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Recently YouTube has been swamped with controversy over a new filtering feature. Creating a restricted mode, the web streaming service was hoping to provide content for schools and more educational purposes.

However in its design, YouTube ran into a problem. The censoring feature, targeting videos with violent and sexual content, ended up hiding videos featuring LGBT themes. Examples include gay weddings, vlogs, and a variety of non-explicit content. On discovering this, various content creators, such as YouTube icon Tyler Oakley, expressed their frustration over social media, and YouTube was forced to backtrack.

This raises the broader issue of censorship on YouTube, something that is most assuredly bad.

A representative from YouTube, Johanna Wright, vice president of YouTube's product management, issued a statement saying The bottom line is that this feature isnt working the way it should. Were sorry and were going to fix it. And it looks as though YouTube is working to un-restrict these videos, as many creators who have complained have found their videos back to normal.

Most YouTube users arent watching from a school, or area where restricted mode would come into play. So the actual effects of this censorship are small. However this does raise the question of censorship on YouTube. After all, YouTube found its success because of the freedoms it gave creators. YouTube thrives on its differentiation from the culture of traditional television. Seeing censorship take over this medium known for its creativity is concerning to say the least.

Censorship isnt new on YouTube, theres been a gradual progression toward restrictions on content, however this is the first time censorship has affected creators with non-controversial content.

An example of censorship based on controversy happened last month to the current number one YouTuber, PewDiePie. Renowned for his video game commentary and more recently for his vlogs, the Swedish YouTuber found himself accused of being anti-Semitic after making radical jokes about the death of Jews. Given this bad publicity, Disney ended its affiliation with him, and YouTube stripped him of his status as recommended across its site, slashing his ad revenue as a way of trying to censor his content. In fact, YouTube went so far as to cancel his upcoming season on YouTube Red, simply for his comedy.

While anti-Semitism is certainly wrong, Pewdiepie is no Neo-Nazi. Hes an entertainer trying to make jokes. This sort of comedy wouldnt succeed on television, which is why YouTube is such an excellent medium for it; howeve,r even YouTube is beginning to let censorship slip into its policies. And while Anti-Semitism jokes arent ideal, and public backlash is certainly necessary to keep creators from crossing the line, YouTubes selling point is how its creators have more freedom than traditional media outlets.

Placing restrictions on what creators can do or say on YouTube is certainly the websites right, it's responsible for the content it displays. However, just because it possesses that right doesnt mean it should implement it. If individuals want to boycott or denounce PewDiePie for his humor, so be it. But when it comes to dilemmas like this its very hard to draw the line. As a result, when censorship enters the picture, individual expression suffers.

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COLUMN: YouTube must not censor - Indiana Daily Student

This month, the rulers of Pakistan stepped up a campaign against blasphemy, frightening news from an Islamic nation where insulting the official religion is a capital crime.

From an American perspective, this would merely be another, distant nations horror if it werent for one aspect of the story.

As part of the crackdown, Pakistani leaders have asked executives of Facebook and Twitter to help them help root out people who post blasphemous material on social media sites from anywhere in the world.

In response, Facebook said in mid-March that it planned to send a team to Pakistan to discuss the governments request. Really?

And this week, Pakistans interior ministry claimed Facebooks administrators have been blocking and removing blasphemous content from the site. Really?!

Its heartening to read that Facebook said in a statement that, in considering government requests, it keeps in mind the goal of protecting the privacy and rights of our users.

However, the situation calls for stronger assurance that Facebook will do its part to defend the basic human values of free thought and free expression.

Its understood that social networking companies have a complicated challenge in dealing with an array of cultures and standards of freedom in countries all over the world.

But Facebook and Twitter or any American company facing pressure such as this from Pakistani leaders must bluntly refuse to cooperate in any way with a repressive regimes efforts to forcibly squelch free expression and dissent, even if their refusal means having access to their sites blocked in those countries.

As Michael De Dora, the main representative to the United Nations from the non-profit Center for Inquiry, said: We do not want to see the people of Pakistan cut off from such a powerful and far-reaching platform as Facebook. But we hope Facebook makes clear that it will not compromise its users safety or freedom through disclosure.

Pakistan is, sadly, far from the only country that doesnt understand the right to free speech that most Americans take for granted.

