HealMyTech is a YouTube channel that does helpful videos on diagnosing and fixing problems with P.C.s and other tech. Pretty innocuous, right?
Still, YouTube found some arbitrary and completely opaque reason to demonetize one of his videos.
This isn't anything new and complaints are rampant of this happening. Clearly this video, like so many others, didn't deserve to be demonetized but that's what happens when bots are allowed to police content. They take it out of context or interpret keywords or keyword combinations in the worse possible way.
I don't know for sure but the content bots might have thought (stupidly) that HealMyTech's video was aggressively political because it used the keywords "give you authority" and "rule them all" along with many uses of "pc" that could be (again stupidly) confused with "politically correct" (often used by Alt Right channels as an insult.) So, as dumb as it sounds HealMyTech may need to avoid keywords and phrases that sound even vaguely political and maybe use "desktop", "laptop", "workstation" or just "computer" more often instead of "pc."
Collectively, though, we need to fight this nonsense. Even if bots get smarter, I strongly believe viewers and creators need to lobby YouTube (and Twitter, Facebook, etc.) to create the equivalent of "Content Courts" on each platform with clear rules and appeal processes with the following features: 1) No channel should be deplatformed and no video demonetized without "due process" i.e. specific charges are sent that explain a violation. 2) There should be a probation period and chance to correct the offending content, and 3) Creators should be able to argue their case and viewers should be able to petition YouTube to appeal a ruling.
Anyway, keep on creating your great content and keep advocating for fair platforms. They'll come eventually.
Can corporations justly govern content communities? No
Current examples: OnlyFans banning porn. Tumblr, Flickr, Del.icio.us, YouTube, Twitter.
Yahoo bought Tumblr after it had already established itself as a massive haven for sex-positive content and a thriving community of support. It's valuation (like all Web properties) was utterly contingent on Tumblr's immense daily traffic and engagement. Inevitably after the sale, the Yahoo "suits" got involved (lawyers worried about copyright infringement and liabilities based on capricious "community standards") and summarily committed community genocide. They didn't just kill the Golden Goose but ground its eggs and bones into dust. (FYI: Yahoo's track record on nuking communities it bought into is consistently bad, having previously alienated similar thriving sites like Flickr, a photo sharing site, and del.icio.us, a social bookmarking site.)
Of course, YouTube, Twitter, etc. are also guilty of some of the same corporate cowardice, cancelling and demonetizing legitimate content for spurious reasons or on behalf of corporate interests.
Bottom-line: Private enterprise can never be the safe cradle of community because it ultimately is not beholden to the community only to its shareholders and accountants. Instead, we need to develop "Content Co-ops" run by and for content creators themselves. It's the only model that avoids unaccountable censorship by 'bots and content dictated by corporate fear.
