting the conflict. "We are constantly on the alert," Altawil said. Government supporters uploaded their own imagery and propaganda.

But, he said, the best evidence for war crimes can come from videos showing violence, even ones uploaded by the perpetrators with the intent to terrorise, like an execution video. Meanwhile, the machine learning is being tweaked. Even more confusing, the channel was reinstated, only to be closed again, then reopened.Often, the images were the only thing to grab the world’s attention in an intractable conflict.The Syrian Archive reached out to activists and media groups affected by the removal and contacted YouTube to restore them.""The vast majority of time our reviewers get it right."There are attempts to finish off the conflict in Syria by any means, including having no coverage or a total blackout on the media by the Syrian Opposition," said Tala Kharrat, spokesman for Qasioun News Agency, a news platform whose channel was among those shut down and subsequently reopened on appeal.

The group is partially funded by Google through its Digital News Initiative. In July, its operators found a message saying their channel no longer exists.Al-Khatib said the group knew the issue will come up one day, given the concerns over proliferation of violent content, and that it was always a "grey area" how long YouTube would handle graphic material.The spokesperson said activists need to improve their data when uploading videos, properly identify them as documenting ights violations and provide context.Militant groups uploaded videos of beheadings. With a team of six and a budget of $96,000, the Archive is also downloading videos to its own server, an expensive and labour-intensive endeavour."If they take it down, there will be no graphic content but there will be no evidence