According to The Daily Caller, YouTube appoints far-left group, The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), to police content on their platform.

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The nonprofit, which has recently been criticized for labeling legit conservative organizations as "hate groups" is one of YouTube's appointed 100 NGOs and government agencies that are a part of YouTube's "Trusted Flagger's" program.

These groups are in charge of flagging extremist content on YouTube. That ranges from "hate speech" to recruiting videos for terrorists.

According to a spokesperson for Google, all of the group in the program have signed confidentiality agreements.

It's not clear when SPLC was added to the "Trusted Flagger's" program. This program started in 2012, but grew in size quickly in recent years when Google was pushing to more closely regulate the content on their platform.

As with many other programs by Google, this program provides very little transparency. It forces the users to take Google at their word that they are being treated fairly.

SPLC has been criticized by not only conservatives, but also the mainstream media as well.

“At a time when the line between ‘hate group’ and mainstream politics is getting thinner and the need for productive civil discourse is growing more serious, fanning liberal fears, while a great opportunity for the SPLC, might be a problem for the nation,” Ben Shreckinger of Politico Magazine wrote in an article last year.

Megan McArdel of Bloomberg commented that the SPLC puts principled conservatives alongside racists and extremists. She warned that it could very well happen that YouTube could be relying on the misleading definitions of SPLC.

“Given the increasing tendency of powerful tech companies to flex their muscle against hate groups,” McArdle wrote, “we may see more and more institutions unwittingly turned into critics or censors, not just of Nazi propaganda, but also of fairly mainstream ideas.”

Once again it appears YouTube is taking a questionable approach that skews the odds against conservatives having a voice on their platform.

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