YOUTUBE BLOCKS CROWDER FROM AD REVENUE

YouTube on Wednesday announced it will no longer allow a conservative commentator accused of online harassment make money from ads on his videos, just one day after the company said he had not broken any of the platform’s rules.

In a tweet, YouTube said it has “suspended” conservative personality Steven Crowder’s “monetization,” a penalty that means Crowder will continue to stay on the site but will not be able to collect ad revenue.

Social media analytics website Social Blade estimates Crowder could have been making between $81,000 to $1,296,000 per year from his channel before the change.

The move by YouTube comes as the company faces accusations of conservative censorship from Republican senators and President Trump. Conservative critics have been increasingly vocal about their belief that the country’s largest tech companies routinely remove right-wing commentary from their websites. All of the companies, including YouTube, have denied all allegations of political bias.

“Update on our continued review–we have suspended this channel’s monetization,” YouTube said in the tweet. “We came to this decision because a pattern of egregious actions has harmed the broader community and is against our YouTube Partner Program policies.”

YouTube made the decision under its demonetization policy, which it announced last year. It allows the company to pull back ad revenue from creators who have caused “lasting damage to the community, including viewers, creators and the outside world.”

The Crowder controversy: In a viral Twitter thread last week, Vox Media journalist Carlos Maza – who identifies as queer and is of Cuban-American heritage – compiled a montage of Crowder using a string of racist and homophobic slurs against him in YouTube videos, including “lispy queer” and the “gay Mexican from Vox.” In the clips, Crowder mocked Maza’s sexuality, at one point pantomiming oral sex with a microphone.

YouTube investigated the matter and said Crowder had not violated their policies.

“Our teams spent the last few days conducting an in-depth review of the videos flagged to us, and while we found language that was clearly hurtful, the videos as posted don’t violate our policies,” the company wrote. YouTube in statements circulated to reporters said they found Crowder was “debating” Maza.

But hold on: Maza after YouTube’s demonetization decision on Wednesday tweeted, “So the f-ck what. Basically all political content gets ‘demonetized.’ Crowder’s revenue stream isn’t from YouTube ads. It’s from selling merch and “Socialism Is For Fags” shirts to millions of loyal customers, that @YouTube continues to drive to his channel. For free.”

YouTube clarified their demonetization decision in response to Maza’s tweet.

“To clarify, in order to reinstate monetization on this channel, he will need to remove the link to his T-shirts,” YouTube wrote in response.

It later added that Crowder will also need to address “all issues” with his account.