Furious YouTube stars and fans threaten to delete their accounts over new rules on ‘bullying’
YOUTUBE has left fans and creators fuming after it allegedly took down swathes of popular videos from the site.
The sweeping move was part of a new scheme by the US video-sharing site to crack down on what it perceives as bullying on its platform.
YouTube announced new rules to prevent "harassment" on Wednesday and swiftly began deleting older videos that it said violated the new terms.
On Twitter, YouTube wrote: "Many of you have told us we need to do a better job preventing harassment on YouTube.
"We consulted with a wide array of creators, experts and organisations to update our harassment policy, which changed today."
The new rules tighten restrictions on abusive language, threats and "prolonged attacks attributes such as race, physical traits, sexual orientation, religion or gender".
YouTube noted that the terms "won’t affect our openness for a broad range of artistic expression and debate on important issues".
Popular YouTubers DramaAlert and iDubbbz, known for their sharp critiques of other YouTubers, were among the star channels who had videos deleted following the announcement, with the latter sharing a screenshot of a YouTube message informing him a video had been removed on his Twitter profile.
The pair have a combined 13million subscribers between them.
YouTube fans and creators alike took to Twitter to lambaste the new rules. It's feared they will result in comedy creators being slapped with bans for mocking other people.
The hashtag '#YouTubeIsOver' trended on Twitter for several hours on Thursday.
"YouTube truly was the wild west of the internet, unregulated, then commercialised, then non existent way faster than anyone anticipated #YouTubeIsOver," fumed one user.
Another barked: "YouTube has p****d most of its main creators with this whole copa c**p. Fix it on your end and don’t throw your people under the bus."
Creators also weighed in on the issue.
YouTube's new rules
Here's what you need to know...
On Twitter, YouTube wrote: "Many of you have told us we need to do a better job preventing harassment on YouTube, so we consulted with a wide array of creators, experts and organizations to update our harassment policy, which changed today."
The new rules forbid a "stricter stance on abusive language" as well as "prolonged attacks attributes such as race, physical traits, sexual orientation, religion or gender".
"Note this won't affect our openness for a broad range of artistic expression and debate on important issues," YouTube added.
It also committed to a "stricter stance on threats" which includes "not only explicit threats but also implicit ones referencing physical violence".
"Included here are threats that might not cite a specific time or place, but that may feature weapons or simulated violence," YouTube said.
The video sharing site set out punishments for infringing these rules.
"Because harassment can be more than a single video, repeated behaviour like maliciously targeting the same individual across multiple videos or comments can lead to penalties like YPP suspension, strikes, or even termination," YouTube said.
Creators will have access to a tool which automatically highlights nasty comments, holds them from publication and invites the channel owner to manually check them.
"By year’s end, most channels will be enabled with a tool that automatically holds potentially inappropriate comments for review," YouTube said.
"You can always opt-out, but note that early adopters saw a 75% reduction in flagged comments on their channels."
Daniel Keem, who runs DramaAlert, tweeted: "You took our notifications away, Now they only work when u want them to.
"You taken our Social Blade away. You taken our revenue away.
"Now you have taken our history away. Removing these videos you deem harassment."
Not everyone agreed that the changes were bad for YouTube.
Some Twitter users argued that the new rules would stop "disgusting" videos in which Youtubers attempt to intimidate and harass others.
"So #YouTubeIsOver is trending because they want to prevent bullying...and people are upset," tweeted one user.
"I am glad Idubbez had content removed. I don't like him for obvious reasons and there are people like Onision who has made some disgusting videos. I fully support YouTube on this."
YouTube declined a request for comment.
TOP STORIES IN TECH
In other news, YouTube recently revealed Britain’s 10 favourite videos of 2019 – featuring David Beckham and Gordon Ramsay.
Sex robot reviews are the latest bizarre YouTube trend.
And, a 17-year-old Brit Fortnite gamer was recently banned for life for cheating in videos posted to his 2million YouTube fans.
What do you think of YouTube's changes? Let us know in the comments!
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at [email protected]