#demonetize child content | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

skellagirl · 2 years

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i love how so many people in the comments are associating getting rid of child porn with getting rid of gay content, really pushing the vintage homophobia. ao3 has a child pornography problem, and it is not evil to want to address that. the fact that REAL CHILDREN have porn written about them is vile and it should not be something that is allowed on ANY website.

who even are you lol

anyway. Like, shit-tons of people have articulated this better than I'm about to, but yeah I'll give it a shot

When people, particularly queer people (like me) talk about censorship of fandom spaces inevitably leading to the purging of queer content, we're not pulling that concern out of our asses. It has happened Over and Over and Over and Over and Over again. It happened with fanfiction.net, with livejournal, with old-ass email lists and dinky web.1 sites and email lists made by tiny groups of people, it happened with tumblr, it even happened with youtube (the demonetization and soft-blocking of queer content, and when creators tried to appeal, they were told that their content was unsuitable for children (HMMMMMM))

There is a huge amount of historical precedent off of which to base the fear of censorship leading to the purging of queer content.

We're gonna put aside the dead horses of 'just because you write about something doesn't mean you endorse it in real life' and 'fiction =/= reality' (because I think those both often lack nuance when brought up in this conversation, and overlook some very real exceptions). Alright? We're not gonna beat those horses at all. Put them out of your mind.

I agree with you that real children having porn written about them is completely vile (honestly I hate rpf in general, but in the case of children it's especially reprehensible). I wouldn’t be sad at all to see underage fics be purged from AO3, honestly, if I thought there was a way to do that without it inevitably leading to queer content and queer creators being obliterated from the site. Which I don't, currently, because it's literally never been done.

The thing about associating queer content with csam (and pushing the 'vintage homophobia') is that QUEER PEOPLE AREN'T DOING IT. I keep seeing this come up like it's some blazing hot big-brain take, but it's just, incredibly fucking insulting. Knock it the fuck off with this asinine assertion that queer people are victimizing ourselves and bringing this association on of our own volition.

Take a look at any conservative twitter account (particularly conservative politicians) and count how many times they call queer folks (particularly trans folks, and especially trans women) 'groomers'. It's literally like, their big hot button issue right now, calling queer people pedophiles and groomers, and attempting to get legislation introduced which categorizes us as such

WE ARE NOT FUCKING DOING THIS. THEY ARE.

Okay so let's go on a little hypothetical journey, yeah?

You censor underage fics. Okay cool! What does that mean? Where's the line? What constitutes a child? Under eighteen? Under sixteen? The brain doesn't really stop developing until around twenty-five, so should that be considered the line? Is it still objectionable if both characters are underage? If both characters are, say, fifteen, and this fic was written by some horny fifteen-year-old who, whilst trying to figure out their own sexuality, just wanted to write about their blorbos fooling around, should that be purged?

When I was a teenager, I wrote about teenage girls being ravished by older men, because I myself was attracted to older men. Should I have been punished for that? Should my content have been deleted? It never felt like some mortal sin I should have to atone for; it was fantasy fulfillment through the safe space of fucking fanfiction.

If other teens do that, and post their fics online (because teenagers do indeed have a right to post their mature fics online if they want to), should they be required to divulge private information about themselves to justify their content existing? Should readers be required to divulge private information to verify their own teenagerhood before reading the fics, to prevent intergenerational cross-contamination? What if they lie? How would that be enforced? Is that even ethical, to force people to divulge actual, real life private information like that for the sake of keeping a fandom space 'morally pure'?

Moving on from that, let's say we somehow figure out how to purge only the truly morally bad and gross fics (which, to be sure, some of them are obvious and easy). Well, okay, but maybe while we're at it, we should go ahead and purge [insert additional objectionable content of your choosing here], because it also has no place in polite society.

And again, how do we draw that line? We could have that above back-and-forth conversation for every single morally objectionable category on AO3, and you will never find a solution that doesn't catch innocent people in the crossfire, nor will you ever find a solution that doesn't lead to further descent down the slippery slope of censorship

When conservatives (and yes, censorship is almost always inherently conservative) get a foot in the door of power, they do not stop. They might start with purging the obviously nasty and gross fics, but they will take it farther (and we know they will because again, this has already happened Over and Over and Over and Over). Queer content will inevitably, invariably, always be on the chopping block when censorship comes into play, because to conservatives, queer people are pedophiles just, inherently -- and thus our content is automatically categorized as csam or grooming material.

Sometimes the slippery slope is real. And there's heaps of historical and cultural precedent for this one in particular.

So like. I'm really solely concerned with queer content being purged, because I've literally watched it happen before, and I care more about queer rights, and queer content, and queer people in general, than I care about the murky morality of writing questionable fanfiction (which are, y'know, as a sidenote, nearly always appropriately tagged and warned for so as to be easily avoidable; the dead dove tag trend is a gift, actually)

AND..... this is all putting aside the fact that AO3 was never meant to be a moderated space in the first place. It's literally just an ARCHIVE, it's right there in the name. It has no morals of its own, nor any responsibility to bear such. It's like throwing your fic into a remarkably well-organized warehouse (perhaps, with bookshelves, and some sort of.... system to find what you want; I feel like we might have a name for these spaces in real life? but idk) and then peacing out.

anyway AO3 good, go suck a conservative's clown shoes since you wanna join their circus so bad

#archive of our own #will the notes on this devolve into complete bullshittery? we shall see #I like to think that I'm not a popular enough blog for that but yknow. anything goes when it comes to this topic #sorry if you saw this before I fixed tumblr's big formatting fuckups lol

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lunarsilkscreen · 6 months

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Ens*tification

[reference link] whenever somebody says something like this, it means they're criticizing the vibe of the space and not the space itself. Because they won't address their own numbers and instead discourage*other* users from using the platform.

