(This was extracted from a conversation I had with a buddy of mine on Telegram. Enjoy!)
It's so fucked up that you spend years accumulating millions of subscribers (Leafyhad ~5 million subs), and then YouTube decides to ban you out of the blue, and what's ironic is that, after watching the 10 videos with Pokimane in the title (Thanks to The Internet Archive ♥), most of the vids weren't even about her. He was just talking about stuff like the importance of “luck” in our lives, investing in a Roth IRA, index funds, shit like that. So basically, he got perma-banned for clickbait instead of harassment. 😆Leafy is living proof that I can never ever have my livelihood tied to a specific platform. Same shit happened to my former Israeli boss; he had like 5,000+ 5-star reviews on eBay selling jewelry, and eBay decided to suspend his account all of a sudden for no fucking reason whatsoever. What's crazy is that these platforms try to trick you into thinking that you are this successful self-employed entrepreneur, and then they basically do the equivalent of a crypto rugpull, and that shit is sinister if you ask me.
It was infuriating enough that a harmless 5-word family-friendly comment of mine about Python would get shadow-banned, but a 5-million YouTube channel getting terminated instantly? Even If it had a video of me worshiping Hitler at the altar, I'd still feel crushed by YouTube's arbitrary decision, especially when they allow degenerates with all kinds of fucked up content (AI slop damaging kids' brains, soft porn, etc.); compared to that, Leafy's content is pretty tame.
Someone on the YouTube moderation staff really had a hard-on for him. Leafy had a bad feeling about it, too, in one of his videos, probably weeks before he got banned. Every time any of his videos would start trending, it got flagged with “age-restricted”, then it was automatically removed from trending. That shit was systemic, and I highly doubt it was fully automated.
Shit like this is why I feel so good about the fact that I don't use YouTube directly anymore; with Grayjay (alternative frontend to YouTube; see also Invidious), all my activity (subscriptions, playlists, watch later, etc.) are stored locally in a JSON file + fallback login only for age-restricted videos. And when I feel about commenting on a video; I just write a blog post about it like I'm doing right now. No likes or shares or views, but still the same amount of catharsis.
Double irony is that Jimmy Kimmel joked about Trump dying, and Melania becoming a widow, and yet… tumbleweed. 😆
I'm more appalled by the unpredictability of the terms of service, to be honest. Penguinz0 summed it up pretty well here. To sum up his point of view, he basically said, and I paraphrase, “Even if you don't like Leafy, you should be worried about the fact that his channel got terminated instantly without the 3-strike-rule or anything.” Once again, it's a reminder that being at the mercy of a disgustingly biased soulless platform sucks, and I'm sure the people deploying the sex bots in the YouTube comments section would agree.
Sometimes I feel like punching Asmongold in the throat, man. 😂 He makes fun of people all the time, their appearance like how fat or ugly they are, saying shit like, “Hoe's mad!” every 2 seconds. He secretly wants ALL immigrants out of the U.S. while using the term “illegal” as a shield to hide his blatant racism; he blindly supports ICE even if they rape immigrant minors. One of his verbal tics is calling anyone who's not American a third-worlder or “goat herder”, and he would ban viewers for the silliest fucking reason, and he's so predictable about it that the o7 salute emoji would get spammed in chat before he even manages to pull up someone. Zaptie (Turkey Tom) was so right to call him spineless. Honestly, Asmongold is basically Ben Shapiro if the latter were a below average gamer with a pinch of nihilism, an unhealthy amount of nationalism, and of course, if you watch any true crime at all, you'll know that bad hygiene is a telltale sign of psychopathy and criminal behavior. Surprised Asmongold hasn't shot up a school already, and I wonder how long his moldy brain is going to last before his insanity bar is full.
I must admit though, watching or reading about shit like this = clear symptoms of becoming terminally online. 😅
Jokes aside, I have no emotional stake in any of this. Like George Carlin said, and I paraphrase, “This is just a freakshow, and we Americans are getting a front-row seat.” So basically, as a Moroccan, I'm part of the peanut gallery. 😂
I never heard a fellow Moroccan say shit like, “If you don't like it here, leave!” 😆 Yet Asmongold is fucking obsessed with saying that shit, which is the most redneck “Sweet Home, Alabama” shit ever. 😂To be fair, a school supervisor did say to me once, “If you don't like it here, why not go live in France or something.” But it felt more like a suggestion like, “Why not study hard, and get a scholarship abroad?”
And don't get me started on the retarded misspellings like “who's” instead of “whose”; sometimes watching him ask Grok hurts my brain. Drama-wise, he's as petty as Keemstar, but he tries to make it seem like he's above it all.
I think I'm still kinda biased in a sense that financial success automatically means competence, and so I expect such people to be all wise and classy, forgetting the “looming inevitable brain rot” aspect of it all.
No, you don't. The amount of “rules for thee, but not for me” is kinda scary. Examples:
I got temporarily banned for spamming (sharing short links to get AdSense clicks and impressions) on Facebook = fair.
I got temporarily banned for pretending to choke myself to death in a cartoonish way as a reply to a random dude who told me to take my shoelaces off and strangle myself = totally unfair. Banning me for having a thick skin is beyond fucked up.
I got banned on eBay for selling digital goods (both pirated and legit) = fair
I got banned on eBay for selling only physical goods with 0 negative feedback = totally unfair.
I got banned on Instagram after a stranger spam-liked around 20 of my harmless posts = totally unfair.
Shit like that started happening more and more often that for a while, the first thing that occurred to me after getting out of bed was the idea of getting an email from some high authority saying, “You have been banned from existence. There's no way out.” 😂
I wish it were affordable and profitable for content creators to host their own content on their own websites. The idea of relying on a platform that can ban you on a fucking whim is just fucking terrifying to me, man.
Monopolies are a fucking cancer, period.
UPDATE 1:
The most dangerous part about using any platform is the fucking mind games they play with you like you're dating a manipulative chick that tortures you mentally with shit like, “I'm not going to tell you what you did wrong, so you gotta figure that out on your own! Good luck!” Man, that shit's the worst. My “ex” is my ex for a reason, so I don't need corporations to treat me or anyone the same way, Goddamn it!