Joshua Coon
Christian. Student. Photographer.
For years, YouTube has fostered a culture that has encouraged openness and expression. For the most part, they have done an admirable job of carefully keeping the site and community in good order. In December 2007, YouTube allowed for their creators to monetize their content through ads featured in the beginning of videos and banners on the site. [1] This lead to an entirely new ecosystem of creators who depended solely on YouTube ad revenue generated by their videos as their livelihood. Recently, though, in late March/early April, YouTube has significantly hindered their creators by releasing new community policies that took a turn for the worst. In writing, YouTube's policies added "'sexually suggestive,' 'sensational and shocking,' and 'profanity and rough language,'" as qualifiers for excluding videos from generating ad revenue. [2] In theory, this is obviously a good thing. Videos that are explicit or that feature illegal activities should not be allowed. But the lack of clarity in these new policies have lead to a discrimination amongst it's community of creators. For example, creators that express conservative and right-leaning political opinions have lost a significant amount of ad revenue, even while their viewership has stayed the same. No matter where you stand politically, this issue is bigger than just an opinion. This issue deals with the very principle that free people have the right to speak freely, no matter how contrary their views may be. As another example, LGBT creators have seen a dip in their ad revenue solely due to how vocal they are about their sexuality. Again, wherever you stand on these issues and ideologies, the principle that all people have the right to free speech must be upheld and protected. As a public community that is at the heart of pop culture, YouTube has the moral obligation to stop and proactively prevent this kind of discrimination. To solve this problem, YouTube should either revert back to their old, tried-and-true policies, or simply correct and implement more specific and explicit policies that are devoid from any sort of discrimination.
14 Comments
Fernando Madrigal
5/13/2017 02:40:08 pm
Hello Joshua,
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Mariel Calande
5/13/2017 03:15:33 pm
I agree, I feel that the direction that Youtube is going is not in the spirit of why the website was made in the first place. Youtube, as with other sites, were made as sort of the anti-TV show. Youtube was never meant to be completely polished, produced, and family friendly like TV often is. By trying to apply family friendly guidelines to videos, people who aren't will be censored by the algorithm.
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Tommy Ha
5/15/2017 10:08:33 am
Hi Joshua,
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Cristina Cachux
5/15/2017 10:03:36 pm
I believe that Youtube was a way to stray away from all the censored and sifted through news and information typically found on television. I understand censoring certain explicit content, however how far is too far in this sense? I do however agree that videos that do showcase illegal behavior should be taken down.
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Laura Chavez
5/16/2017 09:47:31 pm
A lot of people have complained and expressed their opinions YouTube and the direction it is going. I feel that YouTube is not what it used to be, and it's not letting YouTube creators create what they want.
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Jose Cortez
5/19/2017 10:42:29 pm
Yes, if youtube strips advertisements from their creators it will limit the amount of fresh and unique content that youtube is known for. I am very interested in seeing how this will play out for youtube,
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Ian Kindall
5/17/2017 12:17:29 am
I have heard about this a lot from most of the channels I watch. A lot of the content creators I follow are considering leaving you-tube as their videos keep getting demonetized for things as simple as swearing. I used to want to make videos with my friends but it just doesn't seem worth it anymore if we have to act "family friendly" in order to make money yet be funny and entertaining to get an audience.
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Joseph Molina
5/17/2017 07:00:08 pm
Joshua,
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Jose Cortez
5/19/2017 10:38:05 pm
I have also seen many creators begin to voice their opinions, unfortunately for them I do not know if youtube will change anything since they know there is no other service out there that can compete with them. However, I hope they do the morally right thing and stick with their creators.
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Alan Garcia
5/18/2017 12:58:45 pm
Just by reading your title, I could only assume what my fears have come true. YouTube has been making themselves family friendly, But it interesting that their base didn’t really started off so innocent. But like many Providers, it’s a platform that people are using. If you want to be part of fame, then you need to conform. You have no right to complain to YouTube, because your using their service. If they deem it inappropriate, that it your loss. They have no obligation to the YouTubers.
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Jose Cortez
5/19/2017 10:35:46 pm
I disagree with the approach that youtube is taking here. I think they should stand by their creators at all costs and should not let the bigger corporations bully them around. Take Twitch for example, on multiple occasions they have stood up for their creators and protected them from lawsuits or harassment from other corporation.
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Christian Martinez
5/19/2017 10:49:34 pm
I can understand why a company may not want there ads posted in front of content that does not align with its values. The video played gets associated with the company so I get why the companies are mad but the only person who is really harmed here is the content creator. It is really unfortunate.
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Lesly Garcia
5/20/2017 10:44:33 pm
I agree with you. I think it's unfortunate that people can be affected by the rules that youtube has placed. I think they should be allowed to freely express themselves without losing money. 5/20/2017 04:17:08 pm
I do not think that this is an ethical problem, but more of a business issue. If people were to find out about this, people would not want to do business with YouTube. There are other sites that you can upload videos on and get public views on.
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