Over the last few days, a fresh YouTube purge has begun with popular comedy videos, YouTube beef videos, and political commentary videos being scrubbed from the platform.
And now YouTube has taken down yet another popular video – this time from one of the biggest true crime creators on the platform.
Kendall Rae, whose channel has more than 1.5 million subscribers, had her video about kidnapping victim Jayme Closs being found removed by YouTube. YouTube said the video violated its “harmful and dangerous policy.”
Rae said the takedown is a first for her channel and responded by saying: “YouTube what is going on? Theres no reason to have taken this video completely off the platform?!”
“I’m honestly shocked,” Rae added. “I’m so damn thankful I started a podcast 2 yrs ago because YouTube is going in a terrible direction.”
YouTube has responded to the takedown but didn’t provide any insight into what may have led to the video being removed. Instead, Rae was met with the standard line of: “If you think this happened in error, you can appeal.”
YouTube’s general reason for removing this video is different to the other popular videos that have been purged from the site this week. Those videos were removed under YouTube’s updated harassment policy whereas this video has been taken down under YouTube’s harmful and dangerous policy.
However, a fellow true crime and mystery YouTuber Georgia Marie commented that it “seems like this is confirmation that true crime on youtube isn’t going to be around much longer.”
Another popular true crime YouTuber, Eleanor Neale, added that YouTube had commented on and praised one of her videos just a few weeks ago.
“Do they support our community or not?! I’m exhausted,” Neale added, pointing to the uncertainty around the future of true crime content on YouTube.
Another fan said “this is a big mistake” and that one of the main reasons they watch YouTube is for Rae’s true crime videos.
Sarah Turney, whose sister Alissa Turney went missing in 2001, also highlighted that true crime YouTubers often give much-needed exposure to cases and victims.
“How are cases like my sister’s supposed to get media exposure, as recommended by police if you constantly deem true crime inappropriate,” said Turney. “You guys are on the wrong side of this movement and it shows.”
The takedown comes at the end of a turbulent week for YouTubers. The future of comedy, political commentary, and content that criticizes other YouTubers is already uncertain because of YouTube’s updated harassment policy and the retroactive enforcement of this policy. Now true crime could be yet another genre that no longer has a future on YouTube.
