YouTube has turned into a veritable hub of content, and there is no end to the variety of subject matters that the various content creators operating on the platform would be willing to tackle. However, the fact that YouTube is such an open platform means that sooner or later some creators would start to step out of line and try to publish video content that would violate the company’s policies, and YouTube usually responds to this by demonetizing their videos.
Many creators that publish divisive rhetoric or anything else that skirts the boundaries of the rules that YouTube has put in place have found their accounts demonetized and have their content removed from the recommendation algorithm. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that many of these creators are still active on the platform despite not being able to earn a share of the adsense revenue that their videos generate, so this clearly indicates that the demonetization policy is not that effective.
Researchers at Cornell University in collaboration with Swiss researchers in Lausanne have discovered that many content creators use alternative monetization platforms to make up for the loss of ad revenue. About 18% of all content creating channels on YouTube tend to use platforms like Patreon to receive financial support from their followers, but the proportion of so called fringe accounts that have been demonetized is as high as 61% according to the findings that these researchers have published.
What’s more is that these content creators often become more extreme with the videos they create because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up allowing them to cater to the now dedicated audience that would have. Not being recommended results in only their core audience viewing their content, and this can create an echo chamber that said content creators can easily finance by leveraging platforms like Patreon, which just goes to show that even the best platforms in the world can be seen as double edged swords.
Read next: YouTube continues to broaden its horizons by testing new engaging live tools
Many creators that publish divisive rhetoric or anything else that skirts the boundaries of the rules that YouTube has put in place have found their accounts demonetized and have their content removed from the recommendation algorithm. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that many of these creators are still active on the platform despite not being able to earn a share of the adsense revenue that their videos generate, so this clearly indicates that the demonetization policy is not that effective.
Researchers at Cornell University in collaboration with Swiss researchers in Lausanne have discovered that many content creators use alternative monetization platforms to make up for the loss of ad revenue. About 18% of all content creating channels on YouTube tend to use platforms like Patreon to receive financial support from their followers, but the proportion of so called fringe accounts that have been demonetized is as high as 61% according to the findings that these researchers have published.
What’s more is that these content creators often become more extreme with the videos they create because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up allowing them to cater to the now dedicated audience that would have. Not being recommended results in only their core audience viewing their content, and this can create an echo chamber that said content creators can easily finance by leveraging platforms like Patreon, which just goes to show that even the best platforms in the world can be seen as double edged swords.
Read next: YouTube continues to broaden its horizons by testing new engaging live tools