Hey guys
So, with YouTube stripping specifically animation and art channels down to their bare bones by false flagging them for demonetization and changing their monetization program to be more strict to mitigate the amount of AI slop on YouTube, creators are being left behind, and AI slop is still at an all-time high because they already have the subscribers and the numbers. I recently watched a short talking about this, and a lot of the young creators and teenagers who want to be YouTubers in Chat were talking about going on strike.
And I think that's great energy to have! But a strike isn't going to help this specific situation.
See, strikes are something you do when you're legally employed by a company either through contracted freelance work or as a proper employee. You strike and withhold labor because in doing so, you prevent that company from being able to profit until they're ready to come to the negotiation table with you- that type of negotiation only has power when your labor IS the thing that makes them money. Creators aren't employees of YouTube, and smaller creators choosing not to upload anything won't change YouTube's tune because it's a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of content already hosted on the platform, and they already have several established avenues for how to watch, listen and consume through them. Big YouTubers going on strike might bring attention to the issue but ultimately will affect their bottom line and financial earnings, so they more than likely won't stop.
The only method of actionable rebellion that gets the attention of mega corporations and entertainment companies isn't going on strike, especially when it actually benefits them because then they don't have to worry about paying you. YouTube's real money has always been in Premium and Advertising. The few times policy has changed has been to accommodate the advertisers and shareholders, not the creators or consumers directly- unless what the advertisers and shareholder wanted lined up with audience and creator desires. The only way to get YouTube to fall back into line and actually do something that works for everyone, is to boycott YouTube, stop paying for premium, and use ad blockers until they start prioritizing what's right and bring back human integration with moderation. And most people aren't going to do this because, since YouTube has such strict regulations and repression strategies, someone telling you about this like me will be shadow banned, and any videos or content talking about it on their own platform will be repressed. Word of mouth by foot and by action is the only way to get people to care.
And the reality is that most people will not care. The big YouTubers they're subscribed to aren't talking about it, and this feels like it only effects the little guy, so why should you care? And if you have less than 100,000 subscribers and at least 20k views per video, you're basically a hobbyist, so why should they care? And YouTubers are a bunch of lazy kids anyways, they should get real jobs like the rest of us. Do you see where I'm going with this?
I'm not saying all is lost or that you can't do anything to change this. Change is created when people work together. What I'm saying is the only people who have power to go on strike don't have a reason to, because less competition means more money for them. And people more than likely aren't going to boycott YouTube for only effecting two groups of people- artists and starters. But if you want YouTube to understand, and people actually care enough to get them to move in ways that benefit everyone, a boycott is where it would need to start.
In this way, a boycott would look like canceling premium, using an adblocker, organizing a time and day across social media and on the ground floor months in advance to give people heads up, making a ton of noise about it, and yeah, choosing not to upload any videos that day (if from larger creators) would also be a huge thing and create wider impact. But that's assuming you can get enough people on board enough to care, and most general consumers don't care. In truth, I'd recommend setting up either a Patreon or a Kofi if you're trying to make money off of this and just starting out, commissions are difficult and it's easy to burn out doing them so I'd recommend providing designs through POD sites (make sure you aren't violating copyright because your cheeks WILL be clapped) and taking it in stride while you work things out. If you get demonetized and you know it was a false flag, talk about it publicly and ask other community members for help or a boost, as that seems to be the fastest way to get it fixed internally.
It may not seem like it, but I have a theory that this might be YouTube's way to also try and internally negotiate, because if they had as many regulations as cable television or film, they'd have to manually approve creators for the creator platform and they'd probably limit the number of personalities by a considerable degree (this is a nightmarish end game possibility and I'm hoping that's just a paranoia, please don't hit me with your dodgeball Apollo, I stunk at gym class).
And, if you're an artist, a friendly reminder that NewGrounds may be old school and sometimes annoying, but mostly it's going to be your best secondary platform if you're an artist or an animator. Your audiences are smaller. But they're more genuine. And their internal user moderation is better too- it's not just, For Babies, For Teens, For Adults. It's got sub classifications and specific content warnings, so everyone has full control over what their user experience is like. It's worth looking into. There's also SketchTube, which is a social media startup for animators. I don't know as much about that one, but you have options if push comes to shove is what I'm saying.
