In recent weeks Youtube has become a bit less about 'you'.
Earlier this year Youtube was hit by a bit of a boycott from advertisers and brands because some of their ads had been played during or with videos that were considered to contain hate speech and other content deemed inappropriate.
I will admit I don't know what this material was / is.
I think we should all be able to talk about and discuss our different thoughts and beliefs. Of that there should be no doubt. This issue has arisen because this is not about free speech, its about companies not wanting their brand(s) assioated with particular cultures or beliefs on this platform. Which I think is not only their right, its understandable.
Youtube do not want to lose investment from those companies, so they have decided to change their algorithm (don't us Bloggers love algorithms, "Hi Insta fans") and categorisation of some material, such as wrestling.
Wrestling is currently considered 'offensive content' by Youtube. This means that many companies do not want their ads played or linked to these videos. Massively cutting the money wrestling channels receive from Youtube for ads played during their videos. It also makes their channels harder to find and less likely to appear on you page.
This is wrestling! An industry led by WWE who posted a revenue of $188.4 for the first quarter of 2017. The company has the longest running episodic television programme of all time. This could not happen if the industry was full of hate speech and overtly offensive material.
The problem is not all wrestling companies are this big and so are not able to survive without the money they were receiving from Youtube ad revenue. Take one of my favs, WCPW.
They recently uploaded a video (free to view) of a Rey Mysterio and Alberto El Patron (Del Rio to you WWE folk) match, which drew over 1 million viewers. However for those 1 million plus views they received only $43 in ad revenue. There is no way an online based organisation can survive like that.
I understand Youtube wants and maybe needs to make changes. However this current categorisation of wrestling is wrong and is unfortunately leading to some great content providers lessening their content and even closing down their channel.
What can we do?
Well there is currently an online petition for Youtube to recategorise wrestling, which you can find here. I encourage you to have a read and if your happy to, to sign the petition. Hopefully we can help Youtube to see that wrestling is about community, sport, storytelling, entertainment, sometimes even comedy! It is not innapproprate content, it is not hate speech, it should not be on a restricted list!
*Images from www.change.org and https://wc.pw respectively