I think Youtube creators aren't drawing the connection between media criticism of YT and the collateral damage to their earnings. It's easy to get mad at Youtube execs making policies, but Youtube is just reacting to bad PR.<p>Youtube has faced a series of controversies that led to the 'AdPocalypse', and now the demonetization of people with not enough active subscribers. The media has gleefully gone after Youtube in these stories (the latest being inappropriate videos from Logan Paul and the proliferation of algorithmically-generated videos that show disturbing cartoon content to children.)<p>YT creators should start pushing back---by saying wait, the algorithms and ads help small creators putting out good content as well, not just nefarious actors---if they don't want the scope of monetized content to get narrower and narrower.<p>Otherwise it's easy for the public to align behind criticism of 'big tech' while overlooking that these are platforms which people depend on to express themselves and even to earn income.
Of all the possible complaints about YouTube demonetization, complaining that you don't meet the objective criteria for how popular your channel must be is surely the least important.
I can't help wonder if Google discovered that the banking and legal fees involved with paying channels that are below said threshold were eating their profits.
why isn't the US breaking Youtube from Google already? Not only is it dangerous concentration of mass media power, but youtube is wasting away its potential while also wasting the creator's time and energy