"Seat's taken."

This happens in all sorts of social settings as well. Including Bars, Clubs, Coffee Shops, Public Spaces in General, and even Public Playgrounds (F*ing tiger moms dude.)

Not because of any tangible reason, just because the overall vibe has changed.

Let's start with the privatized dislike button: First, bigger creators had a penchant for attempting to *ratio* certain creators. Usually smaller creators, because they felt fear that the smaller creators were better than them and they *needed to control their territory* like they were a f*ing member of the crips, and some new guy would stop their growth. Some random users would also use bot farms just because they didn't like somebody.

Howard Stern did this too at one point in his career. And, what it ended up doing was encouraging people that hated his type of content into listening to other creators who were polar opposite him.

But it also encouraged *other* creators to act this way, and, ironically; Ens*ified radio into this bizarre place where it seemed like *only* shock Jocks could thrive. Unless you lived in Texas, then it was 24/7 Christian radio. (Because they banned the Shock Jocks.)

Censure by any other name...

Google is a near internet monopoly, Bigger than Amazon in scope and power. They have control over large portions of the backend of the internet. But "it's not a monopoly" because another monopoly controls access to those backends.

Even Amazon is beholden to the gatekeepers and Google's backrooms.

So it's not like I care about what happens to YouTube. But the fact they can produce this content AND get an audience, AND not be demonetized, should mean something to them.

And no matter how much activism there is for a public shared, equal access internet, it's nearly always ignored. Because of technology illiteracy. And these shock Jocks who, I don't want to say pollute the space, because that's kinda their whole shtick.

They obfuscate things that would benefit their shtick, because they constantly feel the pressure of being under attack for their craft.

They focus heavily on what people see on their home screen. They don't realize that the algorithm dictates that on purpose. Sharing child-safe content with children, and spicy content for spicy content viewers. (And, like hot ones, has multiple spice levels depending on what you can stand.)

If you want to address a larger, or more different audience, you could always create a new channel that follows those specifics. But they'd rather have a single channel with all their content.

If you're using clickbait for your videos, you're targeting ignorant people and small children. YouTube started a campaign on removing certain more spicy creators from the "children" space, because parents were complaining about contrapoints and philosophy tube *literally getting undressed on camera* and doing shows naked, and all the parents said was "just don't be in the child spaces."

Writers would call this *the hook*, and what you don't know, thats all clickbait is. But when you rely too heavily on clickbait.... There is no hook.

The same problem occurs with other sites. certain other shock jock creators, and twitch as a whole which, when I signed up, had an entire front page of bathtub streamers and voice actors from porn spaces (still doing porn acting).

"No really, I joined Twitch for the gaming, I swear."

That's some real HQ content there guys.

"WHERE ARE ALL THE VIEWERS GOING IF ALL OUR CONTENT IS NSFW!?"

There's a lot of people manufacturing all this "small creators can't even make money anymore and are financially dependent on viewership!!!"

But here's the thing, no they most likely are not. Having been funded by alternate sources. Or they make content in their spare time. Or saved some money in order to go job hunting and make money on the side.

If they're financially dependent on youtube, they are not a small time creator. They have an established audience, and can't be cancelled.

But since they're all making their chosen content creation spaces an objectively worse place to make content, the question remains; what will these spaces do about it? They're not going to cave to their demands. They likely can't afford to pay more. And creators can't leave the platform and make content elsewhere. (Because they're too reliant on the platform and can't afford it.)

They're intentionally trying to make it a worse place in order to build up subscription services to drive customers to themselves. But the only customers they will get, are the ones who're already fans *and* can afford it.

But they don't see that either. But they do know they can't just leave the service they're a part of. Because they've tethered themselves down.

I have written about the internet, the current problems the internet faces, and possible solutions for those problems. But, alas, nobody is listening.

Or are they?

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annieleanh · 1 year

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YouTube Updates its Monetization Guidelines

Despite the frustration from creators regarding Youtube’s strict regulations and changes in policy and approach, the app continues to roll out more monetization guidelines. Creators are frustrated because new guidelines can directly stop them from monetization and ad revenue opportunities.

Based on Social Media Today, the new guidelines “essentially cover illegal and offensive content.” More specifically, YouTube updates are related to adult content, violence, harmful or dangerous acts, inappropriate language, drug-related content, and enabling dishonest behaviors.

Making money on Youtube // Search Engine Journal

To summarize from the article, thumbnails that include adult links, bad language, and adult material will be ineligible for monetization. Content showing dead bodies without context, game violence directed at individuals, and videos showing an implied moment of death will be ineligible for ad revenue. The app will demonetize acts created ‘to intentionally shock and disgust’ within the context of violent acts. Minors featured in dangerous acts or stunts as participants or victims may not receive ad revenue - due to the rise in child deaths from participating in dangerous challenges. All varieties of profanity will be treated equally and will not be differentiated based on levels of severity – YouTube notes that it will no longer consider words like ‘hell’ and ‘damn’ as profanity. Drug usage and/or mentions of drugs in gaming content will trigger de-monetization.

