Many Vape Related Channels Deleted And Others Warned and “Punished”
The latest purge of YouTube videos has left many vaper reviewers worried whilst others including one of our own – the UKVapester – has had his channel deleted.
It’s been like something akin to the night of the long knives with many popular YouTubers receiving what’s called strikes – like a warning – including huge US reviewer TiaVapes and our own award winning Vic Mullin (Vaping With Vic).
In Vic’s case his ‘punishment’ stems from a review he did on a CBD based product quite some time ago – and he is now banned from hosting live webcasts for the next couple of months.
However his recorded reviews and weekly Watt’s Up show so far remain unaffected and the extremely popular weekly UK Vape show will now be hosted in rotation between The Vaping Postman – Empire and our very own the Devil Vaper.
Then CBD strike comes despite very many huge marijuana themed YouTube channels currently remain untouched – whilst it appears any mention of the legal to use CBD products is a no no for both the YouTube ‘bot’ and I guess human moderators.
However according to cannabis website Leafly the YouTube bot and indeed human moderators are currently targeting Mary Jane channels and more are expected to be axed over the coming weeks.
Given CBD is pretty much legal across America [as is the use of cannabis across most states] – and much of the world – the strikes and deletions are causing much consternation among channel owners as to why the sudden clampdown.
For the record CBD is what’s left when the THC is removed from the plant – it is that that gives users the ‘high’.
Incidentally a quick search this morning shows almost 650,000 videos mentioning CBD are still live on YouTube…
Suggestion That Videos Deemed SPAM Could Be The Reason For Bans
In the case of TiaVapes her strike came from what at first glance was a harmless and completely innocuous and certainly not violative or extremist review of the Smok Pen 22 kit.
Despite there being no mention of anything illegal it would appear YouTube viewed this as ‘spam’ – the exact same reasoning behind the deletion of the UKVapester’s channel.
AS you can see from Rob’s tweet he too has fallen foul of the apparent ‘spam’ rules:
Spam they said…. No warnings… No strikes…. Permanent account ban and delete. 2 years of my life gone… I don’t understand
— UKVAPESTER.CO.UK (@UKVAPESTER) April 28, 2018
Rob is currently uploading his old content to a new channel HERE – let’s hope this one stays up! Be sure to show support and subscribe to Rob’s channel!
In TiaVapes case it could be because of the title of the said video had the phrase “under $20” which if that is indeed the case means many vape reviewers on YouTube might need to look at the titles they’re using on their vape videos – particularly if offering discounts.
Almost 9 Million Videos Deleted From YouTube
The whole YouTube purge began last year after advertising revenues dipped when many of the major advertisers were worried at their ads appearing beside ‘unpleasant and inappropriate videos’ – a catchall phrase with no real guidelines for creators to follow.
In total almost 9million videos have been removed and it looks like many more are to follow.
Other reports in the Tech Media say the new algorithm will also be looking at ‘misleading thumbnails’ to videos.
It’s not just the new AI that’s leading the ‘purge’ as a spokesman for YouTube explained:
Deploying machine learning actually means more people reviewing content, not fewer. Our systems rely on human review to assess whether content violates our policies.
Last year we committed to bringing the total number of people working to address violative content to 10,000 across Google by the end of 2018.
We’ve also hired full-time specialists with expertise in violent extremism, counterterrorism, and human rights, and we’ve expanded regional expert teams.
I contacted the YouTube press office for clarification on both CBD and vaping channel guidelines for creators and the reasoning behind the current clampdown but have had no reply as yet.
Let’s hope sense prevails and the strikes and deletions of vape channels are rescinded and those vape and CBD related channels so far unaffected are given CLEAR guidelines of how to proceed to stay within the rules.
As always we’ll keep you informed.
UPDATE: In a bid to keep his channel from getting hit by the YouTube cannabis and CBD clampdown the hugely popular VapingwithTwisted420 has changed his name to VapingwithTwisted419!
Obviously he was concerned the 420 tag may be construed as promoting cannabis lol – worrying times indeed for both big and small vape reviewers.
