The censorship giant's CEO dies of severe lung cancer

Published 11 August 2024 at 13.23

Domestic. Youtube's longtime CEO Susan Wojcicki, 56, has died of complications from lung cancer, reports Techcrunch. During her 25 years at Google, she helped build the left-wing giant's successful political censorship.

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– Today, after almost 25 years at the company , I have decided to step back from my role as head of YouTube and start a new chapter focusing on my family, health and personal projects that I am passionate about, she said when she stepped down from the YouTube CEO post last year.

Susan Wojcicki, who had been CEO of YouTube from 2014 at the time of her departure, played a central role in pushing through many of the tightening of censorship made on the platform after Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign, particularly focusing on political content.

After Hillary Clinton's election loss, among other things, Wojcicki introduced the then-new solution of “demonetizing” political opponents, which was considered more harmful than outright blocking them. That way, YouTube could appear less censored than it actually was, while many conservative content creators – including this newspaper – completely lost their income from the platform.

Susan Wojcicki was an outspoken advocate of using YouTube as a platform to educate children using “positive content,” or as critics called it: left-wing propaganda. She supported initiatives that promoted what the company's left-leaning decision-makers classified as “quality content” and highlighted video creators who contributed to society in a – according to the left – positive way.

At the same time, the changes meant that both right-wing and purely politically neutral content ended up more obscure on the platform. It angered many internet users, including one who called Susan Wojcicki “Mrs. Stasi” on a forum in 2017.

Susan Wojcicki's family says she was living with non-small cell lung cancer the last two years. The disease is dangerous because it is often confused with common colds until the cancer has had time to spread.

Wojcicki was among the first 20 employees at Google, reports the site Techcrunch. She was 56 years old.