The new guideline relating to enabling dishonest behavior was added due to the increase in prank videos where people impersonate store employees. As a result, people pretending to be retail store employees without the property owner’s permission will also trigger demonetization. Cheating in video games (including hacking software in competitive e-sports) also follows this new guideline.

YouTube’s full announcement update regarding which content is eligible for monetization can be found in its Advertiser Friendly Guidelines. Creators' behaviors and activities will have to change based on these new guidelines, which will most likely cause them anger and frustration. (309 Words)

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adorethedistance · 3 years

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READING MY BOYFRIEND’S FANFICTION?? - Owen Joyner x Influencer!Reader

JATP masterlist

Requested: OMGGG!! Could you do a an Owen fic based around his girlfriend being an armature youtuber/social media influencer (shes also an actress and they met on set and have been dating for a while) and it’s “reading/reacting to my boyfriend’s fanfiction” ? You can do whatever you want with the fanfic part it’s just a concept that has been running around in my head for a while. LOVE ALL YOUR WORK!!

Warnings: swearing, allusions to sex, very mild

Words: 1460

A/N: A fic?? From Ace?? Hi. I’m off spring break officially and so my stress has dissipated immensely. School was becoming so much these last two weeks and I thought I’d be stressed or worried, but I’m actually fine? It’s weird lol so I decided I could be productive with my stress-free moment and post a little fic for y’all. I love this prompt, and before any of you writers panic, I’m using my own fics for the fanfictions because I wouldn’t want to put y’all on the spot like that. Also this is my 3000 post! thought that was cool lol

“Do you wanna do the intro?”

“I think I have to do the intro.”

“Okay, go for it.”

“Alright,” Owen sighs out a heavy breath in exaggerated preparation for my (some would say lengthy) intro. “Hello, hi. Yes, okay, this is Y/n Y/l/n vlogs, welcome or welcome back to my channel!” Once Owen finishes his statement I’m so stunned I can’t generate any sort of response other than a slacked jaw semi smile.

“That was not even close. Do you know my intro?”

“I got the first part right!”

“You’ve lost intro privileges,” I turn back to the mess of lights and tripods in front of me and ignore the disaster of an intro Owen offered. “Oh, hello, hi! I am Y/n and this is: Reading My Boyfriend’s Fanfiction!”

“That’s basically what I did.”

“No, it is not! It’s ‘oh, hello, hi. I am ‘name’ and this is: ‘title of video’.”

“You don’t ‘welcome to my channel’?” Owen’s voice has dropped to a hushed volume as he genuinely inquires about the segments of my usual introduction.

“I do not.”

“Don’t use any of this,” he pleads when making direct eye contact with the camera. “Mister Sid. Editing Sid, please don’t embarrass me.” His pleas fall on deaf ears, knowing that I’ll be using the footage in full.

“Anyways. Butchered intro aside, I am Y/n and today I am here with my lovely “So Many Stars” costar and scene partner, Owen Joyner!”

“I’m also your boyfriend.”

“That too,” I give Owen’s pointed comment a soft place to land, “So, yesterday--it was actually like, two weeks ago, I don’t know why I said yesterday--a little while back, I came across a tweet telling me someone had written a fanfic about us-”

“Did you read it?”

“On Wattpad. Of course, I read it. There are only three chapters up right now and they’re all in the 2-3k range so it was a quick read.”

“2-3k?”

“Words,” I reply nonchalantly as I unlock my phone. I bookmarked a few one-shots beforehand for us to read, and I’m slightly cocky about my selections. Owen then responds with an outburst of shock.

“2-3 thousand words is a short read?” I merely give him a blank stare.

“Judging by that reaction, Owen hasn’t read any fanfics in his life.”

“Is that not long to you- That’s what she said.” Owen cuts me off with his own stupid joke and I briefly sigh before answering.

“No, that isn’t long. Baby, I’m here for that 130k slow burn enemies to lovers on AO3 with the ‘only one bed’ and ‘locked in a closet’ tropes.”

“The what?”

“Oh, we have so much to catch you up on.”

__________________________

“So I saved three fics, an angst, a fluff, and a smut. Which do you want to read?”

“Wait, what does that mean?”

“Oh my- okay. Angst is the sad shit, it’s what you read when you need your heartbroken and a good cry. Smut is pretty much in the name, it’s explicit content that will undoubtedly get this video demonetized, but that’s okay because we do have a sponsor. And fluff is the cute moments, domestic and sometimes mundane romance that makes you smile like an idiot and put the device down to screech into a pillow.” Throughout my whole explanation, I can tell Owen was becoming more and more lost, so I opt to give him a few moments to collect his thoughts.

“Let’s start with the fluff just to ease into things.”

“Smart choice. This fic I have saved is called ‘Baby Fever’ and the summary says ‘you and Owen spend a day at the zoo babysitting Baby Shada, and her presence sparks conversation about adding a new presence of your very own’.”

