Aug. 10, 2017 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
08:12
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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| This is a video that has been requested by many people and I've always put off making because of the potential implications of it. | |
| I'm preparing a video on the Google Manifesto and I've encountered a few things that have prompted me to finally make this video. | |
| I'm sure nobody is surprised to hear that every content creator I know has had reports from their subscribers to let them know that they have been unsubscribed from their channel. | |
| In addition to this, people's subscriptions feeds have been failing to give notifications for videos that have been uploaded. | |
| Many people have had suspicions that certain types of content have been targeted by Google for censorship, and the recent deactivation and then reactivation of Jordan Peterson's Google accounts, not just his YouTube channel, looked like a shot across the bowel. | |
| In the past day, YouTube has rolled out a new demonetization program which Mr. Repsion showcased in a recent video, in which hundreds of his videos have been demonetised, and he must now appeal. | |
| Until now, I've had relatively little to say because until recently, most of this was just speculation. | |
| But all of this is topped by a Breitbart interview with an anonymous ex-employee of Google, a former engineer speaking under the alias of Emmett. | |
| He says, A number of friends have privately confirmed this to me. | |
| I know there are efforts to demote anything non-PC, anti-communist, and anti-Islamic terror from search results. | |
| To what extent that's been successful, I don't know. | |
| I have read an internal mailing list email from SJWs, absolutely incensed that there'd be, say, a sagon of a CAD video appearing as a video related to one of their favourite SJW vloggers. | |
| This is what happens when you have unbiased algorithms, which at the time was true. | |
| I don't have to tell you that, in the email, the SJW was quite literally asking that the related videos function be perverted so such a thing would stop happening. | |
| I spoke to Alan Bakari, the author of the piece, and he noted that since Emmett mentioned my channel by name, he believes that there is a definitive push towards soft censorship of anti-political correctness channels. | |
| And with the advent of YouTube announcing their plan to put controversial videos in a limited state where they can't be recommended, monetized, shared, or interacted with by the audience, it is surely only a matter of time before certain genres of content disappear altogether. | |
| We are at the bottom of the pile, ladies and gentlemen. | |
| Not only do we have zero institutional power, but the people who do hold power directly over our content, our livelihoods, and by extension, your enjoyment of said content, are directly opposed to what we do, and they want to stop you from accessing it. | |
| Why is this happening? | |
| Because they consider us a threat to their ideology. | |
| As Hank Green demonstrated over the debacle at VidCon, the sort of people we are dealing with are prepared to outright lie and deny evidence and deliberately obfuscate in order to maintain their narratives. | |
| We are also all in the same boat when it comes to our reliance on YouTube, as YouTube's colossal audience share when it comes to online video content makes it indispensable for the meantime. | |
| Professional or semi-professional content creators are reliant on the money they earn through YouTube ad revenue, in addition to the other revenue streams. | |
| After the apocalypse, ad revenue had become a far smaller percentage of any creator's income, making Patreon and other crowdfunding alternatives more important. | |
| Recent events regarding Patreon's treatment of Lauren Southern have put people on notice, but Jack Conte has been clear that he has penalised her for her actions and not her ideology. | |
| How long this remains the case is of course in question, but until further developments I believe it is a stable source of funding for most people, although there are other alternatives. | |
| The following are suggestions that I am not making for myself, although I am doubtless going to be accused of such because I am a content creator. | |
| I never shill my Patreon, and I don't have any plans to do so now as I prefer to focus on my work. | |
| And people are wondering when I'll do the next batch of t-shirts, and that will be soon, I promise. | |
| These suggestions are not aimed at you for my particular benefit. | |
| These suggestions are universal, and they will aid any content creator should you wish to show them your support. | |
| They are not demands, and there is no expectation on my part, or doubtless the part of any other content creator, from you, the audience. | |
| But I have been asked many times by viewers what they can do to help us stay afloat and fight back. | |
| So these are my suggestions. | |
| Make sure you are following your favourite content creators on alternative platforms. | |
| Preferably platforms that have made a public commitment to free speech, such as Minds.com or other platforms like Vidme, Gab, Twitter and Facebook, which are also important. | |
| Choosing platforms that are owned by competing companies is preferable. | |
| Help your favourite content creators by sending them any information you think is pertinent to their work. | |
| My own experience as a political content creator has been made infinitely easier because of the contributions from people emailing and tweeting interesting articles at me, and I'll take the time now to thank everyone for their help. | |
| If you notice something odd regarding the distribution of content or lack thereof from your favourite content creators, let them know. | |
| Don't rely entirely on your subscription feed because that is something that YouTube can and probably do moderate. | |
| If there are other aggregators that are not owned by Google that you can use to substitute for your YouTube feed, I would recommend it. | |
| Otherwise, it might be worth manually checking those channels that you are most interested in watching, because the chances are they have videos that you haven't seen because YouTube has decided you don't need to see them. | |
| Interact with your favourite content creators' videos. | |
| Although it's likely that this doesn't matter to YouTube's algorithms, it goes a long way to help the community that has formed around that creator's channel. | |
| Likes, dislikes, and leaving interesting, funny and informative comments encourages interactions with other audience members, and this can help build up the atmosphere of the channel and make it somewhere that people want to spend their time. | |
| If you can afford it, financially support your favourite content creators. | |
| The best methods for this are small monthly donations via Patreon or similar, or donations via PayPal or Super Chat. | |
| Another alternative is to purchase merchandise. | |
| This has two effects. | |
| The first being that you help fund your favourite content creator, but secondly, it helps spread their name via passive promotion offline. | |
| And you always have the option of turning off that pesky ad block. | |
| If your favourite content creator makes sponsored content in an ethical manner for a product you enjoy, contacting the company that they are advertising for to let them know that you discovered their product through that content creator will help solidify that company's confidence in their advertising methods. | |
| I'm sure I don't need to say this, but if you cannot reasonably afford to support a content creator, then don't, even if you want to. | |
| There is no need to feel that you should. | |
| Sharing a content creator's work is incredibly important to help channels grow and spread the ideas contained within. | |
| The more a piece of content is shared, the more people are exposed to the ideas, and the more likely it is that a portion of these people will find the content appealing and want more, increasing your favourite content creator's audience size. | |
| The most important thing though, do not single out and harass any Google employees. | |
| I cannot stress how important this is. | |
| Again, I want to stress that these are the best ways I can suggest for a content creator's audience to perform a tangible benefit to the content creator, and these are universally good for any content creator. | |
| I realize that I'm going to be accused of this, but I am not doing this purely out of my own self-interest. | |
| There are lots of people in a worse position than me that need help more than I do. | |
| And finally, what can the content creators do for their audiences? |
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