I'm angry today.
To give a quick summary of the situation regarding demonetization on YouTube, there are
advertisers in the world who don't want to advertise on anything that might be the least bit controversial
and so YouTube created a...
Thinky machine that decides for advertisers
like, what is the box of stuff that has nothing controversial in it?
So basically no discussion of anything that might by anyone in the world be considered controversial.
That includes, like, news to some extent. In fact when I upload videos now
I'm inside of a beta that lets me rank for myself whether the video contains
something that advertisers might be concerned about and tell them exactly what that is.
Usually on vlogbrothers it's nothing,
but if it was this video I'd have to say that it has something to do with current events and some
Some advertisers might not want to be involved with current events.
They just want you to feel happy while you're getting the brand message.
Just have a feeling of joy
while you also see this logo!
and then you'll buy it next time you're at the store. Seriously, they've done research.
I... understand this, I guess,
Because YouTube is just trying to make it work and advertisers are used to the old way, where to be clear
This was the only way it ever worked.
You knew what you were buying when you were a buyer
of advertising back in the day, because you were buying SpongeBob SquarePants, or
Anderson 63... scooper. (laughter)
That was not on purpose.
Or you were buying Roseanne,
or you were buying Modern Family.
You knew what you were buying and now, on YouTube
You don't know what you were buying. And for a long time
we got away with people not knowing what they were buying
until some people were like "Hey, I saw a Coke ad on this
terrorist recruitment video. Maybe there's a problem" and
some people say -
those journalists, they messed it up for everybody
I say - well, maybe there shouldn't be Coke ads on terrorist recruitment videos
But, solving that problem turns out to have been a big dang mess.
Now, demonetization has gotten better -
There are a lot of YouTube creators, myself included, who - our ad rates are higher than they once were.
They're higher than they were before demonetization happened
But if you make anything that might be considered the least bit controversial
say you're Phil DeFranco. Say you're...
Chase Ross, who makes content about
LGBTQ stuff, then you're getting demonetized all the time. And
That is a bummer because it seems like - why? On Earth?
would you demonetize something that's like, The History of Great Lesbians?
Just great lesbians in history.
Here's some - here are some lesbians who were dope!
And then YouTube's like, "Oh, I'm not so sure about this
We don't, like, we don't know why the algorithm just said that it was bad.
We don't know why, we don't get it. It's all -
it's a computer making its own dec-" ugh, gah.
So that's the situation and
Chase uploaded a video two times - one with transgender in the title, one without and
the one without transgender in the title got
monetized immediately. The other one was put in the yellow,
the yellow icon bucket, which is limited-to-no monetization.
So it's not clear whether that's no monetization, or whether that's just like
for the advertisers who have paid extra to not be involved with anything at all...
we're not going to put ads on it. But it probably is that - that first one, that
or that second one, that
People will be able to advertise on it. It's just, like, not everybody
people kind of have to "special request" this bucket
that's probably gonna be lower
CPMs and
And worse advertisements to be frank,
and also, it turns out - so this,  this is all well-known
bullshit that
YouTube has...
been trying and saying that they're fixing, but, ooh...
Doesn't seem that way.
Um, it seems like if you put words like gay,
LGBTQ+,
transgender, lesbian, in titles and tags,
Your video is more likely to get demonetized.
Why? We're leaving to the side and saying that there's a computer making a bad decision, and
hopefully this is something that YouTube wants to fix.
RIGHT, YOUTUBE?
But! Then! Second thing,
bigger thing, new thing -
So you could take a YouTube
video, this is actually how advertising on YouTube works you upload the video to YouTube
It could be a public video on your YouTube channel
and then you tell YouTube that you want that to run as a pre-roll against certain kinds of content.
People are now doing this with
anti-gay anti LGBTQ+ content,
throwing it up on
specifically content from
LGBTQ+ youtubers.
Are they doing this because they want to - to -
Freak people out and be like, well fine
I, like - now I feel like this is an antagonistic place and I don't feel comfortable on this platform? Maybe.
Are they doing this because they want to reach people who are vulnerable
and who are looking for support in a time of need?
Almost definitely! Like,
This. Is. Despicable,
and gross and disgusting,
and I hate it so much,
and it is a thing that is happening right now,
They're taking their - their
hateful advertisements,
and putting them up on pro, like - supportive,
prideful, loving content on YouTube.
(angry sigh)
Welcome to Pride Month, you guys.
So, I've seen two of these in the last two days,
one is from the Alliance Defending Freedom,
which is an organization that is, like a legal organization-
It's like the ACLU but like, the Bad Place version,
Where they try and get people off the hook for not serving gay people at their...
places of business,
They defended Hobby Lobby. They also have gone to other countries and tried to get laws passed
that make homosexuality illegal, so people can go to jail for
"homosexual acts", and...
So they're - you know, they're really quite specific about how they feel about homosexuality
which is that it's a public health menace
and that it's...
damaging spiritually and psychologically and all this jazz...
So they're defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.
Are they? Kind of,
certainly in other countries they are,
trying to get people locked up for having, uh,
gay sex.
But in America, they're trying to defend freedom by, uh...
allowing people to...
so like, the video that they're showing in front of -
you know, as an advertisement,
basically saying like
"Look, it's so sad that this woman got sued because she wouldn't serve
a gay person, she wouldn't make flowers
for the gay couple's wedding. And isn't that sad
and let's make this all muddy and not
a matter of the law,"
Which is that you can't discriminate against people at your business because of their sexual orientation.
That's the law, you can't do it,
and if it's against your beliefs
you either have to decide whether you are a Christian first
or an American first, because
you have to decide whether the rule of your Bible wins out over the rule of your country.
And...
That's a hard decision for some people,
I imagine, but like
Ultimately the law of the country wins.
And we know that over and over again,
And if you wanted this to be a nation run by religious law...
Then you have not read the Constitution.
The other video is from a guy who is a preacher
Probably? Something like that
He seems... seems like a preacher guy and he's basically saying that
he has the ultimate take on what Christianity is,
and that Christianity is
incompatible with homosexuality and you know this because he... is right,
you can tell , 'cause of his mustache!
These videos would be
yellow mark demonetized, because they deal with controversial topics,
But you can buy -
like, YouTube doesn't care if you buy
the access to the eyeballs,
YouTube cares if you're selling the access to the eyeballs.
So advertisers are the ones in control.
So if I want to pay YouTube money I can get my video in front of people
Because it's not hateful,
it's just, like, presenting the perspective
of a woman who didn't want to sell flowers to a gay couple,
And it's presenting the perspective of a guy who's pretty sure-
who's not pretty sure,
absolutely certain, that
homosexuality is incompatible with Christianity,
so, these people are...
Are they - are they - what
hate speech are they preaching?
And this is, you know, this is a thing that is very difficult.
because this is obviously
like the - the sort of
prettied up version of hate, and
it's just like, "here's what the Bible says"
and just like "I want to create art but not for everyone" and so
It's all shiny, shined up
hate, and
and where that line is becomes really muddy and
YouTube wants there to be a line that they can draw
and have people - and also the government
Not be able to say like, okay
Well, you are drawing a line specifically to exclude conservative voices.
And that is an actual real legal problem -
that YouTube has to have these policies that can be enforced
across the political spectrum, but this gets really weird when part of...
the ideology of these videos is...
Comes from a place of hate, right? Like it's shined up,
It's pretty, it's like "look, I'm just a guy who's telling you what the Bible says."
"Is that...
Gonna be alright?" So.
YouTube. One: Figure this out!
Please! Don't just...
Just. If you can - if you can NOT monetize
videos that are controversial, you can also
not show them to my audience.
You can not, like please - like, do not sell
these things. Like, I do not want these people's money.
Do not sell their
BS to my people because
This is like - there's not a lot that makes me like,
"YouTube. I don't want to do it anymore"
Like all - like every controversy over the years,
I've always been like,
"But really, this is where I live,
this is my home."
But this is poison in the well.
This - this makes me feel
like if - if I knew that regularly, that kind of video was coming up
ahead of my content specifically because I'm making videos for
young
people who are questioning their sexuality,
who are questioning their gender, who are
dealing with really difficult, painful things that - and knowing that
Like they're going to come to this video to have a supportive moment,
and instead they're gonna feel like the...
(pained sigh)
There should be a higher standard for advertisments than there is for content.
And if your lawyers
are telling you that you can't do this without getting sued by the US government,
or...
by the
Dark place ACLU, then...
At least! Give me the option
to not have ANY
political or
controversial ads on my content at all.
If you can give that option to advertisers and say, okay
You don't want to advertise on content that might be about sexuality
You can give that option to creators,
and say we don't want to have advertisements that have anything to do with
Political campaigns, with like - anything to do with politics,
and that way you're not saying -
it's not a line that excludes "conservative voices"...
it's a line that excludes any and all of this stuff.
Give us that power.
I know that maybe within AdSense somewhere, not on the YouTube platform,
There might be a button that might do this?
But I've tried and I'm not entirely sure that it works -
Put it on YouTube. Give me that button.
Allow me to do the same thing that you are doing for advertisers.
Allow me to not take the money of people that I think are...
like intentionally trying to hurt people.
Please.
Because otherwise there is poison in this water and I don't know how I'm gonna feel about this platform
if this is a thing
that not only continues, but grows.
So fix it.
And I'm so sorry to all the people who are dealing with this right now
if you can - watching this, if you are a person
who wants to support those people, go support them on Patreon?
Maybe they can turn off advertisements forever because that is the only way that I would feel comfortable
making content on this platform right now.
And if you're a youtuber who's dealing with this - first of all, I'm - I'm so sorry
I can't imagine how that has to feel.
And second, leave a comment telling people about you down in the
comments there and... drop a venmo link!
