Imagine building an entire career — -a life, even — based on the rules of a given platform, only to see it all threatened not because of your own actions, but because of a change in policy? Not governmental policy, mind you, but on the very platform that allowed you to build that life in the first place.
The idea seems outrageous, and yet, it's the reality for "GunTubers," the term for YouTubers who focus on firearms.
They're expressing those concerns, too, and even The Daily Beast seems willing to listen:
Despite the platform’s history of gun content restrictions, YouTube is home to a plethora of gun-themed channels with more than one million subscribers, not including the myriad of smaller accounts.
“The entire industry feeds off of YouTube, whether they will admit it or not,” said Jon Patton, a YouTube gun reviewer with 369,000 subscribers, on the firearms podcast “The Reload.”
Gun reviews are only part of the “GunTube” community which also includes creators who use the site to display their personal collections or perform stunts using guns.
These channels turn a profit through sponsorship deals from companies making make guns or firearm accessory. According to Bloomberg News, successful “GunTubers” can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in ad revenue and sponsorships. The platform’s tighter restrictions directly impact this process.
With their revenue stream being weakened, several popular gun accounts have moved their operations to Rumble, a video app with notoriously lax rules. The alternative site has become popular among those banned from mainstream social media platforms, including white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
While YouTube has not said why it’s leaning into stricter rules, the site has endured years of backlash for promoting gun culture from advocacy groups and government officials like Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. A spokesperson for the platform told NBC News, however, that the decision is not in response to a “specific moment or change in law.”
Now, it's not like The Daily Beast is sympathetic, but it at least ran this, which is interesting.
What's also interesting is that while the platform is cracking down on gun-related content, it continues to allow some absolutely vile individuals to keep making videos and posting them on the site.
YouTube is a private entity, so it can make whatever rules it wants, but what it's really doing is creating a completely different set of rules for GunTubers when compared to other content creators. People built their livelihoods based on what the rules were. They didn't break them, but the rules change in such a way that these folks stand to lose everything.
That might be legal, but it's not right.
What's more, YouTube hasn't really thought it through, either.
If gun owners start moving over to Rumble, then they might start watching more Rumble in general. As they find new videos, they'll stop linking to YouTube and send friends to Rumble. Over time, YouTube may well end up shooting itself in the foot (pun fully intended) and losing market share.
Frankly, I'd love to see the whole thing implode after years of catering to leftist causes and its intense efforts to destroy the YouTube gun community.