Wassila Belhacine 6:00 p.m., February 08, 2023
The famous platform has tightened its terms of use and now demonetizes videos containing swear words.
To the chagrin of content creators who deplore the severity of these new rules.
Is the flagship platform of the 2000s becoming more and more consensual? Rudeness banned, censored themes... Is YouTube becoming too smooth?
"P*****", "M****"... These sweet words are no longer audible on YouTube.
The online video platform has strengthened its voice recognition tool by sanctioning all creators who utter insults and profanity.
This case does not help Youtubers.
Some of them, like Djilsi, Linca or Squeezie, had to add censorship beeps or animal noises on videos already published in order to hide all the bad words.
This regulation directly impacts the portfolio of Youtubers.
Videos that do not respect the rule are demonetized, content creators could no longer derive remuneration from these videos.
The rule did not fail to trigger the wrath of youtubers: "Be aware that unless you are the most polite creator in the world, YouTube is really breaking our ass with its new rule of demonetizing swear words "explains the Youtuber Terracid on Twitter.
Be aware that unless you're the most polite creator in the world, Youtube is kicking our ass with their new swearword demonetization rule.
It's ridiculous, censorship is screwing up video, and their rule is retroactive.
A simple "oh shit" is enough to demonetize.
— Terracid (@terracid) January 8, 2023
A polite language
The fact is not new.
In its rules, YouTube already indicated before that content could be subject to an age limit, be removed or have a warning if it used excessive use of vulgar language.
However, it seems that tougher language policies on YouTube aren't just about slurs.
On Twitter, streamer Aypierre even claims that certain words would also be banned even if they are not swear words.
Aypierre evokes the terms "Ricans" (to designate an American) or "bled" (to speak of a country) which would have caused demonetizations.
it goes even further, "Rican" or "du bled" for example are considered extreme profanity (real)
— Aypierre (@AypierreMc) January 8, 2023
Another example: that of Jean-Baptiste Toussaint, founder of the "Tales From The Click" channel.
The creator explains that one of his videos was deleted from the platform because he mentioned the suicide of Kurt Cobain, the singer of the group Nirvana.
"My video on Kurt Cobain has been deleted because in it I say that he… committed suicide," the YouTuber explains in the tweet.
"That raises a real question. Is it no longer possible to tell history? Should we change it by inventing another death?" he continues.
With Jean-Baptiste Toussaint, YouTube justifies itself by explaining that the video of the creator would not have respected the rules of the platform relating to self-harm.
My video on Kurt Cobain has been deleted because in it I say that he…committed suicide.
That raises a real question.
Is it no longer possible to tell the story?
Should we modify it by inventing another death?
Hello @YTCreateurs, possible to recover the video?
pic.twitter.com/FmFQvpw4qP
— Tales From The Click (@TalesFromClick) January 17, 2023
A new marketing strategy
marketing specialist and doctoral student in sociology respectively.
They run the "Internet Product" channel on YouTube, which deciphers the mainsprings of the world of content creation.
"YouTube's recent announcements go in this direction: announcing the sharing of advertising revenue from shorts from February 2023, and strengthening the rules of use on the use of insults. These rules have a very revealing name: 'advertiser -friendly content guidelines." YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki publishes a letter every year outlining the company's priorities for the year. In her 2022 letter, she made it very clear that YouTube is working to reduce maximum content that approaches the limits of use without violating them completely”, they continue.
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In appearance, the platform is therefore betting on virtue to attract advertisers.
Yet two reports plague YouTube regarding the presence of hateful and misogynistic videos on its platform.
Despite measures taken in recent years, this content is still circulating en masse.
Thus, the report by the analysis firm Center for Countering Digital Hate, published in September 2002, affirms that "misogyny is very present on YouTube", and that "videos pushing misinformation, hatred and outright conspiracies targeting women are often monetized".
To reach this conclusion, the report is based on specific keywords and analyzed their trends on the web.
The second study, published by analyst firm Bot Sentinel, relates YouTube's refusal to demonetize videos disseminating hateful content.
The report also points to channels like that of "racist, misogynistic, transphobic" Trevor Coult MC, which has plagued the platform for 11 years, without any sanction from YouTube.