penguinz0 (top) with over 10 million followers and Jacksepticeye (bottom) with 28 million followers
Also inspired by Markiplier are countless ordinary bloggers who have heard the news. They used the same title, filled with content that challenged the “bottom line” of YouTube, and tried to support the actions of big bloggers.
Under these “challenge videos”, there are countless viewers expressing support and indignation. Everyone worked together to open the curtain of this stage play against the official YouTuber.
What was the incident that angered these big bloggers who can be called “the pillars of the tubing”? What made everyone feel the same hatred and mobilize such a large-scale “riot”?
It all started from the video of Coryx Kenshin (hereafter referred to as Cory), a YouTuber with millions of fans, on August 25.
Video title to the effect – YouTube: Racism and Favoritism
Cory is a long-established black YouTube blogger.
He has provided a lot of high-quality video content for the audience on the YouTube channel. Including various game flows, funny videos, and various Cosplay role-playing theaters.
Cory’s work served a feast for his audience.
Cory’s reputation in the YouTube community is also quite good. He speaks decently and humorously, never uses swear words in the video, and even some “indecent words” that are unavoidable in the game, Cory will personally edit in the later editing. Find out and eliminate.
It can be argued without controversy that Cory is the “model blogger” of the YouTube platform. Such a video producer who is strictly self-disciplined, maintains a good communication culture, and does not play the “political correctness card” such as “black” at all, finally, on August 25, 2022, he spoke out angrily.
The situation facing Cory is actually quite simple – his game videos have been labeled as “age restricted”, and the video traffic and push have been greatly affected. However, the situation is also incredibly complicated – only his gameplay videos are tagged.
The game Cory is playing is called Mortuary Assistant, an independent horror game that was launched on the Steam platform on August 2.
Although this horror game does not focus on “scaring” and places too much on “plasma” and “visual impact”, it still involves some irritating pictures of “self-mutilation” and “bloody”.
In theory, YouTube’s video surveillance team would review such videos and decide whether to label them “age-restricted.”
Cory faced this problem.
The play video of “The Morgue Assistant” released by him on August 18 was put on a shackle called “age limit” by YouTube on the grounds that it contained “shock images”.
This label is a heavy blow to YouTube bloggers who rely on video views for a living.
Videos tagged with “age restriction labels”, especially those of big bloggers, will not be able to enjoy YouTube’s cover recommendation, app recommendation and other streaming measures. At the same time, for some viewers with families, the warning at the beginning of the “age-restricted” video often discourages them from browsing the video.
Videos tagged with “age restricted”
Overall, this type of video will have a huge impact on the number of views. The shrinking of the playback volume means that the video revenue has shrunk.
For such allegations, Cory was not too alarmed at first. If there is a “bad” picture in his video, it would be understandable to be “age restricted” by the YouTube law enforcement team. He can take down the video, crop the problematic part, and reupload it.
However, when he flipped through the gameplay videos of “The Morgue Assistant” uploaded by other YouTube bloggers, doubts filled his brain – his gameplay videos were the only “age-restricted” works.
“Maybe it was a malfunction of the detection algorithm, or something went wrong.” Cory still had a bit of luck about the direction of time in his post-mortem description. He quickly appealed the verdict of the pipeline enforcement team. And he also got feedback on the same day-the appeal was rejected.
YouTube Reply: We’ll Continue to “Age Restrict” Your Videos
Even so, Cory won’t sit still. As the “pillar” of YouTube – a member of tens of millions of bloggers, he enjoys certain “privileges”, for example, a special handover officer on call at any time.
The young “envoy” told Cory after he had finished communicating with the YouTube law enforcement team that his video showed “a woman trapped in a coffin and wailing.” This video violates the restrictions on “self-harm” elements in the YouTube community regulations, and may be the culprit behind the restriction of the video.
But Cory was quick to dispute: Similar scenes had appeared countless times in other bloggers’ videos as he browsed their videos. Among them, the biggest “coffee” is the well-known white YouTube blogger-Markiplier (hereinafter referred to as Mark).
Mark’s video also contains game clips of “suspected self-harm pictures”, which are even more outrageous than those in Cory’s video. But his video didn’t get the same “age-restricted” collar as Cory’s work.
Cory again asked his docking officer to deal with pipeline law enforcement with his new evidence. Something unexpected happened: After viewing Mark’s video, the YouTube enforcement team removed the “age restriction” on Cory’s video.
Having rejected Cory’s appeal, the pipeline enforcement team opted to overturn its earlier decision.
Cory questioning: WHY?
This series of operations exposed a very serious problem – the YouTube platform actually did not strictly enforce its own community regulations and related punishment regulations.
Mark’s videos that also involve “self-mutilation” and “suicide” picture elements can be the key “evidence” to prove Cory’s “innocence”. The behavior of the YouTube law enforcement team can be fully understood as “because another big blogger with 40 million subscriptions is not restricted, so Cory should also be exempted, so the ‘age restriction’ is revoked.”
In fact, Cory also holds the same view-he originally thought that the YouTube law enforcement team would strictly enforce the regulations and label all blogger videos involving relevant “shock” elements as “age-restricted”, but this backfired.
