YouTube stars like PewDiePie, Logan Paul punished less for breaking site’s rules, ex-moderators say
- Creators who make the most money for YouTube often benefit from looser interpretations of guidelines on things like hateful content, the moderators say
- Google-owned YouTube denies the claims, saying it enforces rules equally and tries to draw the line in the right places
YouTube stars attract millions of eyeballs and generate billions of dollars in ad revenue for the media giant, which pledges to run its business without tolerating hateful and otherwise harmful videos.
But some of the workers hired to flag problematic content accuse YouTube of playing favourites, doling out more lenient punishments for top video creators whose work brings in the most money for the company.
Eleven current and past moderators, who have worked on the front lines of content decisions, believe that popular creators often get special treatment in the form of looser interpretations of YouTube’s guidelines prohibiting demeaning speech, bullying and other forms of graphic content.
YouTube, the world’s largest video platform with nearly two billion people logging in monthly, has faced fierce backlash from critics who say it is enabling hateful and inappropriate content to proliferate.
With each crisis, YouTube has raced to update its guidelines for which types of content are allowed to benefit from its powerful advertising engine – and deprives creators of those dollars if they break too many rules. That also penalises YouTube, which splits the advertising revenue with its stars.