Google has lifted restrictions on YouTube from showing
Swaziland's famous reed dance which features bare-
breasted women. A representative from Google was
quoted saying that they decided to remove the restriction on
the videos because "it was not its policy to restrict nudity in
such instances where it is culturally or traditionally
appropriate".
The move was in response to a campaign led by Lazi
Dlamini , the head of TV Yabantu , an online video production
company which produces content that “protects, preserves
and restores African values”.
Its YouTube channel which launched in 2016 had been
adding 3,000-4,000 new subscribers every month until the
platform started to flag its content as inappropriate. It also
put a label on the channel advising advertisers that its
content was “not suitable for most advertisers”.
According to Mr Dlamini, he had contacted Google to say
that he was simply reflecting the cultural values of his
community but the company said that the content violated
the platform’s standards. He then organised a series of
protests, working with more than 200 cultural groupings
from Swaziland. It included at least a dozen women who
posed bare-breasted with placards that read “Google are
racist” and “my breasts are not inappropriate”.
Google has lifted restrictions on YouTube from showing
Swaziland's famous reed dance which features bare-
breasted women. A representative from Google was
quoted saying that they decided to remove the restriction on
the videos because "it was not its policy to restrict nudity in
such instances where it is culturally or traditionally
appropriate".
The move was in response to a campaign led by Lazi
Dlamini , the head of TV Yabantu , an online video production
company which produces content that “protects, preserves
and restores African values”.
Its YouTube channel which launched in 2016 had been
adding 3,000-4,000 new subscribers every month until the
platform started to flag its content as inappropriate. It also
put a label on the channel advising advertisers that its
content was “not suitable for most advertisers”.
According to Mr Dlamini, he had contacted Google to say
that he was simply reflecting the cultural values of his
community but the company said that the content violated
the platform’s standards. He then organised a series of
protests, working with more than 200 cultural groupings
from Swaziland. It included at least a dozen women who
posed bare-breasted with placards that read “Google are
racist” and “my breasts are not inappropriate”.
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