The Pew Research Center found last year that, as of 2014, 26 percent of the worlds countries and territories had laws or policies against blasphemy (that is, showing a lack of reverence for a god or sacred thing), and 13 percent had laws or policies against apostasy (the renunciation of a religion), the offenses calling for everything from fines to execution. Such laws are most common in the Middle East and North Africa.

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But Pakistans policies, and its leaders rhetoric, are worse than most. According to unofficial tallies, since 1990 at least 68 people have been killed there over allegations of blasphemy, including a provincial governor shot dead six years ago by a police guard who accused him of blasphemy after he defended a Christian woman who insulted the Prophet Muhammad; and currently about 40 people are on death row or serving life sentences for blasphemy. Last week, three bloggers were arrested on blasphemy charges.

In Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif calls blasphemy an unpardonable offense.

Here, the unpardonable offense would be failing to push back against such backward thing. Facebook and Twitter should help to lead the push.

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Censorship in Pakistan hits home in the U.S. - LA Daily News

Amid all of the upheaval and disruption the media business has gone through over the past decade, there is one major shift with long-term effects that are likely to outweigh almost all the others.

That is the massive power shift towards social platforms like Facebook.

In the not-so-distant past, much of the power and influenceboth financial and journalisticthat traditional media entities used to have stemmed from their control over the distribution channels through which their content reached its audience. In other words, the printing plants and newspaper trucks and satellites and broadcasting facilities.

While all of those things still exist, they are no longer the only game in town when it comes to distribution, and therefore they are no longer the only game in town when it comes to making money from control of that distribution. Much of that power (and money) has shifted to Facebook.

This fundamental realignment of the planets in the media universe is the topic of a massive new report from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, authored by Tow director Emily Bell and University of British Columbia assistant professor Taylor Owen.

The report states in its executive summary that "the influence of social media platforms and technology companies is having a greater effect on American journalism than even the shift from print to digital." The takeover of traditional publishing roles by Facebook, Snapchat, Google , and Twitter raises "serious questions" about the future of journalism, it says:

These companies have evolved beyond their role as distribution channels, and now control what audiences see and who gets paid for their attention, and even what format and type of journalism flourishes.

As Facebook and other platforms have a huge amount of influence with the audiences that media companies want to reach, publishers essentially have to play ball with them whether they like it or not. Facebook has a user base of 1.8 billion people, many of whom spend close to an hour a day on the site. It's the largest media entity that has ever existed.

While the company has routinely disavowed being a media entity for a variety of reasons (including the fact that media companies are not valued as highly by investors as technology companies), Facebook clearly plays a huge role in how people get news and information about the world.

It's not just the platform's size, as the Tow Center report notes. It's the fact that the news feed algorithm determines what content gets seen by users and what doesn't. The functioning of this filter, which is fundamentally an editorial instrument , is completely opaque to both users and outside observers, and yet it controls what is successful.

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While publishers can freely post to Facebook, "it is the algorithm that determines what reaches readers," the report says. Cynthia Collins, social media editor of the New York Times, told the Tow researchers that this relationship means "We surrender so much control in terms of what gets read."

Not only that, but because all news looks fundamentally the same on Facebook, media organizations that post a lot of their content to the social network risk losing their identity. In the end, in the minds of users (and brands), Facebook becomes the one responsible for delivering the news, and the media entity becomes just a supplier of commodity content.

The American Press Institutes recent Media Insight Project found that only 2 of 10 people surveyed on Facebook could remember the source of the news they saw -- and far more trust was placed in the person who shared a story than who produced it. If were out here for branding and nobody even recognizes it," said one publisher, "maybe its not worth it."

Facebook, in particular, has begun exerting even more control over what kind of content gets produced because it has been trying to convince media companies to produce more video, including paying certain outlets (including the New York Times and BuzzFeed) millions of dollars in order to do so. As a result, many media outlets have shifted resources towards video.

In other words, Facebook, Twitter, and other services not only have a significant amount of control over who sees specific kinds of content because of their algorithms, but they are becoming more involved in creating it as well. Says the report:

Decisions made by Facebook, Google, and others now dictate strategy for all news organizations, but especially those with advertising-based models. Platforms are already influencing which news organizations do better or worse in the new, distributed environment.

