YouTube's 'Controversial' Video Creators Are Planning An Exit - Motherboard

For some independent video creators, YouTube's dependability as a primary revenue stream has abruptly come to a close thanks to its new advertising regulations, forcing people who make a living off the platform to consider a future without it.

Last month Google—YouTube's owner—announced a range of "expanded safeguards for advertisers " in the wake of mounting complaints from the likes of AT&T, Walmart and the British government , all of whom staged a boycott of advertising on the platform after their ads appeared next to offensive and in some cases extremist content (in some cases terrorist recruitment videos or KKK propaganda). In rectifying the situation, Google made it easy for brands to pull their advertising from content that was "potentially objectionable," leading to a huge drop in income for creators whose videos did not fit into the safest content bracket, a group including political talk shows and many comedians.

It's the latter who are now starting to voice their concerns over the restrictions which this places on their content, and articulating a desire to move elsewhere. In one example, hosts of the 3.8 million subscriber channel h3h3Productions explain the "crossroads" that the ad restrictions have brought them to, and run through the range of their videos that have been demonetized following the change:

While YouTubers are still reeling from the swiftness of the change, other digital media creators had seen the problem coming and moved to find alternatives.

Ralph Sutton and Luis J. Gomez are the founders of GaS Digital Network, a podcasting network that is currently home to ten shows that they describe as "slightly off-center" and "adult-driven lifestyle entertainment." In a phone call from their East Village recording studio, Sutton and Gomez explained that the decision to start their own distribution network, which is supported mainly by paid subscriptions, came from a sense that independent income was important for taking creative risks.

"We felt a long time ago that we didn't want to be beholden to advertising dollars, because we saw the writing on the wall," said Sutton. "So many times things got pulled or people lost sponsors because of what they said, and we never wanted to be in that position again."

Supporter funding has allowed GaS Digital the freedom to launch shows with names like "Legion Of Skanks"—currently the network's most popular—and promote a podcast hosted by UFC motormouth Michael Bisping . And though the YouTube restrictions have no bearing on their network, the founders are still sharply critical of the effect it will have on others in the same field.

"In my opinion it's anti-art, it's anti-comedy and it's anti-creation," Gomez said. "People are obviously going to look for a new platform because they want to have the freedom to find great content... and in order to do that they need to explore, take chances and fail a bunch."

For most of its existence, the content on professional YouTubers' channels has been far more varied than on broadcast television: unpolished, anarchic and characteristic of the free-for-all nature of the Web. Some fear that with this move YouTube takes a step closer to the ranks of the safe, bland programming that millennials have largely rejected —and it remains to be seen how many younger viewers will desert it to follow "controversial" creatives elsewhere.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/youtubes-controversial-video-creators-are-planning-an-exit