Right now there are people attacking YouTube for denying an ad from Chad Robichaux based on the fact Chad used “Christian” as a keyword.
YouTube eventually posted a comment on Twitter explaining the decision. The statement said “We know that religious beliefs are personal, so we don’t allow advertisers to target users on the basis of religion. Beyond that, we don’t have policies against advertising that includes religious terms like “Christian””.
We know that religious beliefs are personal, so we don’t allow advertisers to target users on the basis of religion. Beyond that, we don’t have policies against advertising that includes religious terms like “Christian”.
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) July 24, 2019
This only confused Chad Robichaux further as he tested out both the keywords ‘Christian’ and ‘Muslim‘.
In his testing Chad found YouTube had no issue with the word ‘Muslim’ being used but ‘Christian’ was a potential policy violation. Why would a word to describe the practitioners of the Christian faith trigger a possible policy violation while the word to describe those who practice Islamic beliefs be okay?
We ran the exact same ad with the keyword “Muslim” & it was approved but “Christian” was not. Additionally, we’ve ran ads with the keyword “Christian” for years. This year alone we had 150,000 impressions on that word in our ads. As per your support line this is a new restriction pic.twitter.com/1tIeLUeCHS
— Chad Robichaux (@ChadRobo) July 24, 2019
The obvious answer, and something many others will agree with YouTube on, is that YouTube does not consider the cult of Islam to be a religion. I applaud YouTube on making this bold declaration and I hope this stance by YouTube is spread far and wide so that everyone will come to realize just how YouTube views Islam differently from a real religion like Christianity. I believe this should be considered a big win for those who have been decrying the cult of Islam and its barbaric Sharia Law.
I’m really hoping that this insane monopoly and censorship going on with Google YouTube and Facebook etc creates other platforms to start up, if it doesn’t happen than the current system has failed us
— Fun Guy. (@Puckberger) July 24, 2019
This would also explain YouTube’s unofficial policy of flagging and demonetizing videos that criticize Muslims and the Islamic cult. After all, YouTube has a policy against bullying those with mental illness and so it is my belief that since YouTube does not see Islam as a religion it must view those who follow it as a protected class based on that mental illness criteria.
It is nice to finally see a silicon valley big tech company recognize that Christianity and Islam are not comparable. Rather, YouTube sees Christianity as a serious religion while viewing Islam as a silly belief held by confused and misinformed idiots.
Credit where credit is due, I can’t help but agree with YouTube on this stance.