YouTube Frustration Reaching a Boiling Point, Again
YouTube’s removal and suspension practices are increasingly frustrating users, and it could — once again — be creating a dangerous environment.
On April 4, 2018, a woman went to YouTube’s headquarters and shot three employees before turning the gun on herself. She was apparently upset because YouTube removed and demonetized her videos.
Afterward, there was debate about the platform’s ability to balance policing its content and avoiding outrage and incidents like this. As the memory of this horrific event fades, criticism of YouTube’s removal practices is becoming increasingly politicized and heated.
In the last few weeks, YouTube has not only removed Russian state-backed broadcaster RT’s German-language channels — which could result in the country banning the company — but it has enacted new policies to take down misinformation.
Popular YouTubers such as Joseph Mercola, Erin Elizabeth, Sherri Tenpenny, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), and former Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) have had their channels suspended last week, and the company has taken down videos of school board meetings and county board meetings from across the United States.
After R. Kelly was convicted this week, YouTube also terminated his YouTube channels for a “violation of YouTube’s Terms of Service.” The violation in question, a YouTube spokesperson told Bloomberg, is their “creator responsibility guidelines,” which states that videos or channels can be removed if the creator — even offline — is “participating in abuse or violence, demonstrating cruelty, or participating in fraudulent/deceptive behavior leading to real world harm.”
YouTube’s attempt to appeal to advertisers, lean into political opinion, and increase revenues may be causing them to ignore the passionate feelings of users and the practices that led up to the shooting just a few years ago.
Removed Videos Skyrocket, Along with Ad Revenue
To begin attracting more advertisers, YouTube began cracking down on content it deemed inappropriate. In late 2017 the company began removing videos, and YouTube data shows the company had removed around 17 million videos prior to the shooting.
In the three years since, YouTube’s advertising revenue has significantly increased, up nearly 30% every year. Over that period, YouTube has removed 774 million videos, and more than 30.6 million YouTube channels. The number of videos removed each quarter has nearly doubled over the past year.
No Revenue for You
A change in YouTube’s terms of service, in 2018, limited which channels could be part of the YouTube Partner Program, which shares advertising revenues with content creators. The change was seen as a huge blow to many small YouTube creators and was believed to be one of the primary motivations behind the shooting.
In November 2020, YouTube changed its terms again. They surprised creators by making the decision to run advertising on videos from channels not in its YouTube Partner Program.
This move has had a massive impact on the company’s bottom line. Through the second quarter of 2021, YouTube’s ad revenue has skyrocketed 83% over the same period the year before.
In an update to the YouTube Community, the company tried to address the outrage expressed by many small creators.
“Since you’re not currently in (the YouTube Partner Program), you won’t receive a share of the revenue from these ads, though you’ll still have the opportunity to apply for (the program) as you normally would once you meet the eligibility requirements.”
The requirements include 1,000 subscribers and over 4,000 hours of views in the previous years.
However, several channels which recently reached the threshold for joining the YouTube Partner Program have reported that their channels were removed shortly after applying.
3 Strikes and You’re Out?
YouTube has a “strike” practice for violating copyrights and guidelines, and after three strikes in 90 days your channel is removed. However, it reserves the right to remove channels without warning or strikes. Based on hundreds of recent social media posts, YouTube seems to be exercising this right at an accelerated pace, with many users reportedly receiving this abrupt message:
“We have reviewed your content and found severe or repeated violations of our Community Guidelines. Because of this, we have removed your channel from YouTube.”
Users have been increasingly expressing their shock, frustrations and feelings of helplessness with the sudden and unexpected news.
There is an appeal process for users who feel their channel or videos have been wrongly removed. Although only a small number of removed videos are appealed — less than 3.5% — the number of successful appeals has dropped significantly over the past year.
YouTube does not currently share data for channel termination appeals.
Community Guidelines Swell and Change Without Notice
At the same time, the number of YouTube Community Guidelines has grown significantly over the past few years. With the addition of the vaccination misinformation policy this week, these official guidelines now include 26 different policies, each with multiple subsections and dozens of different examples.
The guidelines and policies are so cumbersome and complex, YouTube created an entire curriculum, a Creator Academy course to help people understand their many and nuanced policies and guidelines. The course takes more than a half day to complete with an hour and a half of video content.
YouTube expects users to know and follow these guidelines prior to posting videos on the site. However, when the company updates or adds to its policies, videos and channels can be demonitized or removed immediately and retroactively, based on these changes.
This is what happened this past week when many YouTube channels were removed within hours of the company announcing it would remove antivaccine content.
Despite these immediate shifts, YouTube does not give users whose channels have been removed the ability to learn from the updated policies or training and make corrections or updates.
Vague Reasons for Removals
Despite the verbose Community Guidelines, the reasons provided by YouTube for the removal are often vague. Over 90% of channels are removed for “spam, misleading and scams.”
This section of the YouTube Community Guidelines includes seven subsections and 27 bullet points of unique examples — usually leaving users frustrated, unable to determine specifically what their violations were.
When users turn to @YouTube or @TeamYouTube on twitter looking for answers, the company simply directs them back to the email (pictured above) for answers.
This endless loop without satisfactory answers creates even more user frustration.
Lost Videos + No Path Back = Hopelessness
According to YouTube, “When a channel is terminated, all of its videos are removed.” Additionally, the user is banned from YouTube:
Users can no longer access their accounts or any of the videos they’ve uploaded to YouTube — even videos that were not in violation of the Community Guidelines.
Of the 799 million total videos removed from YouTube, the majority were NOT in violation of the guidelines and were removed as a result of a channel being terminated.
With the “three strikes policy” users knew they had to wait 90 days before their channel was unsuspended and they once again had access to their account. As more channels go straight to termination, users are not given a clear path back into good standing with YouTube — to download their videos that were not in violation of the guidelines, or to resolve mistakes and correct their wrongs.
Their only option is to file an appeal, and based on the robotic responses, many users are left wondering if the appeal was truly reviewed by a human or is an automated process. If the appeal is denied, the response offers no specific explanation, solution, or hope for reinstatement.
Since the appeal is the only option YouTube offers, some users have filed multiple appeals in the hope of regaining their account or the videos of their creative work or family memories.
Responses by many users reflect a feeling of hopelessness, as well as physical stress and depression.
A quick search of “YouTube channel removed” on any social media platform will reveal hundreds of users in one of the five stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
In 2018, YouTube users faced similar feelings, which is suspected to have been the cause of the shooting on the YouTube campus by a seemingly distraught individual.
Don’t be Evil?
Google companies used to abide by the motto, “don’t be evil.”
“Don’t be evil. We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served — as shareholders and in all other ways — by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains.”
While YouTube claims their removals are for the greater good and safety, many users who have had their channels and videos removed feel the way they are being treated is careless and evil.
It is easy to see how human connections and concern for users can be overlooked when you are removing over 550 videos per minute, but these trends are concerning:
- A focus on advertising for short-term profit over the user community
- Skyrocketing video removals without warning or strikes
- A perceived lack of concern or connection with small creators
- An increasingly politicized stance that alienates users
- A lack of forgiveness or giving users hope to recover their channel or videos
The tragic event at YouTube took place over three years ago, but YouTube must learn from this and quickly make improvements to its practices and treatment of users. Every day more channels and videos are being removed and users grow even more frustrated with YouTube and lack of concern for them.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
- Writer and philosopher George Santayana
