YouTube has demonetized conservative commentator Steven Crowder’s YouTube channel after he was called out for targeted homophobic comments.
Crowder’s channel came under scrutiny after Carlos Maza, a gay journalist for Vox, posted a Twitter thread criticizing YouTube for ignoring Crowder’s targeted homophobic harassment of Maza.
https://twitter.com/gaywonk/status/1134264395717103617
https://twitter.com/gaywonk/status/1134265174603509760
https://twitter.com/gaywonk/status/1134265727047929856
Crowder has called Maza a “lispy sprite,” “an angry little queer,” and the “gay Latino from Vox.” He’s also said that the journalist “eats a lot of dicks” and “sashays to his next Pride parade.”
Crowder’s comments are in violation of YouTube’s policies, which prohibit “content that is deliberately posted in order to humiliate someone,” “content that makes hurtful and negative personal comments/videos about another person,” and “hate speech… promoting violence or hatred against individuals” based on sexual orientation.
The YouTuber responded to Maza’s comments with a sarcastic “apology” video.
After Maza’s thread went viral, YouTube told him that they would investigate Crowder’s comments.
https://twitter.com/TeamYouTube/status/1136055351885815808
On Tuesday, YouTube appeared to not be making any move to demonetize or remove his channel, as they said if his opinions “don’t violate our policies, they’ll remain on our site.”
https://twitter.com/TeamYouTube/status/1136055805545857024
However, the next day, YouTube announced they would demonetize Crowder’s channel.
Crowder has also been criticized for selling a shirt that bears the phrase “Socialism is for f*gs,” which he claims says “socialism is for figs,” because the letter is replaced with the silhouette of a fig branch.
YouTube said that Crowder’s channel could be remonetized if he stopped selling the shirts on his channel.
https://twitter.com/TeamYouTube/status/1136356046887313408
This news comes on the heels of YouTube announcing that they would be removing all content “alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation, or exclusion.” This new policy is expected to affect videos and channels supporting white supremacist and neo-Nazi viewpoints.
YouTube has been criticized for not supporting its LGBTQ creators. Although the platform released a Pride video last year, they also allowed anti-LGBTQ ads to be shown on videos from LGBTQ creators while demonetizing LGBTQ-specific content.