YouTube Censored My Channel

Something shocking happened to me last week. My channel was censored by YouTube. I am going to get into all the details in today’s video. WATCH NOW

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VIDEO SUMMARY

Last week I posted my normal weekly video. I was shocked to find that it was flagged as being too controversial. Now it has not been removed, thank goodness. But YouTube will not run any ads on the video. This is a form of soft censorship that YouTube has been doing for a while. Any video that is too controversial gets demonetized and they will not run ads on.

I was shocked. I do not think anything in that video was too controversial. In fact, I was saying basically the same thing the United Nations has been saying. This has never happened to my channel before, so I have been freaking out. It has been a wakeup call on how much risk there is for my channel from YouTube censorship.

The way YouTube censors, is they start with soft censorship, which is they cut off ads on videos. This allows them to claim they are not censoring because the video is still up. However, it is incentivizing people to not talk about certain subjects. Then YouTube takes more aggressive actions. They can shut off ads to the entire channel. They can start shadow-banning the channel, which means they will no longer recommend your videos or allow your channel to show up in search results. And finally, they can officially censor and delete certain videos or ban you from the platform.

Again, none of my videos have been deleted. But this is the first time I experienced the first step in this chain of events, where my video was demonetized.

Now to be fair to YouTube, they consistently deny that they shadow-ban content. They have explicitly said, there is no connection between the systems that handle ad revenue and the search algorithm. But few people believe that. There has been so much analytical evidence shown by channels, that their videos stop getting recommended by search after they get demonetized. And YouTube has an incentive to do this. Why would they recommend videos that do not have ads, when they need to show ads to make money?

This happened to my channel at the same time when another big channel was censored by YouTube. The Hill’s “Rising” show, which is a popular daily independent news show on YouTube was banned for seven days. I find this shocking. You can go read what they were banned for. I am not going to say it here, but it is shocking because it was so undeserving of a ban. They were banned not for anything they said on the show, but they showed a clip from an interview with former President Trump. YouTube identified what Trump said in the video clip as “misinformation” and then banned the channel The Hill from YouTube for seven days. I cannot believe it. In my opinion, The Hill is a middle-of-the-road show. It is not a crazy conspiracy show. It is not like Alex Jones and InfoWars. The provide very credible journalism. It is crazy that legitimate journalism is being censored. It is clear that YouTube is stepping up their efforts to curate the types of videos on their platform. YouTube used to be almost a utility, where it was a space that everyone in the pubic could use. Now it is more like a magazine, where they are moderating the content.

What is so infuriating about all of this, is there is a law called Section 230 which limits the liability of social media platforms like YouTube. This law is a huge subsidy for YouTube, because it is a big legal expense they don’t have to pay because no one can sue them for content on their platforms. The whole argument for getting the section 230 subsidy, was that YouTube acted more like a distribution network and did not moderate content. But in contrast to their justification, they seem to be moderating content more and more.

I never expected my videos to be flagged. I talk about business and accounting. When I put out a video, I put in a lot of thought and research into that video. It is always about something I believe strongly about. In my video last week that got flagged, I identified $500M a year that the US could be saving. That is $2B over the next four years. I would say that is pretty important for people to talk about. I would say that would impact your life as an American. But for some reason, it is not okay to talk about on YouTube.

I have always been a big believer in the importance of freedom of speech. I am very concerned about what has been happening. I think it is a problem that the former President of the United States has been kicked off all the major social media platforms. I don’t agree with the guy. But I defend his right to be able say what he believes.

This is a breakdown in freedom of speech. When you are making decisions in life, you need to be able to hear all opinions. If you have one side trying to win an argument just by silencing the other side, that is not helpful to making good decisions. People used to be able to take to the streets to share their opinions. But now, in the digital age, the streets are owned by social media companies. Now it is true, that the social media companies are private companies who can do what they want. They have their own freedom of speech. But it we have to admit it is a problem that they own the only outlet to speak. They own the streets. If they don’t like what you say, they can shut you off, they can disconnect you from your customers, they can stop people from even finding you online, and stop your ability to make money.

My philosophy is to always try to look at situations as something positive. I have done a lot of thinking over the last week. And I have decided to make some changes with my channel. I am expanding into more online platforms. This is something that I have been working on for a while. I am just speeding things up.

YouTube is basically a monopoly in the online video space. And unless I start promoting my videos on other platforms, I will always be in a vulnerable position. And people are starting to use other platforms. I started a channel a year ago on an alt tech website called BitChute. My videos are actually doing very well there. So big shout out to everyone who watches my videos on BitChute. I see you and I appreciate you guys.

I have also backed up my entire channel on the website Odysee. You can watch my videos on there. I have also started posting on Rumble. You can watch my videos there.

Now I also have the traditional social media websites of Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, but there as well, I also want to extend to alt tech. I am now posting on Minds, Gettr, and Parler. Wherever you spend time on social media, please follow me. The links are in the description box down below. The point is that if I get kicked off a platform for some reason, you will still be able to find me.

Of course, you can always find all my content on my website WolvesAndFinance.com. And just to be safe, I do keep extra backups of everything.

So I view this as a positive step, to reach more people on more platforms, and keep growing my channel talking about something I love, business. If you want to be successful in life you need to learn, learn, learn about money. Every week I make a video about a financial topic that I think is the most important thing for you to know about that week. My goal here is that I want to grow with this community so that we can be the financial leaders in the world.

But this does create a practical problem for me. I cannot keep doing this if I keep losing ad revenue on my videos. I am already planning a big video next week that I will probably lose ad revenue on again. I do not make a ton of money on YouTube, but the money I do make I need to keep covering my costs. At the same time, I do not want to censor myself. The video I made last week, I would still make today, because I believe it is important information for you to know. So I am happy to announce that if you are a fan of the channel, I have started a SubscribeStar membership. For only $5 a month, I will be posting extra exclusive videos I film with your questions. New members will also get shoutouts on this channel. I cannot do this without your support, so please go check the new portal out. The link is in the description box below. To get access to the extra videos, it is $5 a month and you can cancel at any time.

Here is the thing you need to know about me. If I see something unjust, I am going to say something about it. That means that sometimes I will say things that make rich and powerful people uncomfortable. But I will not go away, and I will not be silenced.

Leave a comment down below letting me know what you think!

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Neither Zach De Gregorio or Wolves and Finance shall be liable for any damages related to information in this video. It is recommended you contact a CPA in your area for business advice.