Will YouTube Start Blocking Hunting and Firearms Channels?
OutdoorHub Editor: Keenan Crow 09.01.16
YouTube just announced their new guidelines for what content creators can monetize, and may have just shot some gun channels right in the foot.
“Content that is considered “not advertiser-friendly” includes, but is not limited to:
- Sexually suggestive content, including partial nudity and sexual humor
- Violence, including display of serious injury and events related to violent extremism
- Inappropriate language, including harassment, profanity and vulgar language
- Promotion of drugs and regulated substances, including selling, use and abuse of such items
- Controversial or sensitive subjects and events, including subjects related to war, political conflicts, natural disasters and tragedies, even if graphic imagery is not shown
If any of the above describes any portion of your video, then the video may not be approved for monetization. If monetization is approved, your video may not be eligible for all available ad formats. YouTube reserves the right to not monetize a video, as well as suspend monetization features on channels that repeatedly submit videos violating our policies.”
You’re probably going down your mental checklist and thinking to yourself, “that’s almost everything that I watch, now what??”
Right now, it’s unknown exactly how strict they’re going to enforce these new parameters, because the above list describes virtually everything you’re likely to see on TV while channel surfing on any given day or night. So far YouTube has only blocked monetization on a few channels based on their ad policies, but we expect that list to keep growing.
If YouTube is looking for low-hanging fruit, they could possibly target guys who tend to drop the occasional “F-bomb” like FPSRussia, or Tim Wells, who just posted a video about hunting a black bear with a spear.
Ultimately, most large channels are not able to produce their videos without ad revenue. Those ad dollars are what directly funds their video creation process. It will be interesting to see the impact this will have on firearms and hunting related YouTube channels going forward, and we will be keeping a very close eye on the scene over on YouTube.
