It has recently come to light via a story from The Daily Caller that the leftist group, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), was tapped by Google to help it police “objectionable content” on its YouTube site. SPLC is, of course, one of the nation’s premier purveyors of hate. Talk about the fox watching the henhouse. Last year, Google stepped up its content monitoring program, adding 50 new members. The company’s program currently consists of 113 third-party groups who “work closely with YouTube’s employees to crack down on extremist content,” by flagging “content for review by YouTube personnel,” and by acting “as guides to YouTube’s content monitors and engineers designing the algorithms policing the video platform.”

According to reports, Google has been intentionally secretive about exactly who makes up its group of “trusted flaggers,” as all the program members have confidentiality agreements with the Internet giant. However, several groups, such as the Anti-Defamation League and No Hate Speech, have made public their participation in the program. To date the SPLC has yet to confirm its participation.

First off, why are the members of Google’s group of “trusted flaggers” all not publicly known? If Google’s intent is to create a group committed to helping the company most fairly and objectively determine which content falls into the categories of “extremist” and “objectionable,” then transparency is a basic necessity — that is if Google desires the public to have any trust in its content evaluation process. Secondly, if indeed the SPLC is a member of the program, that may help explain to some degree the flagging and restricting of several conservative organizations’ YouTube content. SPLC: Google’s “right think” police?