Slashdot Mirror
YouTube Videos Could Get Demonetized If They Have 'Inappropriate Comments'
In response to a mother's inquiry into why her son's gymnastics videos were deemed not advertiser friendly, YouTube said on Twitter it has "taken a number of actions to better protect the YouTube community from content that endangers minors." The video-sharing website went on to say something very concerning for anyone who has ever uploaded a video to the site: "... even if your video is suitable for advertisers, inappropriate comments could result in your video receiving limited or no ads (yellow icon)."
Essentially, what YouTube is saying is that if someone leaves a "incendiary or demeaning" comment, or one with "inappropriate language," the video which features that comment could get demonetized and the content creator would not generate money from it. If you've ever read a comment thread on YouTube, it shouldn't take long for you to realize how big of an issue this could become. According to YouTube's "advertiser-friendly content guidelines," the following content may not be suitable for most advertisers: "controversial issues and sensitive events," "drugs and dangerous products or substances," "harmful or dangerous acts," "harmful or dangerous acts," "hateful content," "inappropriate language," "inappropriate use of family entertainment characters," "incendiary and demeaning [content]," "sexually suggestive content," and/or "violence."
The best advice for circumventing this issue is to disable comments entirely, but this would significantly reduce the interaction between the YouTuber and the viewer. "If this is our new reality we're going to need the ability to restrict comments from accounts under 1-4 weeks old," says news commentator and YouTube personality Philip DeFranco. "Sounds like this is prime for weaponization. Also it would probably be best to have an official blog post instead of my tweet as a reference for this change."
Essentially, what YouTube is saying is that if someone leaves a "incendiary or demeaning" comment, or one with "inappropriate language," the video which features that comment could get demonetized and the content creator would not generate money from it. If you've ever read a comment thread on YouTube, it shouldn't take long for you to realize how big of an issue this could become. According to YouTube's "advertiser-friendly content guidelines," the following content may not be suitable for most advertisers: "controversial issues and sensitive events," "drugs and dangerous products or substances," "harmful or dangerous acts," "harmful or dangerous acts," "hateful content," "inappropriate language," "inappropriate use of family entertainment characters," "incendiary and demeaning [content]," "sexually suggestive content," and/or "violence."
The best advice for circumventing this issue is to disable comments entirely, but this would significantly reduce the interaction between the YouTuber and the viewer. "If this is our new reality we're going to need the ability to restrict comments from accounts under 1-4 weeks old," says news commentator and YouTube personality Philip DeFranco. "Sounds like this is prime for weaponization. Also it would probably be best to have an official blog post instead of my tweet as a reference for this change."
Making a business or any sort of living as a content creator on YouTube seems to be coming rather quickly to an end if this rule takes hold.
Then again, maybe all that will be left on YouTube are those that do this as a passion project and not expect to make money from it... Those that are only in it for the money will quickly move on to something perhaps more profitable.
I duplicate every video I put up on YT on at least one alternative site. So far I have everything up on Bitchute as well. Anyone who doesn't duplicate their content on an alternative video sharing site, is crazy.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
The problem is the left and the right which make up 98% of the world are just nuts and demand this sort of bull shit. Advertisers responded. YouTube responded. The 3% who are not nut jobs and want freedom over safety are working on moving to New Hampshire and organizing a free state to be less harmed by the nuts jobs everywhere else.
They already massively shadow ban (i.e. comments just visible to yourself if logged in). Log out and they are not there, No explanation no indication this has happened. Worse it seems to happen particularly if you have a polite comment backed by links etc. that is considered wrongthink. But you can still see all comments like "kill all....", direct insults and the conspiracies. Total shit.
They aren't concerned with making this a safe space for children at all. They want to make it a safe space for advertisers . Want to make a video on a political topic? Nope, that's getting demonitized. Can't take a chance that someone sees and ad next to a video of something that might offend them.
For example. I saw this video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb3oh3dhnoM
that said that J. Peterson had misrepresented Bill C-16, Pronoun Use. That he had lied since none was going to be compelled to use certain pronouns.
I simply posted a link :
http://www.ohrc.on.ca/sites/default/files/Policy%20on%20preventing%20discrimination%20because%20of%20gender%20identity%20and%20gender%20expression.pdf
Pointing to section 7.4 pg. 18 "Refusing to refer to a person by their self-identified name and proper personal pronoun "
ZAP! Never showed up.
Demonetized videos still show ads: YouTube keep 100%.
The whole system is rigged against the content creators and the only option is to not play the game.
When I leave comments now, I right-click the post time on the comment and "open in a private window." If I don't seem my comment highlighted, I know it's been blocked or spam-filtered, either by the creator or by YouTube. I then delete and re-issue my comment with modifications until it posts. Oddly, deleted/orphaned comments are still counted in comment counts.
Those of us who really want freedom are working on moving out of the US entirely and either living as sovereign citizens (actual ones, not those posers who claim they are while living in the US and reaping its benefits), or on founding a new nation that actually upholds the ideals that were espoused around and during the founding of the United States, and not what actually came about through compromise as well as collusion.
Which would be great, except the people who run google are effectively friends with those in Patreon. So, the same policies are spreading over there. If you have content that they deem offensive, then Patreon is defunding you too. This famously occurred for Sargon of Akad last December, which is the reason some large content creators who champion free speech left patreon in protest.
You might feel your content is safe, and it is just those "bad" people who disagree with you get silenced. The problem is that when bad means disagree, you can find yourself suddenly on the wrong side very quickly.
Free speech is the hardest thing, because it means defending the right of someone to say something that is completely annoying to you. It goes against human nature, which makes it one of the great intellectual achievements of humans.
Ironically, you might not see this post because my karma is bad. My karma is bad because I said some very, very critical things about the slashdot community chasing politics over the quest for science. Even here, censorship happens.