Note: This post has been moved from Latest Picks due to length of extended updates.
Logan Paul video: more than 50,000 people sign petition calling for YouTube to delete his channel (independent.co.uk).
Having mocked and shared video of a suicide victim making Google shift uncomfortably from leg to leg as it did when reported taking ad revenue cash off of both extremist Islam and America’s own white supremacists (thisisnocave.blogspot.co.uk, 23rd Mar. 2017).
Mr Paul and his friends were visiting a Japanese forest known to be a suicide destination, when they stumbled across a man’s corpse hanging from a tree. He posted footage of the incident to the popular video sharing site. At one point, Mr Paul laughs in apparent disbelief. He went on to joke that he had never stood next to a dead body.
With Paul deleting the video himself with a “be better” apology and hope it won’t dent his net worth via his vlogging estimated at $15m (coed.com, Aug. 2017) too gravely, with of course Google taking its AdSense cut too.
YouTube has come under fire for allowing the video to be posted to its website. Many users have claimed it contravened the platform’s policy. Mr Paul not only runs his popular channel but worked with the YouTube to create an original film called The Thinning, as part of its YouTube Red offering.
For sure, had it been record or film copyright infringement or had it been a boob, or just something in danger of gaining more attention than some somewhat envious sections of GoogleTube “Community” feel is right, the real and unpaid moderators at GoogleTube, would have angrily stabbed key to flag it for quick removal.
But petition or not, it’s doubtful many were considering boycotting GoogleTube like the angry alt-right proposed, finding, as doubtless they soon did gripping their angry alt-doodah, there really is no video upload alternative competition worth mentioning:
Google fired an engineer proposing women are not suited for tech. after falling under the “defoo” from your family enchantment of conservative philosopher vblogger Stefan Molyneux (Blog 8th August 2017).
Updated 11th January 2018
And with popularity and profitability being so intrinsically linked for Google:
YouTube removes Logan Paul from Google ad platform, original series (abcnews.go.com).
Paul was removed from Google Preferred, a premier ad service that offers brand advertisers access to top YouTube producers. The company also said he will not be featured on season 4 of the original YouTube series “Foursome,” and said “his new Originals are on hold.”
With starring in the GoogleTube movie The Thinning: New World Order, a sequel to the 2016 release starring Paul, seemingly on hold too.
On Tuesday, YouTube released a statement on its Twitter page indicating Paul would be penalized for sharing the inappropriate video with his 15 million subscribers. “The channel violated our community guidelines, we acted accordingly, and we are looking at further consequences,” the statement reads.
A serious “looking at further consequences” likely resembling waiting for it all to blow over.
Updated 9th February 2018
And seemingly continuing not to learn his lesson, Google, holding him by one of the straps of his Gen Z backback at the ad revenue roadside, finally throws him under the coming bus:
Logan Paul: YouTube projects shelved after new troubling stunts (tmz.com).
Logan Paul is in deep you-know-what—YouTube announced Friday it’s suspending ads to his channel, and we’ve learned several unannounced projects are also coming to a screeching halt.
So what has he done to further upset GoogleTube’s AdWords applecart?
Our sources at YouTube tell us Logan’s suicide forest video weeks ago triggered a stop order on several projects that had yet to be revealed. … This adds insult to the financial injury Logan was already facing with ads suspended after he posted more disturbing videos … including tasering 2 dead rats.
Crikey! Are we sure this is all like like, legal? I assumed hitmen were only for hire on the Dark web (Latest Picks 18th May 2016) but by sounds of it, if they opened a GoogleTube channel they—and Google—could AdWord cash in on Hitman channel with assassin action streamed on a GoPro.
Seemingly the demands of GoogleTube’s up next algorithm have a lot to answer for:
‘Fiction is outperforming reality’: how YouTube’s algorithm distorts truth (theguardian.com).
One YouTube creator who was banned from making advertising revenues from his strange videos—which featured his children receiving flu shots, removing earwax, and crying over dead pets—told a reporter he had only been responding to the demands of Google’s algorithm. “That’s what got us out there and popular,” he said. “We learned to fuel it and do whatever it took to please the algorithm.”
Making it all rather sound like the Hunger Games with the poor chap prepared to do it whatever is takes to impress sponsors.
Updated 12th February 2018
And taking it where GoogleTube needs to open its until now blind eye to retain their “Don’t be evil” mantra:
YouTube reveals consequences for “heinous and harmful content” after Logan Paul scandal (metro.co.uk).
Although Logan isn’t mentioned by name in a new post from Ariel Bardin, Vice President of Product Management at YouTube, the new “steps” which have been announced will be taken against rulebreakers including those who “sensationalise the pain of others in an attempt to gain views or subscribers”.
With punishment in the form of loss of “Monetization and Creator Support Privileges” for those that formally gave a cut of earnings to Google for their “heinous prank[s] where people are traumatized, [that] promotes violence or hate toward a group, demonstrates cruelty, or sensationalizes the pain of others in an attempt to gain views or subscribers”.
One may wonder if, as with “revenge porn” victims lining up to sue Facebook, those “traumatized” by those “heinous pranks” shown to the world will line up for their own “monetization” program to sue to GoogleTube. Some may see the irony, and some may hope.
Recent/related stories
- Leaks expose peculiar and inconsistent Facebook moderation policy (Latest Picks 22nd May 2017)
- Lonelygirl15: how one mysterious vlogger “changed” the internet—or at least its ad revenue profit driven path (Latest Picks 19th June 2016)
- Online dating, expectation vs reality (Latest Picks 7th February 2016)
- 50,000 sign petition to ban pro-rape pick-up artist & Return of the Kings site founde Roosh V (Latest Picks 3rd February 2016)
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