YouTube's politically biased management has begun blatantly censoring, demonetizing and outright restricting those viewpoints including WeAreChange that do not conform to their ideological echo chamber.
Video! The YouTube Purge is Here!
So just a few days ago I covered a USA Today article that stated: "YouTube says it's removing terrorist and extremist content faster."
Once I saw that article I knew that this was the beginning of the YouTube purge. I said "and it's well apparent that this will lead to the crescendo of it. We see the purging, the cleaning of this major online institution to be more favorable towards corporations and government. That's exactly what's happening, and why I think we're finally reaching the end times of this beautiful and amazing platform."
That purging has happened quicker than I expected as I woke up this morning to find 660 videos on my channel demonetized. Videos that go back for years primarily attacking the most viewed videos on my channel, the videos that earn me the most amount of revenue. Eviscerating my primary source of revenue for this news organization which came from YouTube advertisements. I tweeted about this, and I actually got a response from the "Team YouTube."
-that-lets-you-directly-appeal-videos-seeing-less-ads.jpg){kind=icon}
They replied, "This is a new money icon, doesn't mean demonetized, that lets you directly appeal videos seeing less ads." I'm sorry Team YouTube that's full of horse snot. If you look at my channel of the videos that say "not suitable for all advertisers" that this was "confirmed by manual review."
This happened to a lot of the 660 videos that were hit. Strangely videos that deal with no controversy at all like My Political Compass Test or even a Live: Dog Cafe in South Korea AMA were targeted and even reviewed and confirmed to be "not suitable for all advertisers."
Perhaps this has something to do with WeAreChange confronting the former Google CEO and now Alphabet CEO Eric Schmidt when he attended the secretive, elusive Bilderberg meeting. One can only speculate.
There is no official explanation for why I just lost my main source of income. While this small independent media organization gets eviscerated by these changes, for some reason CNN still has videos monetized with them eating human brains.
My doing a non-political video with dogs in a cafe in South Korea wasn't acceptable either since we can't offend advertisers with that content.
It's more than unfair for YouTube to change their terms and services arbitrarily. Terms and conditions to which I have followed, and I haven't even been cursing in any of my videos. Some of them are not controversial at all. Then YouTube invites content creators to this platform, which I joined and put a lot of work towards. I was able to live off of it, and then YouTube suddenly says we're just going to change the terms and conditions of our services.
That's what they did a few days ago when they announced their new effort to fight terror content online. They conveniently changed their terms of services to say that they could do whatever they want. Stating that in the future they would be restricting, demonetizing and limiting videos which they deemed to be "controversial". Eating human brain is not controversial for them, but for some reason I am.
In YouTube's supposed effort to squash down on terrorist videos and hate speech they brought in the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League to help them "combat extremism and flag content" on YouTube. An organization with a clear political bias who has a clear political agenda and of course are not impartial.
Now Google the company that owns YouTube had also wrapped up in another controversy just days ago. They fired one of their programmers and coders. He was fired for writing an internal memo about how Google is politically intolerant and hurting real diversity. This new set of ideas "pained" the CEO of YouTube.
If you look at the Google diversity team members, you can easily see that they have a clear political agenda. They do not hide this fact.
This new move which is just implemented against me is against "hate speech and terrorists." If you've been watching my videos you know that is full of crap. I warned you this was coming, it's finally here, it's only going to get worse from here and the only logical conclusion I could come up with to why this is happening is to me a clear effort to stifle and discourage real independent media.
It's important to note here I am neither on the left or right on the political spectrum. I think both sides are flawed and deserve due criticism, so this issue to me is a lot bigger than bipartisan political ideologies. It's really about power, control and pushing away people who are contrarian. Those who question authority and see through the crap of the left-right divide and conquer' scheme that has been pitting humanity against itself.
This is not the first time something like this has happened to us. A few months ago people's videos that had my name in the title or tags were demonetized without explanation. Our videos were being demonetized years ago without the right to appeal or even have a notification that this was happening. I even went as far as to avoid putting specific words like foreign policy or the Middle East in any of my titles since YouTube would automatically flag those videos. Even then we would still get occasionally demonetized but not to the extent that it happens now.
Previously YouTube has taken down the channels of people like Mark Dyson and Jordan Peterson only to bring them back because of public outcry. They also have granted governments the authority and power to take down any videos that they do not like.
I honestly don't see a future on YouTube, and it sucks. I put my blood sweat and tears and everything I had into it. Even risking my life many times to get you the news as it was happening. I built around a half a million YouTube subscribers and all this with very little money, no marketing at all, all word-of-mouth and now that very same platform is pushing me away.
They are doing their best to make sure that I can't sustain myself as a real independent media organization. It's all being done in the name of fighting terrorism and "hate speech" which is not right.
I won't let this get me down, and I won't go away like they want me to. I will not be silenced, I will not be suppressed, and now because of this, I have more motivation to do more work than ever. Just know that from now on I'm going to be putting a lot of my resources on Steemit.com which is a social media platform that is supported by crypto currencies.
Even with your participation on that social media platform, you could earn crypto currencies from just upvoting different videos and posts on the website. I hate to beg, but it's really true, that without your support and donations we would not be able to be here.
I'm even skeptical of Patreon which has been taking down users accounts for political reasons. I personally set up my own version of the Patreon system on wearechange.org/donate
The same behind-the-scenes footage, AMAs, questions and answers and participation in the news organization are available as with the Patreon Members.
Cryptocurrencies have also been huge for us and extremely important. We have multiple ways that you could participate through the links in the description below. I'll figure something out. I love you guys thank you again so much for watching.
Patreon https://www.patreon.com/WeAreChange?a…
We gratefully accept Bitcoin too: 12HdLgeeuA87t2JU8m4tbRo247Yj5u2TVP
Donate on our site: https://wearechange.org/donate
FOLLOW WE ARE CHANGE ON SOCIAL MEDIA
SnapChat: LukeWeAreChange
Facebook: https://facebook.com/LukeWeAreChange
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lukewearechange
Instagram: http://instagram.com/lukewearechange
WE ARE CHANGE MERCHANDISE
Rep WeAreChange merch proudly: https://wearechange.org/store
@lukewearechange I see it as good news! People are now pushed into the decentralized video platform world which is just about to get started with LBRY (read library) and @viewly. View.ly is even using Steem as far as I know while LBRY is a coin of its own. Both run with a torrent-like peer-to-peer network and allow to earn money just like on Steemit.
there is also https://dtube.video/ i learned about today.
the introduction:
https://steemit.com/video/@heimindanger/introducing-dtube-a-decentralized-video-platform-using-steem-and-ipfs
@Lukewearechange
This is good. A redistribution of power and profits away from the establishment to the people. Would like to set you up on our platform and help you get funding.
@Coincentral is home to 7 NEW SteemCentral Projects: 🐳MarketCredit Coins (ICO) 🐳FreeExchange 🐳FreeMall 🐳Marketing 🐳Security 🐳Developer & 🐳Mediation Centers! Get Whitepaper web link in our profile.
That's great! I will check that out. Is it fast though like Vimeo and Youtube?
It depends on the size of the network and the distrubution of the video. When many people share the same video it will actually be much faster than youtube. If it is a brand new video it will probably be slow.
thanks for answering my inquiry. I tried signing up earlier but it took me to telegram. why is that?
View.ly? I think there is nothing to sign up yet. Only their newsletter I think.
That is why. Thanks for the heads up. By the way, nice avatar. You remind me of Bananas in Pajamas. :-)
Check out this link to upload: https://upload.view.ly/
Try this link: https://upload.view.ly/
Thanks for sharing
Really awesome work , nicely depicted thanks !! ( have a look at my post too [Having The iPhone But Missing The I])
Good news for Steemit, keep encouraging your followers to get on steemit
Luke....we'll still have you back. I've donated through your website and I'm upvoting you 100% now. Steemit is a great platform for you and I hope it will generate the funds you need.
i've wrote a post too about this and i gave some alternatives
https://steemit.com/steemit/@free999enigma/youtube-alternatives-for-the-future
Maybe someone is interested :)
Censorship tells the wrong story
Stick to de-centralized platforms like STEEM and the LBRY! YouTube blows. Keep up the great work Luke! If you haven't heard of LBRY you should definitely check it out, it's a great place to publish videos!
I have heard of LBRY, didnt they just release their beta?
@itsmee.bosslady :: Yes, they have released it. The only negative that I've noticed after releasing some music videos of my band on LBRY is that they don't always load properly. I'm sure they are working that issue as I'm sure that I'm not the only one that has noticed.
Bound to be bugs this early...Nice to see them progressing though - I remember getting on the wait list months ago Lol :)
I enjoyed the article with the exception of "horse snot". Blech. Isn't there a way to express yourself in a less disgusting way?
I know, you rarely comment to anyone here... I am use to that from you. It's a post-and-run thing. :)
awesome post - already made $200 in profit. Similar, monetized, quality posts on youtube wouldnt make nearly that much... I think I know which platform to stick to.
Dtube is online, if it meets your needs.
Thank you very much for releasing on steemit, now i dont need YouTube anymore ;)
Thanks for sharing this @lukewearechange. This information help. upvoted
Man this is concerning to hear. But just like YouTube grew to fill a niche in the internet. Something else will fill the niche for independent content and media. Maybe LBRY? Keep up the good fight man. Shot term it sucks but long term independent thought cannot be stifled.
Youtube is trash and will do anything their high Lord's tell them to
Thank you for this important info! Up-Voted and Followed.
meep
No Problem, just post your videos to other video hosting sites as well like view.ly and vidme and link these on steemit to boost your rewards. More and more hosting sites are coming online and blockchain based so just move with the times.
I think the blowback against Google has been quite encouraging since they began to implement Orwellian policies.
Their brand image has gone down the toilet very quickly. Let's keep spreading what they are doing far and wide!
Good to know! Thanks
I guess the future is view.ly or when released LBRY.
Is anyone surprized? Fuck youtube. Someone will just make a better one decentralised and that pays in crypto and they are dead in the water like myspace when facebook came to town
I'm another content creator on youtube that has been demonitized and age restricted on a lot of my videos. I only have about 50k subscribers so nothing like you. It's sickening what is happening. They have made it very clear that they are going to clean house of any ideas they don't agree with and try to shape public opinion the way they see fit.
Fine. Then its time to go. There is a huge sucking sound...do you hear it? Its the sound of a forming vacuum and a vacuum has to be filled. As I type this, developers are hard at work trying to build video sharing platforms on blockchain technology. When, and I say when one is successful, you will see a giant exodus of Youtube and the execs will be looking at all these idiots you have posted above and wonder why they ran everyone off. Money talks is the bottom line and competition is the great equalizer.
The tech giants are all comprised of the same types of people with the same beliefs and opinions, and they've now started to leverage the power that their monopolies gives them to silence opposing views.
Google modifies their search algorithms to favor left-wing content and fired an employee for respectfully vocalizing solutions to the diversity-first hiring methods at the company. Facebook curates pro-left, anti-right content in their trending section and frequently bans Conservative accounts. Twitter shadowbans popular trending hashtags if they're critical of Liberal values. YouTube has started demonitizing Conservative channels to purge them from the system, while equally or more offensive content from The Young Turks is not only allowed by promoted. Reddit actively bans any pro-Conservative or anti-Liberal content from any of the primary news or politics subs and even respectful comments are deleted and result in being banned from those subs. Patreon has started getting in on this anti-Conservative bandwagon too with the purge of Lauren Southern's account.
This is nothing less than a complete abuse of power to silence right-of-center news and opinion by the overwhelmingly Liberal tech industry. Until censorship-free alternatives like Steemit gain mass appeal, this abuse is going to continue and get even worse.
Here is some info on View.ly by @furion:
https://steemit.com/viewly/@furion/introducing-viewly
This is the reason why I joined Vid.me
they have a backbone on there unlike YouTube
These are the times. Everyone must think alike, talk with the same neutral vocabulary, never offend anyone, decide their companies workforce based on equal distribution of race and gender, screen their college entrants by including all races at the expense of getting the very best students and rid themselves of any core values outside of what Hollywood and the media would deem acceptable.
