There is now collateral damage in the online battle between conservative comedian Steven Crowder, Vox video commentator Carlos Maza, and YouTube’s solution to address the issues raised.
Ford Fischer is the editor-in-chief for News2Share, an independent video journalism operation that documents protests across the country. Prior to Wednesday, their YouTube was monetized, meaning they could get ad revenue from videos posted to the channel.
In the aftermath of a campaign lead by Maza, YouTube flagged a number of accounts for demonetization for not being in line with the company’s Partner Program. One of those accounts was Fischer’s. Online users have nicknamed the incident as the “#VoxAdpocalypse,” placing the blame on Maza.
YouTube’s new policy expressly prohibits videos that “justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion based on qualities like age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran status.”
Within minutes of @YouTube‘s announcement of a new purge it appears they caught my outlet, which documents activism and extremism, in the crossfire.
I was just notified my entire channel has been demonetized. I am a journalist whose work there is used in dozens of documentaries. pic.twitter.com/HscG2S4dWh
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) June 5, 2019
Videos that were cited by YouTube had footage of Nazis and members of Antifa that were filmed at protests.
“This really hurts my baseline budget as an independent content producer. I don’t have any salary or outside funding, so YouTube revenue was a big part of my operation,” Fischer told the Washington Examiner. “My channel functions as building blocks for documentaries and news. My work has been used in Academy Award- and Emmy-winning films.”
“The difference between content that covers extremism for the sake of analyzing and studying it and extremist content should be obvious, but YouTube pretends not to see the difference,” he said.
Fischer hopes the channel will be able to be remonetized, but he said, “I’m not holding my breath.”
“If a human reaches out to me from YouTube to talk through a solution, I’d consider that a great step. Either way, the best I can hope for is that the media — especially the mainstream media — stand in solidarity with the independent journalists, whose labor they rely on every day,” he said.
Maza come to Fischer’s defense, saying the move by YouTube was “awful.”
It’s not just journalists who have been caught in the crossfire. A history teacher’s YouTube channel, which had video of speeches from Nazis for educational purposes, was banned, but was later reinstated.
Maza called out Crowder for years of harassment, like calling him variations of “gay Latino” in response’s to Vox’s videos and for selling T-shirts that had homophobic connotations. Maza mostly blamed YouTube for encouraging Crowder’s conduct and heavily criticized the company.
The skirmish has dredged up the debate between the limits of free speech and the ability of private companies to police their sites. Fischer said he is 100% in favor of free speech.
“The issue of private companies and free speech is a complicated one, and I’m not sure there’s a great answer to it. Will both camps every be satisfied? Probably not. The most important thing I can say, though, is that it isn’t a left-right issue. I don’t personally consider myself on the left or the right, and my work certainly isn’t. I literally had both Crowder and Maza come out in my defense, not to mention Ben Shapiro and an Antifa account. When you’ve got Shapiro and Antifa agreeing on the misguided nature of censorship, you know you goofed,” he said.
YouTube told Fischer he will be able to reapply to the Partner’s Program in 30 days so he can make changes to “make sure it’s in line with our policies.”
