YouTube has removed Steven Crowder from its Partner Program indefinitely
Two weeks ago, after YouTube revealed its definition of hate speech was so narrow that it couldn’t remove a wildly racist tirade for being wildly racist, we wondered out loud what it would take for YouTube to stop promoting conservative commentator Steven Crowder as an official YouTube Partner and allowing him to profit from those tirades.
Today, we have a partial answer: YouTube has officially suspended Steven Crowder’s main channel from the YouTube Partner Program indefinitely, which includes removing his ability to run ads.
It’s also banning him from uploading videos for a full week after his latest infraction: a now-removed video that reportedly challenged the legitimacy of the vote in Nevada. YouTube has a policy against false claims that the election was stolen. Crowder has already announced his intent to upload videos to his other Crowder Bits channel, however.
Here’s YouTube’s statement (including links):
In order to monetize on YouTube, channels must comply with the YouTube Partner Program policies, which include our Community Guidelines, Google AdSense program policies, and Advertiser-Friendly Guidelines. Channels that repeatedly violate our policies are suspended from the partner program. In addition, we removed a video from Steven Crowder’s channel for violating our presidential election integrity policy and applied a strike, meaning uploads are suspended for one week.
While YouTube isn’t telling us which straw broke the camel’s back when it comes to the YouTube Partner Program (and his ability to run ads), the company did point us towards two specific guidelines around controversial issues and sensitive events and harmful and dangerous acts. I would have guessed that awful, racist tirades would have already broken the YouTube Partner Program’s hateful and derogatory content policy, but I guess I shouldn’t read too much into that.
It’s not the first time Crowder’s been removed from the YouTube Partner Program. Last time, it took him just over a year to come back.
Two weeks ago, after YouTube revealed its definition of hate speech was so narrow that it couldn’t remove a wildly racist tirade for being wildly racist, we wondered out loud what it would take for YouTube to stop promoting conservative commentator Steven Crowder as an official YouTube Partner and allowing…
