Text by Tony Ward, Copyright 2024
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Only Butts Allowed: YouTube and Censorship
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For the past couple of months I’ve been experimenting with YouTube and the platforms censorship rules. As of this writing I have 47 videos posted on my channel that range from behind the scenes clips of recent shoots, as well as vintage television footage of me working on erotic still and video productions from LA to Paris.
About one week into the experiment, I received a notice that one of my videos was marked as only available for viewers 18 years of age and older. I said to myself ok fair enough, but why that one considering the clip was not that much different than other videos I already posted with no limitation on viewership. Despite the age limitation, the view rate started to go up and so did the number of my subscribers. At the time of this writing around 9000 viewers have subscribed to date. Not bad for an upstart.
So I continued drilling down on my hard drives and the process of uploading videos continued until I received my first STRIKE. A strike is a warning that content has been removed from my site. So I looked to see what video was taken down and low and behold it was the very same video YouTube had already approved of – for at least a week running – until the algorithm thought otherwise, thus a strike out of know where it seemed. How unfair I thought. Why would they allow the video to be up in the first place if there was risk to breaking the rules? Just goes to show you these platforms are not perfect, so it’s best to be on the safe side if your plan is to game the system. Gaming the system means to monetize it.
Here is the video that was taken down:
A second 18 years of age limitation was placed on the channel on April29, 2024 but this time it was immediate. A message landed in my email inbox within a minute of the clip being posted. So again I was amused by how random these YouTube warnings can be if you operate close, near, or up to the line, when it comes to their censorship rules. Here is the clip that this time I took down without risk of getting another STRIKE. I will keep readers informed as this experiment evolves.
To access YouTube channel, click here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa4p0XmpUj2OSYDAjDcHXqw