YouTube’s recent decision to change platform rules around gun content has resulted in the sudden demonetization of channels, including Old Row Outdoors, which deals with hunting, fishing, and outdoor activities.
The channel announced this on X, at the same time urging its more than 76,000 subscribers to switch to Rumble and follow them there.
Old Row Outdoors attached a screenshot of a notice sent by YouTube, which states that a “team of policy specialists” went through the content of the channel and decided that a significant part of it deviates from the giant’s Partner Program policies.
And the result of that is the demonetization of the channel.
Rumble has received another “endorsement” from a popular channel, “Gunscom” – this one run by Guns.com site – who advised their 392,000 subscribers to follow their content on the free speech video platform instead of YouTube, and on X, after YouTube served the channel with a second strike.
This means not only that during the time the strike is in place for alleged violation of community guidelines, Guns.com won’t be able to upload or livestream, but that the channel is now close to getting unpublished.
In a video titled, “Farewell to YouTube,” the channel’s creators said that they will no longer be posting on that platform due to increased censorship.
According to the host, the channel that is at this point one strike away from being removed consists of over 2,000 videos and has had 120 million views, costing its creators a lot of time and money to make.
Several of those videos have been removed, and posting new ones was impossible on occasion because of what Guns.com calls “unclear policy changes at YouTube.”
This has led to the channel moving to Rumble and X, social platforms that those behind Gunscom believes respect both the First and the Second Amendments.
In June, media reports said that YouTube was changing its policy around firearms to prevent underage users from seeing content that is deemed to be “potentially dangerous.”
That includes homemade guns, while tutorials about removing safety devices are now banned.
Previously, YouTube banned videos selling guns and accessories, and tutorials about making guns. And – even if content doesn’t violate YouTube’s policies, the platform’s representatives were open about “sometimes” censoring it, when they decide that it is “not appropriate for viewers under 18.”