“That sounds so ominous.”

“Here, I’ll read the narration and reader’s POV, and then you’ll read your own dialogue.” Owen nods and leans over my right shoulder to read off of my computer screen.

“You actually start the fic.”

“‘You ready, little one?’” The instantaneous actor mode Owen slips into has me howling with laughter at which he looks at me confused. My gasping for air makes Owen laugh empathetically despite still being unsure as to what’s killing me at the moment.

“Why are you laughing?!” He yells, dramatically shaking my shoulder.

“Just the way you jumped into that, I wasn’t prepared for you to turn on the acting charm. Okay, uhhhh, ‘I bite back a laugh when I hear Owen’s voice coo from the back seat’.”

The two of us go back and forth between reading the narrative, bouts of laughter, commentary on the accuracy of Owen’s character, and we finally manage to finish the 2.5k fic in about forty minutes.

“‘When he looks up from CJ’s tiny body and recognizes the familiar ‘baby fever’ look in my eyes, he smiles and utters a simple-’.”

“‘I told you so.’”

“That was cute! I like the tie-in of having us watching over Baby Shada- or, sorry, you and ‘y/n’ watching over Baby Shada.”

“They wrote me kinda funny, I don’t think I’d ever fabricate a life to make conversation with a stranger due to baby fever.” My jaw drops slightly and before Owen can respond to my reaction, I cry,

“That is such a lie!”

“What?”

“You absolutely would do something like that, are you kidding me?!”

“No, I would not!” Owen punctuates every word with the utmost offense. He has the same look in his eye as when he was proving himself to be the cleanest phantom of the three on the Sunset Drive podcast.

“You literally told the guy at Home Depot yesterday that we were buying plants for our child’s nursery!”

“Okay, that’s different-”

“How is that different? That’s the exact same thing as fanfic you!” Owen’s furrowed brow and dropped jaw are a sight to be seen as he leans away from me, bending at the waist to stare at me with defiance. I raise my eyebrows pointedly as I await a response. Instead of actually producing a response, Owen lunges forward, grabbing my waist in his hands and squeezing gently. The feeling makes me screech and gasp of laughter from surprise and also being ticklish.

“Owen! Owe-STOP, I’m gonna drop my laptop!” I manage to say through my laughter and with one final grab, he releases me from his hold. It takes a minute for my laughter to settle but once I do, the two of us are simply breathing heavy and staring at one another with giddy smiles on our faces. In a moment’s clarity, I turn to look into the camera lens to talk directly to my editor,

“Sid, don’t use any of this. And please don’t cut to this after we finish reading to make it look like- things were happening.”

“Actually, I think you should, Sid. Just cut to right there and make the world think we-”

“OKAY, thanks for watching, bye!” I quickly stop the recording before Owen says something we’re unable to recover from. I hear him laugh gently behind me as I set my laptop down on the coffee table behind the tripod. Coming back to the couch, I move to plop down but before landing successfully on the cushion next to my phone, Owen grabs my body and moves me to sit on top of him.

“You are crazy, you know that?”

“Hmm. Crazy for you, maybe.” His cheesy line makes me scoff but smile nonetheless. I reach my right hand up to caress the side of his face as we sit cheek to cheek.

“Remind me to never film with you again.” The gesture is sweet and the sentiment is not which makes Owen laugh and he presses a soft kiss to my cheek. I lean back into him so my back is pressed flush with his chest as he lazily wraps both arms around me.

“You say that now but you’ll regret it when you wanna do a ‘boyfriend does my makeup’ challenge video.”

“Nah. I’ll just call Charlie to-” Without allowing me to finish my sentence, Owen is digging his fingertips back into the tissue of my sides and I squeal with laughter once more. This time the torment is short-lived and Owen releases me after a sweet, reconciling kiss. “Do you have baby fever now?”

“It was cute and all, but not really, no.”

“That’s too bad,” I stand up from my spot on his lap to grab my computer and hold it to my chest, “I was gonna say we could practice some baby-making.”

And with that, I turned on the balls of my feet, heading for my bedroom when I heard Owen stand up eagerly, quick to follow.

***

Taglist: @caitsymichelle13 @kaitlyn2907 @itz-jas @crybabyddl @kcd15 @kinda-really-lost @calamitykaty @morganayennefertyrell@n0wornever @dream-a-little-bigger-x @mrstodorooki@vicesvsvirturesfanfic @curlybrownhairedboys @amazinggracy @kaitieskidmore1 @asdfghjkl-fanfics @ghostlygreenbean @juliefromaustralia @merceret @jemimah-b99 @ifilwtmfc @thesweetestsinner @imsydneywalker @lovesanimals @thebloodthirstyvampress @bumbleberry-pie @losers-club6 @tefilovesreading @dmcfarland1@joynerxmercer @kexrtiz @talk-on-the-street @phantompogues @konciousdreamer @sunsetcurvej @warmnesss0ul

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anawkwardlady · 4 years

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imma rant a little bit bc.. well. (tw for child abuse mention)

youtube content creators recent obsession with child exploitation, abuse, pedophilia disgust me to the core. It really feels like a bunch of late teens or young adult trying to exerce their journalism, analysis, academic skills using actual, serious subject and milking it down bc... Well child abuse bring views tbh. Its either really performative and useless actions to “take down” people with live streams or some bs like that (and having petty fights about who is doing the most for the childrenTM), giving exposure to actual dangerous websites, talking about some stories found on the internet in a really voyeuristic way for no fucking reasons (for exemple, why the fuck cre*pshow art started talking about some weird playboy allegation out of nowhere ??? Like really NOWHERE), talking about alll the twitter fandom drama with the same seriousness of cases of CSA (not saying for of them arent important, just that everything doesn’t need this level of coverage). I KNOW its all performative, because its a TREND, they all started heavily focusing on this at the same time and using all the tricks in the books to not get demonetized by youtube (and really, most of the time, they dont do anything, they just tell stories, say “yikes” and move on). I’m really siiiick of this.

