Frater Ruptus Catenae said he was nagged into doing the interview because he wanted to help Frater TP, aka “Toby”, out. Watchers of the Dawn has seen emails from Toby asking to be interviewed at the time, when he was a psychology student.
The interview attracted a whopping 465 views over four years, which shows the level of interest.
Then, a couple of months ago, Ruptus Catenae got a snotogram from “Toby”, who was getting a little paranoid. When he did the video, he used the names Frater TP and Toby because he thought that no one could link the two.
“I went onto your podcast under the assumption of anonymity (hence the pseudonym). But this is no longer being kept and my pseudonym (Frater 'TP) is now linkable to my real name even though it was not traceable at the time.”
Toby said it was putting his personal and professional reputation at risk and could not have been anticipated at the time.
“I know you're not responsible for AI technology existing, but you are responsible for how you respond to someone telling you about privacy concerns,” he moaned.
He suggested that Ruptus Catenae go through the video, censor the names, and obscure his face like he was an IRA terrorist.
While the technology exists, it would take Ruptus Catenae a long time to undertake such a pointless exercise. After all, if the cat was already out of the bag, then there was nothing that could be practically done. Magazines and shows don’t usually pull content when the person they interviewed throws their toys out of the pram. Otherwise, Prince Andrew would have managed to get the sweating interview pulled a long time ago.
This is where “Toby” went from being someone making a request to being a total tosspot, ordering the post to be pulled. He then started doing what many people do on the Interweb: channelling their inner lawyer.
“If you do not at least blur my face and first name shown in the YouTube video (including the thumbnail) within the next 14 days, I will be forced to pursue every legal avenue available to protect my privacy. And all because of what? You have not the courtesy to explain your reasoning, even when asked directly.”
“You are in no position to be telling anyone to grow up or call anyone a bully or doing anything ‘fraudulent’. But you are under an obligation to act under UK law. Not Canadian or US law, UK law,” he informed Ruptus Catenae.
The only UK law that would cover this sort of thing is the Data Protection Act or the GDPR. According to Watchers’ legal eagles, the only way it could be applied is if “Toby” tried to invoke the UK GDPR right to erasure under Article 17, but it is not absolute and applies only in certain circumstances. Organisations can refuse erasure where keeping the data is necessary for freedom of expression and information, including journalism, academic, artistic, or literary purposes.
In other words, because this is an interview, Toby has no way to force this through legally.
So, realising that there was no legal recourse, whatever he might have claimed earlier, he put in a formal take-down notice to YouTube, claiming that the video, which he had taken part in and had no issues with for years, was part of a campaign of harassment and was a misuse of his data.
This could have ended badly, as YouTube has closed down entire channels for less, but it appears that, in this case, it has only blocked the video to Brits, and then only until the mess is sorted out. It is hard to see how YouTube would allow retrospective censorship in that way for its video blogs.
What is amusing is that YouTube has only blocked Toby’s video in the UK. It can still be seen anywhere else in the world. Also ironic is that only 465 people on the channel will have heard of “Toby”, and only by his first name.
We did some searching, traditional and AI, and found that, other than this video interview, Toby has zero internet profile. Thanks to the Streisand effect, a few more people might now associate the name with the face.
Comments
Post a Comment