While reviewing my YouTube channel yesterday, I discovered that one of my earliest videos had been removed for “violating YouTube’s Terms of Service.” I never received prior notification of this removal, so I’m not sure when this actually happened. Checking out the video, I noticed it does include swastikas among the imagery, before they are mirrored and distorted into abstract, “asemic” shapes. I assume the appearance of swastikas alone was enough to justify the removal, because there’s nothing about the video that engages or discusses Nazis or fascism. Or “flat earth theory” for that matter.

The source for “Earth Remains Flat” is newsreel footage from WWII which represents Nazi war efforts, taken from a video series about the history of the war. Neither the original newsreel nor the video program were promoting fascism or Nazism. Likewise, my video was not promoting or glorifying any ideology or theory–neither Nazism or “flat earth theory.” Instead, “Earth Remains Flat” deconstructs–or detournes–the original newsreel footage using various video effects (including glitching and mirroring) to demonstrate the warping of truth and fact that accompanies the downfall of nations and cultures. Overlaying the imagery is an excerpt from a longer poem, also titled “Earth Remains Flat”: “earth remains flat/at the edge–as if/land ends/here.”

Here’s the complete poem:

“Earth Remains Flat” is part of a series of poems called “Civilization’s Lost,” which explores the fragility of nations, cultures and languages by examining lost cities and civilizations around the world. The poems in the series were published in a variety of literary journals, including Empty Mirror, BlazeVox, Futures Trading, Word 4/Word, Streetcake and Yggdrasil. Both the poem and the video for “Earth Remains Flat” were published in Otoliths #45, from 2017, along with several still images taken from the film. Neither the editor or anyone else has ever alerted me to an issue with the appearance of swastikas in the video.

YouTube cites their “Hate speech policy” as the reason for the removal of the “Earth Remains Flat” video: “Content that incites hatred against individuals or groups based on their protected group status isn’t allowed on YouTube. This may include inferiority claims and/or conspiracy theories. We review educational, documentary, artistic, and scientific content on a case-by-case basis. Limited exceptions are made for content with sufficient and appropriate context.” The video includes no “inferiority claims” or racism, and no “conspiracy theories” and has no content to “incite hatred” against anyone.

I initiated a “review” with YouTube, so we’ll see what comes from that. I suspect that there may not have been a complaint about the video, but that some AI may have detected the swastika and flagged the whole video.