#nana is posting #tw child abuse #commentary channels #cupbreak

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cornsnoot · 4 years

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i dunno if it’s just widely known, enough to not talk about it, but i think it’s worth mentioning what actually happened with tumblr’s fall to shit in the last year or so. typically a social media platform/outlet will keep or make their users’ content family friendly in order to advertise more, which you could see on youtube in the past few years (getting demonetized for more than a few swears, or even mildly nsfw content, for example), and it seems like tumblr did the exact same for the nsfw ban. not to blab about “boo hoo no nsfw :/” years in post but it’s really sad and gross actually that a huge portion of both tumblr’s users and content was removed for some god fucking awful advertisements. that’s not some theory, that’s literally just what companies like verizon and google do. the advertisements on tumblr are genuinely laughable, enough to where some pretty popular posts are just us poking fun at them. in addition, i wouldn’t dare click at least half of them as a joke, considering the host site often seems so unsafe given their ad. they’re really, really bad. and those are the things we traded for last year. if it was about “getting rid of child pornography,” as they said, i’m obligated to think a website purchased for over 1 billion dollars could’ve achieved that. another major motive was that they wanted their app back on apple’s store, but that was due to the last reason as well. so yeah. we gave up 40% percent of tumblr, a lot of which was actually sfw content and content creators, for some shitty advertisements

#this is 1 year late but i was just thinking about it so #yeah lmao #cornsnoot.txt

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dinosaurs-last-day · 4 years

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@themagicheartmailman I love fluff! And when I talked to you over DMs, we agreed on a Remus Sanders appreciation fic, so that’s what we’re getting! :D

Read it here on ao3!

To read it on this post, go below the cut!

------------------------------

“He’s back? Really?” Roman whined. “I try to come up with one super spectacular idea and the Duke has to come and ruin it!”

Remus feigned shock, “I ruined nothing? I just tried to make your silly dance number more exciting! You can’t expect Thomas to put that into one of his videos the way you left it. He needs to spice things up!”

“No! No spicing things up!”

Patton and Virgil pop up in their respective corners.

“Is everything up here okay kiddos? I heard a lot of yelling and I just knew this was something that good old pops could help?” Patton let out one of his bubbly laughs, but was interrupted by Virgil.

“Can you two please stop all the annoying yelling? It’s giving me anxiety,” Virgil said.

“Funny thing you should say, Virg, for the side that’s supposed to represent anxiety!” Remus laughed.

“Can we please focus on me!” Roman shouted. “And stop the feral trash man from ruining everything! I was trying to do my job and come up with a dance for Thomas’s next video, but Dukey over here is trying to get us demonetized!”

A flash went trough Virgil and Patton’s heads, a quick clip of what Roman was talking about.

“Oh god, I wish I could unsee that!” Virgil yelled, rubbing his eyes, as if that would make the image that was now burned into his memory go away.

“See! That’s what I’m talking about! Remus brings nothing to Thomas that we can use for good! Even Janus looks out for Thomas, but what does Remus do?” The entire room went silent as all the sides that were present processed what Roman had said. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, the only thing breaking it was the sound of Remus eating his deodorant, Patton spoke up.

“Look, I think we can all agree that while Remus isn’t the most,” Patton paused for a moment, trying to find the words he needed to describe the Duke. “Lovable person ever. Nor is he easy to deal with. But Thomas would be a very different person without him. I hate to admit it, but everyone has a darker side, and it’s part of what makes us human. We all have thoughts that we aren’t proud of, and if we didn’t, then we’d just be Disney characters, living our best lives.”

Roman interrupted, “Actually, Disney characters have it pretty rough. I mean, just look at Frozen, Anna literally got turned into an ice statue.” Virgil shushed Roman, and made a motion indicating that Patton should continue.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned while having these little meeting with all of you guys, it’s that life isn’t a fairy tail where everything is happy and simple. And not everything is completely family friendly, like Remus. I think,” he paused for a second, gathering up the courage to say what he was about to say.

“I think Remus can bring a new perspective to Thomas’s videos. Now I’m not saying we listen to all of his ideas, in fact I think that’s a terrible idea. Most of Remus’s suggestions are terrible, I can’t and won’t deny that. But if he has a more tame idea that we could use to make it more interesting or relatable to older people or people with a darker sense of humor while still keeping our whimsy child-friendliness, I think maybe we should actually consider it.”

“Wow Patton, that was, very mature of you,” Virgil noted.

