Entertainment and pop culture analyst WDW Pro has been demonetized on YouTube. Purveyor of the pop culture news website, That Park Place, WDW Pro has been integral in his work on the culture war against the evils of megacorporations in entertainment. It appeared as if YouTube had gotten better about its censorship policies over the last year, but content creators are worried once again that the video platform will take away a person’s business without any warning and under dubious circumstances.
YouTube has had a history of causing trouble for pop culture entertainment channels in the past, with YouTubers like The Quartering getting strikes several times and urging his supporters to follow him on Rumble in case the channel eventually was deleted. On the left side of the aisle, Nerdette’s Newsstand has faced demonetization several times because of several shorts videos she posted. While both of those channels court controversy to some degree, WDW Pro mostly features a clean reading of the news, which has never garnered a strike on his channel.
WDW Pro posted to X, tagging YouTube about the situation, saying, “@TeamYouTube has demonetized the WDW Pro Channel. We have never had a strike, never had any issue. We never curse, we never show any objectionable content. We only cover family-friendly entertainment news. Can we restore the channel, YouTube?”
He further said, “Also, no reason has been given for demonetization other than not being in line with YouTube Partner Policies. We have never done ANYTHING that even approaches poor behavior.”
TeamYouTube replied to his comments with a standard corporate response, saying, “have you checked the Earn section in Studio? you might be able to submit a more detailed video appeal directly to the review team here: https://goo.gle/4bHDmWb”
Clearly frustrated, WDW Pro replied cordially, “Thank you for the response. It says that we have been demonetized for reusing others’ content. However, we don’t do that… at all. The channel literally reads articles and reports the news daily with editorialized opinions. We’ve never had a copyright strike, ever.”
TeamYouTube answered once again with, “we totally hear you. if you think it’s a mistake, it’s best to submit a video appeal, so the team can take another look. more deets here: https://goo.gle/49GX171”
WDW Pro answered with, “We don’t even know how to appeal it. The claim that we reuse others’ content is bizarre with no copyright strikes, flags, claims, etc, in the history of the channel. We literally read entertainment news and opine together in an intellectual manner. Surely you can fix this.”
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With nothing flagged for content to remove or fix, YouTube’s algorithm has created a no-win situation where WDW Pro has no choice but to try to message to get the platform to do something. There is no possible way to appeal when no particular content is flagged, which is an unfair part of YouTube’s system if there is an honest mistake.
Situations like this make it look like YouTube is acting unilaterally to censor content they don’t like without having to justify itself. Corporations in the content creation economy have been notorious for doing this based on their political agendas.
While we don’t know what’s happening here of whether WDW Pro was targeted or it was an honest mistake, having little recourse makes it difficult for content creators to have faith in platforms like YouTube not to target their businesses.
Geeks + Gamers’ Jeremy Griggs and Drunk3PO chimed in with their solidarity for WDW Pro, among others. Fans can only hope the platform will listen.
What do you think of YouTube demonetizing WDW Pro? Leave a comment and let us know.
Susan Wojcicki is the worst thing to have happened to YouTube.
Susan Wojcicki is not the CEO of YouTube anymore.
Sounds like a mistake that will likely be fixed.
Sadly this is YouTube and I’m not that surprised. They fired over 1,000 employees that help creators to get twitch streamers and this is the result. I hope and pray for a good out come for WDW Pro.
When corporations look at China and think “What a good idea!”, this the result.