Emmanuel Adu-sarkodie retweetledi
AN OPEN LETTER TO @YouTube AND NEAL MAHON.
Dear @YouTube
I built a media business that broadcasts on your platform.
Our business has exploded and we are growing rapidly.
We have over 1,1m subscribers.
We employ over 100 people globally and we work tirelessly to deliver on our mission of building the most profitable community in the world.
Despite our success,
I am constantly anxious. I don’t sleep at night and I am scared to scale my business.
Why?
It’s not because of any real market or business risk.
It’s because I know that at any moment I could get a Youtube strike, or a series of strikes , that may force me to close the entire business overnight and destroy my work and that of my 100 employees.
Even though our channel hasn’t been affected , many of our partner channels and fellow creators have suffered this fate.
As one of the larger players in the industry, I feel I have a duty and an obligation to take on this fight.
100s of crypto content creators are making the same videos they have made for years, with similar content and style, only now they are getting strikes or being deplatformed.
And the worst parts,
1. They have absolutely no idea what they are doing wrong and so they can’t change.
All they get is a vague message that the video contravened the community Guidelines, of which there are many.
2. The appeal process is flawed, seems to be an AI and unreliable.
Worse yet, is that since Youtube has network effects and a monopoly of sorts there are no real viable alternatives, and so if it happens to you , your business is gone.
One of our partners and member of our group of companies , @FefeDemeny has a channel called the 100x club.
He comes from a humble background!
He is hardworking, ambitious and makes great content.
He built a business from his garage, started from zero and was just getting momentum.
Recently his channel has been under attack by the Youtube algorithm, he received warnings and strikes and despite all the strikes being removed on appeal - today his channel was removed permanently!
The worst part is that he has no idea why.
He has become really conservative with his content, he follows all the known guidelines, he follows all the processes and he still received the strikes.
Now he cannot make content for a week and his ability to keep funding his business is impaired.
He, like many others in this industry, is a business creator with good intentions and great content.
We have made millions of hours of content on your platforms.
We have brought in Billions of dollars of ad revenue.
Despite this our businesses are under threat constantly.
He is not the only one. It’s happening daily to creators in our industry and we have no idea why.
At this point it is clear that there is an issue with your flagging software.
It seems like a setting is too sensitive.
And this issue is costing honest people their businesses and their livelihoods.
We are not asking for any favorable treatment or for you to change any rules,
All we are asking for is clarity.
We want to understand why some channels are randomly getting strikes so we can understand and comply.
We would also appreciate it if you could review your algorithm as it may be set to sensitive or it may be picking up false positives.
As a monopoly of sort you have a duty to ensure that you are fair to all creators, the same creators that build your business.
We would appreciate a real response for a real human, someone with real power and some action that can assist us in maintaining our businesses that we have worked so hard to build.
I write this on behalf of many creators.
I look forward to a response.
If you want to help creators, please share this far and wide. You are helping save people’s businesses.
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