Roman turned to Remus, “Patton’s right. If we want Thomas to make the best content he can make, you and me have to work together. A dynamic sibling duo.” He held out his hand for the Duke to shake but quickly pulled it away when he noticed that there was some sort of purple slime all over his hands that hadn’t been there a few seconds before.

“I don’t even want to know what that is,” Roman muttered.

“Ya’ll talking about me like I have appropriate ideas is sooo adorable!” Remus said, clapping his hands and getting the purple slime everywhere. Roman made a face when some of the strange substance splattered on his face and quickly wiped it off.

“But you will try to work with us, right?” Virgil asked.

“Of course Virgil! It can be just like old times!” Remus said. Virgil tried to protest, saying he did not want it to be like old times, back when he was an active member of the dark sides, but Remus wouldn’t listen.

“Well, if that’s it, I’m going back to my room,” Virgil said.

“Love ya kiddo!” Patton called.

“Remus,” Virgil asked before leaving his corner. “Stay out of trouble, and try your best. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I believe in you.” Remus smiled and waved a goofy wave before VIrgil sighed and left.

“Do you two still need me? Cause otherwise, I’m going to go find some cats to pet!” Patton said.

“Thank you Patton, for those loving and uplifting words. I’ve taken them to heart.” Remus said.

“Really?” Patton asked, eyes widening.

“Of course! Right after I sta-” Roman put a hand on Remus’s mouth to keep him from finishing the sentance, but pulled it away quickly because Remus licked his palm.

“One last thing,” Patton said. He opened his arms wide. “Hug?” Remus looked shocked for a second, but then shrugged his shoulders and gave Patton a quick hug. Then, he sank down, waving to the two Creativity sides until they could see him no more.

“Would you like a hug brother?” Remus asked Roman.

“No, god no. You probably smell.” Remus nodded, admitting that he smelled. “But I tell you what, I’ll take a fist bump.” The two bumped fists.

“Ready to get to work on that dance?” Roman asked

“Really! Cause I have so many ideas!”

“Yes really. You heard what Patton said, we should include you in the creative process more. But if you refuse to work with me, consider this done.”

“Well, I personally think Thomas should show way more skin in your dance and-”

Roman sighed, but allowed the Duke to continue talking, hoping that he’d either tire out or manage to have one idea that they can work with. All he had to do was sit through all the other ideas and reject them. That couldn’t be too bad, right?

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I really hope you enjoyed this short fic! I know it isn’t the fluff we originally agreed upon, but it’s still a Remus appreciation fic. Feel free to let me know what you think! If anyone wants to send in a writing prompt, my inbox is always open! All I ask is that you read these rules I made, and then if they are within my rules, just send it through an ask! It may take a while for me to finish it, but I’ll try to get it done as soon as possible!

#ask #themagicheartmailman #thanks for the ask!#who let me become a writer?#Sanders Sides #Remus Sanders #sanders sides fanfiction #Patton Sanders #Virgil Sanders #Thomas Sanders #writing prompt #Remus Sanders gets some appreciation as a treat

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vopium · 4 years

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A Framework for a Healthier YouTube

-by Andrew Cherry

YouTube, the video-sharing platform owned by Google that we all rely on for one reason or another, is routinely cited as one of the top used websites from around the world. There are few other places you can get daily long form vlogs, makeup demonstrations, cooking tutorials, cat video compilations, and television show breakdowns while being a click away from intense political analysis or video tutorials of open heart surgery. Part of the draw of this goliath website is the ever-expanding quantity and variety of videos available to the consumer for “free.” I use the phrase “free” here because while users don’t have to monetarily pay to access video content, there are major drawbacks to the site that end up negatively impacting both content creators and the general viewing public. My goal here as an active user of YouTube is to provide a set of recommendations that I believe would work to push back against some of the more harmful and toxic effects of the site. I hope not to change the fundamental structure of the site or stifle people’s creativity, but rather, I hope that these changes would make the site safer for everybody and work to ensure healthy discourse both online and in real life.

Re-Design the YouTube Algorithm

One of YouTube’s biggest issues is the way that their video recommendation algorithm suggests viewers to watch more and more extreme videos, in what is being called by some as the Alt-Right Pipeline. While the site has evolved to become much more than just a company in a lot of ways, it still strives to make money, and thus, the algorithm suggests similar but more extreme videos knowing that this gradual escalation will keep people actively engaged and generating more ad revenue. This Vox article does a good job of laying out the issue, whereas people start watching conservative YouTubers like Ben Shapiro who himself has explicitly disavowed the alt-right, but then YouTube’s algorithm continues to direct these viewers to further-right videos and cements their radicalization to the far-right over time. While I do see the irony of linking to a YouTube video here to drive my point home, this video titled “The Alt-Right Playbook: How to Radicalize a Normie” takes a pretty comprehensive, step-by-step approach to demonstrating how this radicalization can happen online.

The Vox article above notes how persuasive these extreme YouTube videos can be and even quotes sociologist Zeynep Tufekci in saying that “given its billion or so users, YouTube may be one of the most powerful radicalizing instruments of the 21st century.” Given the long term and deeply alarming implications of that quote, it’s necessary to unpack why the site wields such influence in the minds of its users. I would argue, in terms of Cialdini’s Six Principles of Persuasion, that authority and social validation are the two strongest feelings associated with YouTube’s persuasiveness. With respect to his concept of authority, I argue that YouTubers like Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder, and Joe Rogan become expert authority figures in the minds of their frequent viewers, which then makes these viewers more inclined to check out the videos produced by frequent guests on these shows. These guests, however, are often content creators even further to the right than the original hosts, which compounds with the perceived authority of the YouTube algorithm to push people further down the Alt-Right Pipeline even quicker.

