Creative-industries group Europe for Creators is raising a rumpus about the way YouTube has been promoting its campaign to change the proposed European copyright directive on its own platform. The body published an open letter to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki claiming that “YouTube has been actively using its own services to influence public opinion, often with misleading or false information” – including running banners, pop-ups and notifications on YouTube directing people to its own campaigning web-page.

“We believe it is totally unfair and unacceptable that your service, which dominates the online market, is exclusively used as a media service to promote your own commercial interests in a debate over European legislation,” claimed the letter. “You advocate freedom of expression but what we have seen is a media service dedicated to the promotion of its own views, based on false information and scare tactics.”.

The campaigning group, which includes indie body Impala, is asking YouTube to let it “send a message to the same YouTubers so we can share with them our vision of article 13 – the one we promote on our website” and also to “publish banner ads on YouTube as you did for the ‘saveyourinternet’ campaign”. YouTube has yet to respond.

Stuart Dredge