YouTube has suddenly demonetized two of EU political candidate Carl Benjamin’s channels just a few hours before people start voting to elect him to the European Parliament on May 23. YouTube hasn’t explained why it decided to remove monetization from these channels now but it follows his main channel, Sargon of Akkad, also being demonetized and means that his ability to earn ad revenue from his videos on YouTube has now been completely removed.
Benjamin reported that these YouTube channels had been demonetized on Facebook where he posted the following message:
“Just received two emails from YouTube to let me know that the most recent 60-70 videos on The Thinkery and Sargon of Akkad Live have been suddenly demonetised, and new uploads are being automatically flagged “unsuitable”.
Not sure what has suddenly changed about videos that had previously been monetised by review, but that’s my YouTube revenue killed off, it would seem.“
It’s not clear why YouTube has decided that Benjamin’s secondary channels are suddenly “unsuitable” for monetization. Most of the recent videos on these channels have featured footage of the debates that he’s been participating in as part of his political campaign and don’t seem to be violating any of YouTube’s terms.
When his main Sargon of Akkad YouTube channel was demonetized, Benjamin said that he believed it was the result of malicious actors mass reporting his videos, so this could also be the cause of YouTube’s decision to demonetize The Thinkery and Sargon of Akkad Live.
The demonetization of these two channels comes after Benjamin has faced a wave of pressure from the tech giants and legacy media since announcing that he would be running as a Member of European Parliament (MEP) candidate for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in April.
The legacy media have consistently focused on an old tweet that Benjamin sent three years before becoming a political candidate and published numerous hit pieces based on this tweet.
The tech giants have also prevented Benjamin from reaching his audience on social media since announcing his candidacy. In addition to YouTube demonetizing all his channels, Twitter has shut down his MEP election campaign account and Reddit has put his Sargon of Akkad subreddit in quarantine.
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