In particular, according to Reclaim the Net, YouTube is now arbitrarily banning hunting and fishing channels or otherwise demonetizing them:
A YouTuber who has a channel dedicated to fishing and has made the money he earns from it his main source of income has been demonetized, with animal cruelty cited as the reason by Google’s video platform.
Gideon Mettam’s “Gido’s Fishing Adventures” channel with some 100K subscribers that’s been on YouTube since 2014 has now been demonetized for a month.
"The case once again highlights YouTube’s volatility in interpreting its own rules and a lack of clarity or interest in explaining decisions to ban or demonetize content," the site noted further.
Mettam, of Albany, Western Australia, has noted that in the first place, he disagrees that his videos all of a sudden now fall under the platform's definition of "animal cruelty," adding that he's not really certain either way because he can't get anyone from YouTube to get back in touch with him and tell him what he needs to do to fix the issue.
Also, he said that the demonetization notice did not cite any specific videos that actually showed 'animal cruelty,' but rather said that "a significant portion" of them were violations.
"YouTube’s lengthy violent or graphic content policy section of the Community Guidelines also deals with animal abuse, distinguishing between videos of animals suffering made maliciously for the purpose to shock and disgust, but note that the platform 'may' make exceptions when it comes to the following activities: hunting, trapping, pest abatement, food preparation, medical treatment, or animal slaughter," Reclaim the Net reported.
And as usual, the guidelines are intentionally vague so that gives the YouTube censors the ability to say, at whim, what is and is not a violation of policy.
"The rules do explicitly say that videos of dog fighting and similar are prohibited, while showing animals fighting in the wild are not, etc; when it comes to hunting, illegal practices like bombing and poison in order to catch prey are mentioned," says Reclaim The Net.
Mettam, who often is shown going to great lengths while also putting himself in danger such as climbing down steep cliffs just to catch fish, does not agree with YouTube's characterization that he's "doing nasty stuff" to animals just to cause others to be shocked, disgusted or outraged.
“I just dispatch fish for feed and do it humanely," he explained -- perfectly normal, given that humans have fished for thousands of years without it ever being described as 'animal cruelty' by anyone other than a fringe leftist.
Other YouTube creators who focus on manly (and womanly) sports of fishing and hunting and the like have also reported having their videos limited, removed or demonetized in recent months. One of them is the creator behind “BeefCake FLAIR,” who has said that he had been impacted with demonetization for nearly five years. To get around it, he has set up another that already has about 250,000 subscribers (the original channel, “FLAIR” has 2.4 million subscribers).
He's now been left without an income and with a child on the way. And though he has launched a second channel, “the end goal is to find another platform.”
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, founder of Natural News, says his video hosting platform Brighteon.com is ready and willing and able to host such content.
"It's clear that YouTube's assault on America's freedoms will only accelerate. Those who enjoy the great outdoors need a place to go where their God-given right to celebrate nature won't be oppressed by evil tech giants. We welcome outdoors sportsmen and women to our free speech platform, Brighteon, and we fully support the Second Amendment and the right of self-defense as well," he said.
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