Future Uncertain for Youtube Content Creators

Originally written on May 4, 2017

Most of the turmoil with youtube reducing income for it’s creators to make the website more advertiser friendly took off in the last month.

We don’t know if we have hit bottom yet or when the ads will return. Some speculate that the system will eventually function again for those making a income but they might be lucky to earn 50 percent of what they were earning. Many are crowd-sourcing to stay afloat with some starting ON DEMAND channels.

The warning signs with youtube started over a year ago with widespread demonetization of controversial videos or videos featured specific ‘hot words’ that a bot is programmed to fish out or words featuring in the video that are flagged.

This of course, does not apply to the mainstream media and some youtube channels that for some reason are perceived to be more advertiser friendly.

VICE NEWS Reports:
Many channels have begun to complain that their videos are being demonetized. This, they say, is due to YouTube tightening the rules on what’s deemed controversial: If a video isn’t appropriate, a brand won’t want to run ads on it. But the site’s definition of “controversial” seems to have changed. Any allusion to religion, violence, bad language, and sex are now undesirable. The established model of meritocracy—if you get views, you get money—seems to be changing, and some YouTubers are looking to jump ship.

To further highlight the seriousness of the problem, the Telegraph is running a story in which a mother is calling for youtube to be banned.

On Wednesday his mother Antonitza Smith, 47, told the Telegraph she blamed YouTube for influencing her son and called for it to be banned.

“How to make a bomb – that shouldn’t be on YouTube because people copy, especially vulnerable people,” she said.

“Whatever people put on YouTube, broadcast on YouTube – how to make a bomb, how to blow up a car, hacking etc – it’s illegal really. They talk about terrorism, beheadings. That shouldn’t be on YouTube so young kids could see it. It’s wrong.

“The government should ban it so it might save another child from what my son has gone through.”

The demoralization of Youtube leading to demonetization of videos seems to be a highly coordinated move to remove the income from the hands of independent content creators that built a  platform for themselves.