Many have warned about the influence of entertainment corporations — and others — having direct impact on what is allowed to be said and covered on YouTube.
In the YouTube space, conspiracy theories abound. There are words that you could say, but should not say according to some creators. Channels like The Quartering are known for referring to controversial topics in veiled terminology that are easy to understand, but aren’t likely to offend the YouTube algorithm (and possibly get his channel demonetized). So instead of hearing about the [REDACTED], you might hear someone refer to “the global medical situation in 2020” or about billionaire island owner [REDACTED] not [REDACTING] himself with the cameras off. Instead, you might hear someone refer to it as a “self-deletion.”
Or in the wake of the YouTube Adpocalypse, there have been channels intentionally labeling themselves as “not for kids” despite the content being clearly aimed at people below the age of thirteen (the minimum age for a YouTube account in order to comply with California’s COPPA laws). If a piece of content becomes labelled as “for kids” by the YouTube algorithm, the comments are disabled and the video’s algorithmic reach is severely limited, possibly to only the YouTube Kids app.
As of yesterday, a new concern has popped up:
…whether or not you’ve angered the Walt Disney Company.
The teaser trailer for the new Disney live action remake of Peter Pan was released this week. As is the usual process, genders of some characters have been changed, several prominent character’s races have been swapped, and any character with red hair is automatically erased from the story.
Under normal circumstances, a movie studio would be ecstatic to have as many channels and websites as possible talking about their content. In the case of Peter and Wendy it seems that the Walt Disney Company was not pleased with what they saw.
A slew of content creators took to Twitter yesterday to note that their videos covering, reviewing, and reacting to the Peter and Wendy teaser trailer were getting all kinds of resistance from YouTube.
Paulie from the The Latino Slant showed a screen shot from the backend of his YouTube channel showing that his trailer reaction had been blocked completely on copyright grounds
Still BLOCKED for Disney’s pleasure? #PeterPanAndWendy No mames #Disney pic.twitter.com/fT4gCcfZGt
— Paulie_The_Latino_Slant (@latino_slant) March 2, 2023
While it is very common for movie studios to attempt to block reviews that incorporate footage of the finished film, it is very unusual to have a film’s teaser trailer blocked. Generally speaking, promotional materials are allowed to flourish as much as possible in order to expand the reach of the film.
What’s more, critical reactions are legally considered fair use and transformative under United States copyright law. There is a possibility that Latino Slant’s content was flagged by an AI system like YouTube’s ContentID that simply recognizes the footage and submits a copyright claim, only to allow the individual content creator to sort it out later. Often these appeals work, sometimes they result in Copyright Strikes. Three Copyright Strikes on a channel results in permanent deletion of the channel, no matter the size or reach of the creator.
Drunk3po tweeted out that his reaction had been blocked as well
My Peter Pan and Wendy video was blocked, normally when you do trailer reactions you just get a copy claim this time I was blocked.
— Jay D3PO 🏴☠️ (@Drunk3po) March 1, 2023
Based on other creator’s comments, these actions appear to have some kind of manual guidance.
The YouTube channel Jayne Theory posted a three minute video reviewing the content of the trailer with the audio of the trailer itself completely muted and additional materials onscreen discussing the film and it’s alleged themes.
Despite that Jayne Theory tweeted that comments on the video had been disabled by YouTube multiple times:
https://twitter.com/JayneTheory/status/1630897812572446720?s=20
In addition, our own WDWPro had a similar meddling with his Peter and Wendy content:
I too would like to thank YouTube for repeatedly disabling comments on my Peter Pan and Wendy video, as well as nuking the views. https://t.co/aDEFUE7U91
— wdwpro (@wdwpro1) March 3, 2023
To be clear, comments were disabled by YouTube, then enabled again by these content creators, and the disabled again without a notification to the content creators. Comments on Jayne Theory and WDWPro’s content have been restored at this time, but based on this brief history it’s possible that comments will be disabled again.
As YouTube competitors like Rumble continue to grow and Twitter owner Elon Musk has promised to turn his platform into a YouTube competitor, it seems that YouTube has grown complacent with the demands of its corporate benefactors in its old age.
The question for many content creators is whether or not this represents a new trend in the space, or whether this is a one-off knee-jerk from a flailing Disney company. Either way, stay tuned to That Park Place for additional coverage as this story develops.
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