Something in our society that we are unable to get away from is the pull of viral videos, which usually make their mark on the platform that is YouTube. YouTube was created in 2005 when PayPal employees decided to make a website, in which you can share pieces of your life through the process of uploading and sharing content for others to view. Since the creation of YouTube, people have been uploading different genres of videos, such as comedy, fashion, music, gaming and vlogging. YouTube lets ordinary people come into your household and make an impact on your life, despite the fact that they’re miles and miles away.
Though YouTube consists of watching a screen, for the person making it, they’re putting in effort to create extraordinary content. Some famous YouTubers who gained their names due to their YouTube personas are Colleen Ballinger, also known as Miranda Sings, Superwoman, Shane Dawson, Gabbie Hanna, The Fine Brothers, and Ryan Higa. Some of these YouTubers have dealt with battles of their own and have used inappropriate language and sexual jokes.
On Twitter, the trend "#YouTubeIsOverParty" was made and spread like wildfire, due to the news. This caused comments from YouTubers, such as Gabbie Hanna stating, "Oh s*** i'm f***** #YouTubeIsOverParty," as a joke to play on YouTube's new censoring of vulgarity.
Most recently, YouTube decided to put a strain on the rights of these YouTubers, mainly YouTube comedians and vloggers. The YouTubers who rely on entertaining others as a paycheck are now dealing with their videos being demonetized. There was also the rumor that some of the paychecks were being withheld. This all started hitting a peak when Philip DeFranco, who has been uploading videos within the YouTube community for ten years. He made a video, in which he addresses that twelve of his videos were demonetized, due to discussion about sensitive subjects, such as the Brock Turner rape case. Though DeFranco was just informing the public on the facts, YouTube still took advertisements off his video, preventing him from making a profit. According to various YouTubers, when you would go to upload a video, “new terms of agreement” would pop up, informing you of the policy that material that uses vulgar language, violence, sexually suggestive content, and controversial material centered about topics such as politics, will be subject to demonetization, so advertisers are happy.
Clearly, YouTube is putting a censor on free speech, in order to make their website more “family friendly.” Though YouTube has made us aware of this change, this demonetization process has been occurring for quite some time now, but without our knowledge. They made it unclear and buried this information, making you seek into your analytics until you find out you aren’t making profit off a video. The biggest part of this entire scenario that seems unfair is the silencing of the voices who make videos expressing their views on topics that deserved to be questioned. These advertisers do not want to be associated with your content, unless it’s up to their standards, which YouTube forcefully made those surrender to.
Though big YouTubers, such as Ian Hecox, runner of Smosh, have laughed off these new guidelines, due to the fact that his channel has made plenty of money, it comes down to a moral issue that is bigger than the newbies to the channel trying to get heard and make a dollar.
