What's this petition for?

Whether you call them frauditors, 1st amendment auditors, attention seekers, etc., these channels actively harass public and private workers for their own financial gain.  They blatantly break policies and invade people's person space in order to invoke a reaction to upload to YouTube and other social media sites.  They profit off of these interactions even though the YouTube terms say that harassment is not tolerated.  This petition will hopefully reach YouTube so that they can investigate and enforce stricter regulations against these disgusting channels that serve no purpose to the community.  They may try and argue that they are flexing their 1st amendment rights, but watching ANY of these videos will show that they are harassing people and going against institution policies for monetary gain.  If YouTube is able to change their policies and enforce new rules against these channels, this will prevent individuals from harassing and, at times, threatening people just trying to do their jobs.  

Who are they?

First amendment auditors film in public and private claiming their first amendment right to do so.  A lot of these individuals post this "content" on YouTube to reach a wider audience.  They are known to spread false information about the legalities of performing what they do. While the first amendment does protect your right to film in public, these auditors that are active on YouTube perform these audits where it is against the rules of the establishment to do so.  

Why do they do it?

While most, if not all, of these auditors CLAIM that these actions are to promote their first amendment right, it is often speculated it is simply for making money and internet clout.  Most (again, if not all) of them have patreon accounts that collect money from their viewers or gain monetary compensation from YouTube directly from views, comments, likes or even advertisements from advertisers who are unaware of the content that is advertising their product. 

Where do they do this?

In short, anywhere and everywhere.  Specifically, they mostly target places that are open to the public and run by the government.  Such establishments include post offices, courthouses, or police stations among other government run buildings.  They are also known to do this on private property such as local businesses/corporate businesses or someone's personal property that has a sidewalk.  It is not uncommon to see them "auditing" on a sidewalk directly connected to a business harassing customers and employees to illicit a reaction for their content.

What happens when they do this?

More often than not, most people try to ignore them.  When this happens, it is not seen on the internet because that isn't compelling content.  So to combat this, they will attempt to illicit some kind of reaction by loitering, not answering questions as to what they are doing, performing these audits where they are not welcome or not allowed to do so, or blatantly point the camera at people who verbally express that they do not want to be filmed.  This leads to them being criminally trespassed or even arrested.

Why should they be stopped/regulated?

While they may argue that they are flexing their first amendment rights, they do so in a way that actually harms this message.  Actively harassing employees and civilians for their own monetary gain is abhorrent.  It is also hard to believe that this active harassment does not get addressed by the platforms that they post to that normally have very serious antiharassment Terms of Service.

YouTube Community Guidelines commonly broken by first amendment auditors:

• Content that features prolonged name calling or malicious insults (such as racial slurs) based on someone's intrinsic attributes
  • These frauditors often insult someone based on appearance or job title to try and illicit a negative reaction for content.  This is done repetitively if the desired reaction does not happen right away.
• Repeatedly encourages abusive audience behavior
  • Actively encourage their audience to do the same type of behavior.
  • Actively encourage their audience to call the place that is being targeted in call flooding campaigns (mentioned later in the article).
• Repeatedly targets, insults and abuses an identifiable individual based on their intrinsic attributes across several uploads
  • It is not uncommon for a frauditor to visit the same establishment multiple times to illicit greater reactions and harass members of staff if they are present each time.
• Content that threatens individuals is not allowed on YouTube. We also don't allow content that targets an individual with prolonged or malicious insults based on intrinsic attributes
  • Threats to beat up, fight, pepper spray, etc. are very common in an attempt to get a reaction from people they are harassing.
• Showing viewers how to steal tangible goods or promoting dishonest behavior
  • Most of the "laws" that they quote are taken out of context or are misinterpretations of the law that they cherry pick.  The laws they choose to interpret are either not applicable in their situations or are their own personal interpretations of said laws that are completely incorrect.

What can be done?

If you are unfortunate enough to encounter one of these individuals or groups in public, ignore them and don't give them a reaction.  Be aware of your state laws when it comes to being filmed in public.  For instance, it is against Pennsylvania state law to harass someone by filming them even in a public setting.  As for the online aspect, I and many others believe that this content should be prohibited or at least demonetized and regulated to dissuade this type of behavior from happening.

If you know of someone or if you were in a video that a frauditor took and posted, you can file a privacy complaint since they do not have your permission to post it on YouTube.  Here is how you file a privacy complaint:

1. Go to the video link
2. Click the 3 dots under the video and click "Report" 
3. Select "Infringes My Rights"
4. Select "Privacy Issue" where a new tab will open
5. Around mid-page, click on the link that says "Privacy Complaint Process" 
6. Follow the instructions and provide the proper information

If YouTube agrees that a breach of privacy has been committed, they will remove the video in question.  This prevents them from posting your likeness to the internet without your consent as well as preventing them from monetary gain.

Call Flooding and Doxxing

These individuals have a habit of posting emails, names, phone numbers, and personal information of individuals that they interact with.  They will post the information either on their channels or in the videos that they post.  In turn, their followers will call, email, etc. the office or individual often leaving threatening messages or insulting individuals or organizations.  This is a gray area since they do not explicitly say to call these places, but it is heavily implied.  Again, this is against community guidelines.