YouTube slammed by creators about pulling ads from ‘inappropriate’ content

Los Angeles (Variety.com): YouTube is facing a backlash from creators angry that the video giant is pulling advertising from content it deems “inappropriate” – while the Google-owned video giant claims it hasn’t actually changed its policy.

The furor spawned a trending hashtag on Twitter, #YouTubeisoverparty, with creators expressing displeasure over the situation.

Popular YouTuber Philip DeFranco, who has 4.5 million subscribers, is one of the leading creators expressing irritation about the service’s pulling ads for violating its terms of service. He said his videos apparently used “excessively strong language,” or covered “controversial or sensitive subjects,” thereby running afoul of YouTube’s advertiser-friendly content guidelines.

“By taking away monetisation, it’s a form of censorship,” DeFranco said in a video posted Wednesday, while he also acknowledged that YouTube is within its rights to enforce policies as it wishes.

https://twitter.com/PhillyD/status/771026030442090496

According to YouTube, it hasn’t changed its policy about what content is deemed advertiser-friendly. Rather, it recently adopted a new notification process that alerts creators when their videos have been found in violation of the policy, whereas they previously would have had to check an individual video’s analytics dashboard to see that information.