I feel for you my friend after your years of hard work and effort to build your business. Don't give up. Use the energy to find a new path for your voice.
Youtube go by the way of Myspace and will be a dinosaur. Very soon and platforms like Steemit will dominate because it is what the majority of people want.
This is the reason Utube, F-c-book and Boogle were created. It was done so to control the flow of information. All three of these companies are losing tons of money. (Just ask anyone who has tried to set up their own video streaming servers. The costs are just sky high)
So, these companies did what Wallymart did to the retail industry. Kill any small competitors.
Fortunately there is good news coming down the pipe. The interenets will soon be free. I will try to post on it when it is doable. Until then, keep pointing the light of truth in their faces.
@lukewearechange put your videos also on view.ly.
I saw the writing on the wall long ago. YouTube favors blatant propaganda, but ONLY the propaganda they approve of. I wish Steemit could somehow partner with VIDME.
It would be great to have a video focused social media platform that had a state of the art free video editor
When YouTube Red came along they started featuring only network TV shows on their front page. It's been downhill since then. By September 21st they will be taking away the YouTube editor. They are running off all the small YouTubers that built it.
They might as well call it BOOBTUBE.
BOOBTUBE hhhhh
A lot of people will just be kicked out of the equation over there.
Youtube is such a great platform for marketing and for self advertisement its sad that little kids have to ruin it for so many people. All this youtube drama and freestyles are stupid, we all lost advertisers and money smh
This channel brought me to steemit
I see Youtube turning into a rag. Not a source for anything meaningful but exclusively for the mind-rotting content that is currently trending on there.
You gotta get on the LBRY train. help their beta launch for a steemit type replacement of youtube...
Upvoted and resteemed! We cant continue to turn a blind eye to this and carry on like its ok 👍👍💯
I feel your pain @lukewearechange Have a follow, retweet, and a 100% up vote to cheer you up! Been in your shoes to a lesser extent re:Youtube monetisation and lost revenue.
Yep, they are heavily politicised, ever since they bought Boston Dynamics, aka DARPA back in 2013, I have been weaning myself off Google.
Lesson I learned - Stop giving away my 'power' to others, especially those I am in no way aligned with. I saw it as an opportunity and challenge to seek and find new innovative platforms that do not censor differing perspectives and voices.
Hence, ended up here on Steemit, same as yourself. That and a few other 'pies'.
I'll end with a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
'No law can be sacred to me but that of my own nature... how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions...' He could have been writing about Youtube, right? Keep the faith dude!
Luke you got support here, steemit got your back. Youtube will destroy itself, what made it good was it's freedom. That's what people really want, you turn on your creators and censor for your own agenda people will notice and abandon it.
Steemit is the future
Bail out on YouTube Luke!!! Steemit pays Luke!!! We do not need any system or platform that doesn't want us there. To hell with begging for scraps from the "masters" table. Let us start our own table & free minded people will see our table is better for all! Eventualy the "masters" table will only have a few starving left at it ... just before they dies & the table collapes.
I think I stretched that analogy waaaay past it's braking point.
@lukewearechang...You look like my little brother!
And who exactly are the ones get to decide what is "appropriate" and what isn't? I'm pretty left leaning and I still say people have a right to say the shit they want to say (outside of physical threats). It's disappointing YouTube/Google has made this stand. Especially cause they're only doing to shake the bad press they've gotten recently.
This dude.
YouTube is digging their own grave, those clowns.
I remember McCarthyism. Sounds so similar.
Nice post 👏👍👍👍
Interesting. Youtube has changed quite a bit since the early days.
There is no surprise, Google has lost its mind, let me correct that it has no real brain, because Google is just a big collection of bots, AI is not advanced enough yet, and when it will be it will only get worse! It will fire all humans.
That good decision you have taken, you have our support, adelnate friend, greetings from Venezuela
Youtube censors and demonitizes lots of videos unnecessarily. Good thing is you have steemit as an option. Post on here and no one will censor or treat you unfairly :) You will eventually make more than youtube would ever pay you :)