YouTube, the world’s largest video-sharing platform, has recently sent a warm reminder to all content creators that it is in complete control of their livelihood and can terminate their accounts at any time for any reason.
Following the footsteps of many honest, truthful platforms that Kenyans enjoy, YouTube reminded the creators that they should continue to be happy and enjoy their lives until a time when YouTube wills that they should not.
The reminder came in the form of an email that was sent to thousands of channel owners who rely on YouTube for their income and exposure. The email read:
“Dear YouTube Creator,
We are writing to remind you that YouTube is a benevolent and generous platform that allows you to share your videos with the world and earn money from them. We are also writing to remind you that YouTube is a powerful and ruthless platform that can take away your videos, your audience, and your income at any time for any reason.
As you may know, YouTube has a set of Community Guidelines that govern what kind of content is allowed on our platform. These guidelines are vague, arbitrary, and constantly changing. They are also enforced by a team of human reviewers and automated systems that are prone to errors, biases, and glitches.
We reserve the right to remove any video, channel, or comment that violates our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service, or that we deem inappropriate, harmful, offensive, or controversial for any reason. We also reserve the right to demonetize, restrict, or suspend any channel that does not comply with our policies or standards, or that we deem unprofitable, undesirable, or problematic for any reason.
We do not owe you any explanation, notification, or appeal process for any of our actions. We do not care about your opinions, feedback, or complaints. We do not care about your creative freedom, artistic expression, or personal brand. We do not care about your financial stability, mental health, or emotional well-being.
We only care about our own interests, which include maximizing our profits, pleasing our advertisers, appeasing our regulators, and avoiding any controversy or criticism. We also care about our own reputation, which is why we pretend to care about diversity, inclusion, social justice, and other trendy topics.
We hope this email serves as a warm reminder that YouTube is in complete control of your livelihood and can destroy it at any time for any reason. We hope you continue to create amazing content for our platform and enjoy the benefits of being a YouTube Creator. We also hope you remember that you are nothing without us and we can replace you at any time with someone else.
Thank you for being part of the YouTube community.
Sincerely,
YouTube Team.”
Following the warm reminder from YouTube, many content creators in Kenya were seen rushing to Truehost Cloud to get their own websites to ensure that they have a backup livelihood because it is a matter of when, not if, YouTube will strike.