Furthermore, I argue that the YouTube ends up plays on people’s lack of social validation to encourage them to stay on the site longer. This principle explains that as you see people around you doing something, you are more likely to also do that thing in order to fit in. In a time when people around my age are often incredibly anxious and feeling isolated from the world at large, it can be more common for people to latch onto social groups where they feel somewhat understood. One such area is alt-right comment sections on YouTube or by following alt-right YouTubers on Twitter. By deriving their social validation from these circles and by delving deeper into that online bubble, people are more likely to follow the examples set by these online agents, regurgitate their toxic talking points, and influence more people to go down that path.

In order to combat this issue, I recommend that YouTube take a serious look at how their algorithm is designed and make changes accordingly. It should no longer be the sole motive of the algorithm to keep people engaged to drive ad revenue. There should be a team of human moderators involved who understand the dangerous nature of online radicalization and work to prevent it from happening. This is not to say that conservative thinkers should be censored online, but rather to say that YouTube has an outsized influence on modern culture and should be aware of the role their site has played in disseminating fascist ideologies as simply free speech from right wing thinkers.

Make Monetization Practices more Transparent

In the past few years, YouTube has faced extensive criticism for the ways in which they control monetization practices on the site. Content creators who make videos and upload them on the site sometimes come to find that their content had been age-gated, hidden, or simply demonetized. This means that for people who rely on YouTube as their primary source of income, demonetization on popular videos means significantly less money coming in and they are often not provided with any explanation from the company as to why a video was demonetized. This article on The Verge highlights the accompanying problem to larger demonetization issues, which are the arguments that YouTube was automatically demonetizing videos from LGBTQ+ creators simply because of their identities. While they deny these claims, YouTube was also accused of showing anti-gay ads before LGBTQ+ videos, further contributing to the belief that the site says they support these lifestyles but then acts rather differently. It is important to note here as well that even if the videos become remonetized after YouTube reviewers check it out, the creators of the video do not get reimbursed for the money lost in that time frame and these types of practices can work to hide this type of information from the marginalized people who may need it.

Thus, I argue that YouTube needs to make their monetization practices more transparent and provide YouTubers with more in-depth responses after demonetization happens which explain why it happened and how to quickly appeal if they feel it was unjust. If they need to hire more reviewers to engage personally with videos and decide more quickly whether they should be monetized or not, then so be it because the site surely has the money to do so. Not only would this help to retain active YouTubers that are starting to feel sidelined, but it would help to bring in more users because as authors Kraut and Resnick explain on page 199 of Building Successful Online Communities, “Providing potential new members with an accurate and complete picture of what the members’ experience will be once they join increases the fit of those who join.”

Increase Child Protections and Age Restrictions

As mentioned previously above, setting 18+ age restrictions on LGBTQ+ content simply because of the creator’s identity is harmful because it prevents young, questioning individuals from viewing potentially validating and reassuring information that they could not get elsewhere. On the other hand, however, there needs to be a larger effort by the site to ensure that the videos that are allowed in the family/kid friendly side of YouTube are actually safe for children to watch. Last year, Wired reported that they found videos “containing violence against child characters, age-inappropriate sexualisation, Paw Patrol characters attempting suicide and Peppa Pig being tricked into eating bacon” that were discovered by following YouTube’s recommended section or just allowing the site’s autoplay function to do its job.

These horrifying videos would be scarring even to an adult, and I cannot imagine the type of long-term psychological damage that it could inflict upon children without their parents even being aware of what is happening. It is imperative then for YouTube to do a better job of ensuring that the content allowed to be viewed by children is safe for their eyes by improving the age restriction settings and increasing human involvement in the scanning of these videos for child protection. This will have to be done carefully, however, because subjecting people to scanning these types of videos all day long would also likely have negative lasting mental health effects. I would recommend ensuring that the workers have proper mental health services to go along with it and allowing for the rotation of workers in and out of this type of moderation position.

I am not naïve enough to think that these are all simple solutions to such complicated and encompassing problems. Alt-right fascists will not simply disappear if we better regulate YouTube content and fix the radicalization aspects of their recommendation algorithm. Certain videos will most likely always get demonetized or age-restricted even when their creators don’t think its necessary. It can be hard to catch every single disturbing video uploaded to the site when there are over 500 hours of content being uploaded to YouTube every minute. But, it is my hope that these recommendations are taken seriously and at the least, start a conversation about how the site can do better, and at most, can be used as a framework for how YouTube can become a better, more healthy site for all parties.

#youtube #alt-right #ben shapiro #fascism #monetization #kids and tech #algorithm

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lemonpersona · 5 years

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YouTube, Social Media, and Greg

Why is Greg still on YouTube? YouTube has banned people for far less. They constantly ban and demonetize people for FAR fucking less. I genuinely can’t understand it.

