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There’s a new scandal involving YouTube and it has to do with reported censorship of its stars. It all started when YouTuber Philip de Franco recently Tweeted a notification from the site that some of his videos were no longer fit for monetization. YouTube suggested that said videos were in violation of its policies. The development has sparked outrage in the community, with the implications of the demonetization including the disappearance of certain names and brands from the site.
Seems like @Youtube will be stripping most of my advertising from now on. Oh well.
— Philip DeFranco (@PhillyD) August 31, 2016
I'm not going to censor myself. pic.twitter.com/a9upZh6eTY
YouTube has undoubtedly become one of the biggest online platforms on the internet, and not just in terms of video hosting. The brand has gotten so big that it threatens to eclipse traditional media completely. Along with this growth is the increase in companies paying for ads and their demands regarding content. With regards to the videos that were taken down, they were allegedly not “advertiser friendly,” Fortune reports.
For those not in the know regarding how things work in YouTube land, content creators stand to make a lot of money thanks to the share in ad revenue that they get once they become big enough. This has prompted many, previously unknown people to make millions using the platform.
As expected of such a free and relatively unrestrictive environment, along with the intense competition for views, a lot of these so-called YouTube stars turned to unsavory stunts to get attention. These can range from clickbaity titles or suggestive pictures to downright dangerous and vulgar content. By demonetizing such videos, a huge chunk of the community using these tactics would not be able to sustain their presence on YouTube.
As The Verge notes, however, there are a few things about this incident that should be taken into account. For one thing, the move to demonetize videos that were not non-advertiser friendly videos is not new. YouTube has been doing it for a while and account holders are just finding out about it because of improvements in the notification department.
For another, creators can file appeals to have their videos reinstated for monetization status. YouTube does provide some leeway to videos that might have offensive or suggestive content in them that are meant to inform or educate.