Although the trend of the incident is biased towards Cory’s “favorable area”, the revoked “age limit” still cannot comfort the angry Cory. This has nothing to do with video revenue, this matter involves the word “fairness”.
However, the renewed negotiation pushed the matter to a point that no one expected.
In the third negotiation, Cory only mentioned one key point – the basis for the enforcement of the oil pipeline. He just wants to know all the “blocking” and “unblocking” behaviors, what are the “community guidelines” behind them, and what is the execution logic of the YouTube law enforcement team.
However, youtube not only did not respond to Cory’s questioning, on the contrary, they directly and rudely “turned the table”-labeled all Mark and Cory’s videos as “age-restricted”.
Such behavior shocked everyone, and it is hard to imagine that YouTube, the world’s number one video platform, would evade questioning in such a “hooligan” style.
And after the surprise dissipated, what remained in Cory’s heart was only endless anger.
In this incident, the YouTube law enforcement team who “jumped repeatedly” completely trampled on the “fairness” stipulated by the YouTube community. Whether it is for YouTube bloggers or viewers, their law enforcement behavior is chaotic and disorderly, and there is absolutely no stable basis and reason for judgment.
I am afraid that no one can accept such platform law enforcement behavior.
And the biggest victim of the whole process, there is no suspense, suspects the “racial orientation” of the law enforcement team. In a video on August 25, Cory disclosed the full process of the incident and played the first “politically correct” attack in his YouTube career.
Youtube, you’re either playing favoritism, or a bunch of racists, or both
Faced with such a question, the tubing chose cold treatment. Even if the entire video involves foreign communities, the most taboo topic – racism.
On August 25, unresponsive YouTube officials (top) and angry users (bottom)
However, the “disorderly law enforcement” of the oil pipeline is obviously not the first time. Countless bloggers cheered Cory’s video after it was released, including another whirlwind of events, Markiplier.
Mark’s statement was exceptionally firm, and he directly responded with the undisputed butter – “Orcs”massageAs a video content, it blatantly violates the relevant community’s control over “adult content”, and is titled “Don’t be challenged by age restrictions”, which is full of Mark’s personal style.
In a humorous way, Mark handed over the “winner” to the YouTube official.
However, the official public relations handling of YouTube completely detonated public opinion.
Not only did they not label MarkiPlier’s “pornography video” as “age-restricted,” they instead removed Mark from the YouTube event, Game On.
The Game On event is extremely important for any YouTube blogger whose main output is game videos. YouTube officials will increase the exposure of video bloggers and selected games participating in the event through live broadcasts, advertisements and various push notifications during the event period.
Participating in a Game On event, the actual fans and popularity of bloggers have surpassed many major promotion activities of another large publicity platform, the live broadcast platform Twitch.
Mark has been preparing for the Game On event in 2022 for at least half a year. However, without any notice, his seat was officially removed from YouTube.
Even for a YouTuber like Mark, who already has 33 million followers, this is a pretty painful loss of revenue, though not fatal.
The YouTube platform’s response to Mark’s “resistance” was like a parent who was irritated by a naughty child and chose to use “deduction of pocket money” as a punishment.
This time, YouTube played the “clear card” without any scruples – yes, we are doing something special, so what can you do?
that’s the truth.
Whether it was an angry imitation or Cory’s original questioning video, they quickly disappeared from the hot list under the official PR treatment of YouTube. Instead, there are all kinds of complicated entertainment news.
The YouTube hot list on August 31 has been filled with music and entertainment news again
The anger of the audience and fans did not make any waves under the cold treatment of the YouTube official.
And over time, all the “protest videos” with the same title on the YouTube also silently disappeared from the search interface. Even the initiator of the event, Mark’s challenge video, has been deliberately hidden, and only by subscribing to the channel can we find the “one star”.
Only three or two “kittens” escaped the ban.
In the face of the ruthless and resolute suppression of YouTube, even big bloggers with tens of millions of fans still cannot control their own destiny.
Such suppression may have occurred countless times in the life cycle of the tubing platform for more than ten years. For the world’s No. 1 video platform, which is still in full swing, the unfair protests of its bloggers and the “unfavorable” information management and control of the company’s appearance can still calm the whole situation.
However, with the rise of short video platforms such as Tik tok and Instagram, the dominance of YouTube will gradually loosen over time. For a video platform with video content as its main production target, the virtuous production cycle within the platform and stable community output are tantamount to good medicine for “strengthening the body”.
Cory and Mark can rest easy with the current state of affairs and the official power of YouTube. However, cracks already exist. The unfairness of the law enforcement on the platform and the poor operation of the oil pipeline will become the catalyst for the collapse of its dominance.
These “subdued” “cracks” are hidden under the illusion of “singing and dancing”. Once the oil pipeline platform loses its current status, the dissatisfaction of the past will be concentrated. Forbearance at this time will become the most deadly “artillery” in the future.
If YouTube officials cannot stabilize their “fair and impartial” law enforcement image and lose the most important “creator base” for video platforms, I am afraid that the world’s No. 1 position will collapse, and it is just around the corner.
After all, the Internet can “have no memory” or “have a memory.”
Title to the effect: The problem of the oil pipe is getting more and more serious