Susan, he groomed and fucked a child 4 days after she turned 18 using the power he gained off YOUR platform. Take some fucking responsibility. Of course, it’s NOT your fault he did what he did with your platform. But he did use your platform to do it and is continuing to do so.

Twitter and Instagram, he’s continuing to post gross predatory content targeted towards minors. He’s going to find another Sarah on your platform. He FOUND Sarah on your platform. Why are continuing to allow him to run accounts with thousands of followers? Twitter suspended me once for using the words c*nt and r*tard towards Greg (for 6 fucking days) but he gets a free pass to select victims and groom minors? I’m sorry, what the fuck?

This is fucking absurd. YouTube, trust me, banning him is a decision the community at large would rejoice over. I know you’re so used to catching shit of banning people off your platform but this is going to be an Alex Jones 2.0 for y’all. Everyone would be on board for his banning.

Give Sarah just a little bit of justice.

Justice for Sarah.

#anti onision #onion boy #onision #anti o community #greg #greg avaroe #anti onion boy

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underwater-alice-mars · 4 years

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More people need to know about this!!!!

I’m pretty sure that everyone is more than sick of my ramblings about this specific topic. I think it’s sad how many big YouTubers have not made videos on this topic at all.

We only have until the 9th of December to make comments to persuade the FTC to consider a different course of action.

It may seem like we are making a mountain of a mole hill, but I feel like more people should know about this. Please make this topic trending or something it is way more important than you think. Share it everywhere that you can, this tactic of releasing information and giving a short amount of time to ‘listen’ is nothing new.

But if you guys can bully an entire studio, I think you can change those pitch forks to well thought out experienced and polite explanations then we can do it. Please tell everyone you know who is of age since that is the main priority here.

This needs to get spread.

To summarize the posts of reblogged and made on this page and my art page:

* the FTC recently fined YouTube $170mill for failing to comply with COPPA or better known as the Child Online Privacy Protection Act (first created in 1998 then enforced in 2005, around YouTube’s beginning)

* YouTube to comply with the recent changes to COPPA gave YouTubers two options: their videos are “for kids” or “not for kids” any video marked incorrectly can be changed by YouTube and the YouTubers account can be deleted without explanation. Or the YouTuber is fined $42000 USD.

* The criteria on “child directed” content is vague, we have so little on what it could be and the act actually states that there are thousands of topics.

* Even viewers are not safe if you watch content that the FTC considers “child directed” your account will be marked a a “child viewer” regardless of the age you have marked on your account. No one has touched on this topic or what it could mean.

* If a channel chooses to mark their audience as “for kids” they lose 60-90% of their income, the community tag is removed, and the comment section from their videos is removed as well. Not to mention that their videos will not get ads, meaning no money for them.

* Youtuber’s can not attempt to make videos more mature because then they run the risk of being demonetized and still losing money.

* Animation, gaming, crafting, slime, child actors, popular child influencers, and so many other things are the criteria for what is considered a child directed video this even goes as far as cereal. this is all read by a bot by the way.

Please share and get this information out. More people need to know about this. If you do not believe me on the severity of the situation please go and read what the FTC has made available about this and come to your own conclusion then.

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princess-peachie · 4 years

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Massively dangerous changes could be coming to YouTube that would seriously affect content creators whose channels cover kawaii styles or geek culture. Sign the petition http://chng.it/csBGWmCMQq And write to the FTC with the pre-written text & link provided in this article

#youtube #content creator #tubefilter #coppacalypse #coppa #ftc #other

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doctor-dorky · 4 years

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YouTube meets the COPPA

As some of you may know already, YouTube is implementing new rulings to benefit the usage of the COPPA(abb. “Children's Online Privacy Protection Act“), which will determine the outcome of certain channels that use child-oriented taglines in their videos. While this MAY sound like the end of some channels’, YouTube careers and whatnot, there ARE ways to get out of some serious hot water with the COPPA, however.

Firstly, if you’re NOT aiming to have your channel be shown to children(aka, “kid-friendly), you will have to set your channel demographic up to be viewed only by 13+ audiences(that way, neither your channel, nor any of your videos will end up being recommended on the YouTube Kids app). Now, a LOT of YouTubers I watch already have their demographics set up to be aiming for audiences over that specific age range, but those who don’t will end up in what’s called a “gray area” and may be subjected to either demonetization, or ultimately, will end their YouTube careers altogether.

I myself don’t have anything up on my YouTube channel, but this is my advice after listening around for ways to get away with family-friendly content(family-friendly does NOT mean child-friendly, btw. Child-friendly content is exclusively for children 12 and younger, family-friendly content is something completely) different.

Secondly(and this is a mistake I’ve seen in a particular channel I’m half-tempted to make a video on has done), do NOT use taglines that say “funny kids show’ in something that is OBVIOUSLY for mature audiences ONLY. This is a one-way ticket to the gray area and it will get you into trouble. Taglines that are associated with, e.g., a specific video game or TV show are fine, but if you ARE a person who is making child-friendly content which IS intended for said young audiences, then those taglines will end up getting your videos onto the YouTube Kids app.

While this DOES sound like a major problem, remember that the very life of your channel depends largely on what kind of content you make, your demographic and who you’re aiming to please. Don’t let these new rulings scare you into leaving YouTube altogether.

#YouTube related #coppa #content police #stay safe

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