Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin
Lets play a game called 'figure out why this video got demonetized.' (youtube.com)
12 points by JoeyJoJoJr on Dec 26, 2022 | hide | past | favorite | 7 comments


Google is constantly demonetizing the videos of this animator. It would seem that Google doesn’t like the type of artful commentary that he produces.

I find it incredible that videos such as this are so highly discouraged on the only viable video platform for independent animators.

I can’t identify anything in the video that would warrant demonetization. Is there some kind of “vibe” check that a video needs to conform to when posting to YouTube?


Who knows? Maybe their employees throw a D100 dice for every upload and make it fail when it lands on the wrong side just to keep them on the edge?

Maybe an employee confuses themselves for an artist and sees this as a form of criticism?

Maybe it is an automatic system which genetally works okay, but works like shit for that content?

There is no way for us to know and apparently that doesn't bother google one slight bit, otherwise they would be more transparent about this.


> artful commentary

More like, intellectually lazy kitsch that idolizes a controversial figure known for driving advertisers away on the platform he runs himself.

Even besides the kitsch part, I'm not surprised at all that advertisers wouldn't want their brands near Musk on YouTube if they pull their advertising from Musk-run Twitter. It's that simple.


> intellectually lazy kitsch that idolizes a controversial figure

I’d suggest before calling a video intellectually lazy, you actually watch the whole thing.


I think YouTube just constantly comes up with shady adhoc justifications for not paying out.


I've read that YouTube algo no longer depends on Title/Desc/Tags, but in addition basically "Watches" your video. It picks up on and processes Audio, Text (baked subtitles, signs), etc. I've seen yt shorts with subtitles censored for fear the YT algo would read "low sentiment words" and downrank the video.

What sticks out as potentially advertiser-unfriendly to me: "Elon Musk", "shitstorm of salty snowflakes", "shitstorm", "freedom"

Also, excellent video. Didn't expect Round 2.


They transcribe all text from videos to relatively accurate captions. So they at bare minimum use that in algorithmic decision making.




Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: