What is Video ‘Demonetization’ and Why Was the YouTube Shooting Suspect Angered by It?
The suspect in the YouTube headquarters shooting in San Bruno, California yesterday appears to have had a serious problem with the platform’s recently ramped up video demonetization policies.
YouTube demonetization, which is a term used to describe when videos on the website no longer generate ad revenue for the platform or for the creator, has been a policy since 2012. The site uses the process to protect advertisers from being associated with objectionable content.
In 2016, YouTube changed their content standards, which dramatically increased the number of videos they deemed worthy of demonetization, which was met with widespread outrage from creators. Much to the chagrin and protest of many of the platform’s users, YouTube has continued its demonetization push in 2017 and 2018.
Alleged YouTube gunman Nasim Aghdam, the now-deceased 39-year-old from San Diego suspected of shooting three of the company’s employees before turning a handgun on herself, claimed to be one of the content creators whose videos were flagged and demonetized.
Her posts on the platform were allegedly flagged by the Google-owned company, which led Aghdam to complain that she was unfairly targeted.
“BE AWARE! Dictatorship exists in all countries but with different tactics!” Aghdam wrote on her personal website nasimesabz.com.
She continued:
“They only care forpersonal short term profits & do anything to reach their goals even by fooling simple-minded people,hiding the truth, manipulating science & everything, putting public mental & physical health at risk,abusing non-human animals, polluting environment, destroying family values, promoting materialism &sexual degeneration in the name of freedom,….. & turning people into programmed robots! There is no equal growth opportunity on YOUTUBE or any other video sharing site, your channel will grow if they want to!!!!!”
Aghdam went on to compare YouTube to Hitler and claimed “there is no free speech in real world & you will be suppressed for telling the truth.”
“There is no equal growth opportunity on YOUTUBE or any other video sharing site,your channel will grow if they want to!!!!!” she concluded.
Aghdam also complained about her revenue stream from YouTube, since a video with over 366,000 views only netted her $0.10 in actual money.
“My revenue for 300,000 is $0.10?????” Aghdam questioned.
While her social media profiles have now been wiped, the shooting suspect created multiple YouTube accounts on which she spoke in Turkish, Persian, and English and frequently posted about her passion for vegan athletics and animal rights.
Aside from their policy on demonetizing controversial material — which can range from political topics like guns and abortion to simply swear words — Aghdam was particularly upset about a new rule YouTube put in place at the beginning of this year which requires creators to have a minimum number of viewers to be eligible for ads.
While creators just needed 10,000 total video views under the past standards, the “brand safety” policy requires accounts to have viewers watch 4,000 hours of their content and 1,000 subscribers before their clips are monetized.
One reason for this change was YouTube’s concern with “bad actors,” i.e. offensive personalities or spam accounts.
These new rules led Aghdam to post videos slamming the website — which, coupled with her website’s manifesto, indicate a clear motive for the attack:
Suspected YouTube shooter Nasim Aghdam posted videos on the platform complaining about the company. #NBCBayArea pic.twitter.com/SxhyKgvrz4
— Michael Bott (@TweetBottNBC) April 4, 2018
Additionally, her family members noticed the negative impact YouTube had on Aghdam’s life and even notified the police of her mental instability. The suspect’s brother Shahran Aghdam said she was “always complaining that YouTube ruined her life,” while her father Ismail Aghdam said she was “angry” at the website for supposedly censoring her videos.
When her father contacted the police to report his daughter missing on Monday, he said he told them Nasim “hated” YouTube.
[image via screengrab]