So what kind of relationship should a media organization have with these powerful platforms? That depends on what kind of business you want to be running, the Tow report says. For some publishers such as BuzzFeed or the Washington Post , distribution and audience reach is of paramount importance, and so pushing all of your content to Facebook makes sense.

For others like the New York Times , which is trying very hard to become a subscription-based business rather than one reliant on advertising, such a relationship is going to be much more tentative one. The reach is necessary. But if the terms of the deal are not worthwhile, and users don't "convert" into paying customers, then it is not worth doing.

Tony Haile, former CEO of media analytics company Chartbeat, told the Tow Center that there are two routes for publishers to take. One is to "jettison as many of their costs as possible and assume the mentality and framework of a low-cost/low-margin scale provider" to networks like Facebook, and the second is to "plan for a non-advertising future with multiple revenue streams."

To some extent, traditional media companies are like horse-and-buggy operators trying to figure out how to survive in an automobile-centric world. They have large businesses, and many people still like their services, but the long-term trend is inescapable. And while Facebook and other platforms needs their content right now, it's not clear that this will always be the case.

For the moment, Facebook's needs and the needs of the media industry overlap, and the social network is willing to make deals. But that overlap could disappear quickly, and those who hitched their wagons to Facebook's star could find themselves twisting in the wind.

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Facebook's Increasing Control Over the News Media Is Concerning - Fortune

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How to Enable Media Playback Nav Bar Controls in Android O when ... XDA Developers (blog) The Android O Developer Preview has only been out for a week, but we're quickly discovering more and more potential uses for all of the new features. One of ... and more »

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How to Enable Media Playback Nav Bar Controls in Android O when ... - XDA Developers (blog)

Social media can get overwhelming - notifications, messages, comments. Its an endless cycle and it can all just get too much.

With so many different channels, it can be like an avalanche of content and it can seem impossible to stay on top of it all.

But it doesnt have to be like this. You can make some smart and strategic moves by planning and becoming a little savvier with social media marketing tricks.

Here are my top tips to help you stay in control of your social media:

Catriona Pollard

Do you find that when you scroll through your social media feeds there are a lot of posts that just arent relevant to you or your business? Then it is time for a cleanup.

Unfollowing people can sometimes feel unfriendly, but it is essential for maintaining your social media.

By snipping away those accounts that are irrelevant to you or your business, you are able to free up room for more meaningful connections.

Here are a couple of sites that can help you clean up your social media accounts:

Now that youve cleaned up, you need to go searching for those accounts or influencers that are relevant to you.

Finding these people can be daunting and difficult, but there are sites that will help you find your hubs.

Twitter search is powerful for searching keywords, hashtags or people you want to follow on Twitter. Just type in keywords that relate to your industry and suggestions will start popping up.

Other social media network searching tools include Sprout Social and Social Mention. Find which site works best for you to find influential people in your field to follow and engage with.

Scheduling posts will make it really easy to post at more popular times, save loads of time, and increase engagement with your audience.

There are some great sites you can use that will schedule your posts like HootSuite and Buffer which upload to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+ in advance. This means you can sit down, plan all your posts, and have a site upload them at the times you choose.

So now you only have to go in and out of your social media sites to continue the conversations with those people engaging in your content.

Social media can be really addictive. It can be easy to fall into the social media black hole and before you know it, youve spent two hours scrolling on your phone. Setting up a few boundaries will help you be more productive.

Give yourself a time limit on how long you should be on each social media platform. Set a timer so you dont lose track of time and when the timer goes off, return to your regular work or activities.

Try setting up a couple of 30 minute timed social media sessions each week, and soon you will feel that you are being much more purposeful and effective with your time.

Social media fatigue will make you feel drained and overwhelmed. You should take a break from social media on a regular basis and take time to renew, recharge, and come back refreshed.

Social media can be overwhelming, but by thinking about managing your sites laterally, you will be able to stay in control.

Catriona Pollard is the author of From Unknown To Expert, a step by step framework designed to help entrepreneurs develop effective PR and social media strategies to become recognised as influencers in their field. http://www.unknowntoexpert.com

Catriona is also the director of CP Communications, which merges traditional PR tactics with cutting-edge social media strategies that engage consumers as well as business. http://www.cpcommunications.com.au

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