A YouTuber who goes by the handle of Mesa Sean, sporting more than 100,000 subscribers, has recently been caught up in YouTube’s algorithm for demonetizing content. If you check his video content it’s all centered around Destiny and Destiny 2. However, his recent uploads have been hit with demonetization flags, so he reached out to YouTube for an answer.
So what did YouTube say in response? Well, it’s probably because the ‘T’ for Teen Destiny 2 contains too much “gratuitous violence”.
Video game violence is usually okay, but “gratuitous violence” as the focal point is not. More info here: https://t.co/AsaoyJE0ha
— Team YouTube (@TeamYouTube) August 21, 2017
Sean asked if Destiny 2 was suitable for advertisers, and YouTube’s support responded by saying that it was likely flagging his content for the “gratuitous violence”.
Others responded by pointing out to YouTube that both Destiny games are rated Teen and have no “gratuitous violence”. That’s not to mention that games like Doom, Metro: Last Light, and even GTA V can still be monetized, even though they are rated ‘M’ for Mature and contain gratuitous violence.
After the Twitter feed pointed out that Destiny was a Teen rated game, YouTube went silent.
Sean sardonically pointed out that the game is about shooting aliens and not humans. Nevertheless, YouTube had spoken, and their word was apparently law.
So are Teen rated games, as @MyNameIsByf has mentioned, such as #Destiny2 deemed to show “gratuitous violence”? It’s aliens, not people. https://t.co/K6oNsD11bV
— Mesa Sean #Destiny2 (@MesaSean) August 21, 2017
This is part of a new wave of demonetization efforts put into place by YouTube following their implementation of the machine learning AI and their new Limited State policy for content, which can effectively shadowban content even if the content does not violate their content policies.
We’ve seen a number of YouTubers getting caught up in a wide-sweeping effort by YouTube that has demonetized all of their content or a majority of their content. As some users pointed out, even when they upload private videos or completely innocuous videos, their content is still automatically being demonetized by the AI. Many have concluded that their channel has been flagged as part of a demonetization “blacklist”.
Gaming reviewing channels like ACG has been hit so hard in the demonetization wave that he recently had to do a video stating that if he isn’t funded via Patreon for the content he produces, he won’t be able to keep the channel alive.
What’s more is that YouTube’s machine learning AI has also begun preemptively censoring and blocking content on the platform, including an interview that was supposed to take place with Inside GamerGate author James Desborough.
Google and those on the YouTube staff have been mostly silent about the “blacklists”, preemptive censorship and new wave of demonetization happening, other than the announcements they’ve made about the Limited State content policy being put into effect.
