© Osman Orsal / Reuters
Beginning late Wednesday night, the Google subsidiary began removing monetization from many videos as part of a decision to better enforce its community guidelines, including what content is considered inappropriate for advertising.
YouTube did not notify its users beforehand that it would suddenly enforce its guidelines more stringently, leading many content creators to believe it was a new policy.
YouTuber Philip DeFranco, who has more than 4.5 million subscribers, had at least 40 videos demonetized. He described the feeling as "a little bit like getting stabbed in the back after 10 years."
The company, however, denied that it had changed its policies, but had instead decided to enforce them.
"While our policy of demonetizing videos due to advertiser-friendly concerns hasn't changed, we've recently improved the notification and appeal process to ensure better communication to our creators," a YouTube representative said in a statement.
The notification comes in the form of an email or a yellow dollar sign, where a white one in a green circle used to be.
Proving that anything anywhere can be offensive to anyone, the last guideline is basically a catch-all that could keep monetization from anything but the most innocuous kitten video:"Controversial or sensitive subjects and events, including subjects related to war, political conflicts, natural disasters and tragedies, even if graphic imagery is not shown."
Melanie Murphy, whose channel has more than 400,000 subscribers, tweeted that her videos about acne have been demonetized. She doesn't appear to know why, but many content creators who have had monetization removed believe it's because their videos contain foul language.
"There is no bad language in these videos, nothing inappropriate in the tags, so I'm left with the assumption that the fact that acne is visible in the thumbnails...is off-putting to potential advertisers," she told CNET. "If that's the case, it's very upsetting."
Murphy isn't the only user who's confused by the new enforcements. Many content creators are blasting the decision on other social media sites with the hashtag #YouTubeisoverparty. Apparently even viral videos can "jump the shark."
There's often censorship in "You tube" which really infuriates me, as that means that not everyone has access to certain vids. Secondly all kinds of censorship make me mad because that means that a "higher authority" decides about what I see and hear and thus learn.
Thirdly and most importantly those CONTROL FREAKS who try to regulate and monitor everything also get on my nerves.
Finally that was what the internet was about when it was given to the public some 20 years ago. FREEDOM IN EXCHANGING OF IDEAS AND INFO. Eventually you have these bozos trying to listen to every bit of info that goes forth and back on this planet, through
PCs, cell phones and tablets. Morons.
Have you ever wondered where the phrase "We don't negotiate with terrorists" came about ? Because terrorists are government agents in disguise.
The true anarchists like Che, Baader Meinhof in Germany, the Red Brigades in Italy and November 17th in Greece were exterminated because they had understood long ago that the "system" sucked and tried to do something about it.
Governments, rather those behind them are afraid of the people and try to keep them under control, otherwise they'll lose all their power and money, which is the tool for them to control the world and constitutes their "Raison d' etre".
I've just about had it living under a virtual junta that every day since the day I was born gives me less than I deserve and promotes the scum of the earth to the top of the socioeconomic pyramid. Small wonder Putin has become so popular world wide
and people in the West hate their governments.
I'm also sick of people living in ignorance, following "the monkey see, monkey do" life style. The masses are never enlighted.
It's not to the best interests to those who govern. I risked my life more than once to get the truth out and naturally they started "shooting" at me. But I'm not going to back down. Ever.