Q: How do you get YouTube to stop funneling ads to your vids? A: Make jokes next to a dead body

YouTube has revealed where decency standards lie in the internet era: mocking suicide victims while standing next to a corpse. The Google-owned business has finally responded to controversy over one its highest-earning "vloggers" – man-child Logan Paul – announcing that it has removed him from its "Google preferred" program …

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's just hope that...

The real social justice, the kind I actually respect, will run its course here. As in: people massively unsubscribing which will hopefully move this channel into the obscure regions of the Youtube community. Will probably be hard if he had to get a real job again.

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: Let's just hope that...

I seriously doubt it , whatever mechanism it is that resulted in the top 10 youtubers being the morons you see in the list clearly dosent give a shit about taste , tact , <other positive adjectives> .

I think that mechanism is "teenagers" . The outcry is just from a couple of parents who noticed.

[wolfetone]

Re: Let's just hope that...

"I think that mechanism is "teenagers" . The outcry is just from a couple of parents who noticed."

Don't be an idiot all your life. The outcry was universal.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Let's just hope that...

"people massively unsubscribing which will hopefully move this channel into the obscure regions of the Youtube community"

Of course it won't. It has generated massive publicity which has made lots of new people go to his channel and look at and potentially subscribe.

There will be a few months until it blows over and then he'll be raking in the millions again with his enlarged fanbase.

Same as head cemented in microwave guy.

[m0rt]

"Google-owned biz cancels *Logan's run*"

ISWYDT.

I remember watching the TV series as a kid. I am rather surprised it hasn't yet been re-done.

[Flakk]

If you do a search for "New Logan's Run Movie", you can find some interesting details. Unfortunately, it sounds like it's stuck in development hell. I'm torn, really. I liked the original, but I think the whole "teen-savior-of-dystopian-wasteland" genre is running out of steam.

[Tomato42]

And nothing of value was lost.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re:And nothing of value was lost

Yes - they waited just long enough to use the wave of publicity to push more ads before the moral outrage kicked in and YouTube removed the video and took action.

The problem with free content is that it's SO hard to ensure your standards are met unless you use ad revenue to carefully monitor when your standards are breached.

[Anonymous Coward]

"The problem with free content is that it's SO hard to ensure your standards are met"

I'm undecided on upvoting, because the exact same thing happens on other content, because paid advertising or desire to up prices and lower costs always rushes to the bottom of the moral line.

The only way to keep it up to standard, is to make that standard your goal, and make making money secondary.

[Gene Cash]

I don't get it

Part of the problem is they romanticize the hell out of this forest and suicide.

Personally, I think it's a good thing to finally have someone go "you idiot! you killed yourself! what does that prove!"

I can't really throw stones however. I have a gun in the closet specifically in case I either go blind or get Alzheimer's. Those are my "game over!" conditions.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I don't get it

>in case I either go blind or get Alzheimer's. Those are my "game over!" conditions.

Foresight is an admirable quality to have, and it's good to have standards, but wouldn't it be a bit - I don't know - 'funny' if someone moved the gun without telling you? Either way, you're screwed.

Life is almost always preferable to the alternative.

[Anonymous Coward]

Life is almost always preferable to the alternative.

Life? Don't talk to me about life!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I don't get it

Blindness is not that bad, I have worked with many happy people who have no sight. It is coping with loss we find difficult.

[Prosthetic Conscience]

Re: I don't get it

Correct. You don't get it.

[Kane]

Re: I don't get it

"I have a gun in the closet specifically in case I either go blind or get Alzheimer's."

What, you mean that degenerative condition that contributes to memory loss? How would you remember where you put the gun? Or that you even owned one?

[mosw]

Re: I don't get it

>> How would you remember where you put the gun? Or that you even owned one?

Or, more importantly, who it was you planned to shoot.

[Duffy Moon]

Re: I don't get it

">> How would you remember where you put the gun? Or that you even owned one?

Or, more importantly, who it was you planned to shoot."

One only has to watch The Sopranos to see how that turns out.

[W Donelson]

A triumph of algorithms over human beings. Sick America.

[Mark 85]

Let's make that "Sick World" as it's just not the USA populous who do sick things. YMMV.

[Sorry that handle is already taken.]

it's just not the USA populous

It's also the USA populace?

[phuzz]

YouTube are American (obv), but this bloke is British, so we can't really point fingers here.

[Sgt_Oddball]

This just proves...

There's no accounting for taste. Or even making an algorithm for taste.

If only reporting a video would actually make something happen. Like having it reviewed by a person with a conscience.

[Anonymous Coward]

A lot of effort to get demonetized

Usually you just have to talk about stuff that is too boring for good honest companies to advertise on, like the shenanigans of certain expanding states in the near east. You'll get demonetized faster than you can spell apartheid.

Still, what a douche.

[J. R. Hartley]

What an utter utter fucking idiot.

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

That is one of the criteria for becoming a youtube millionaire

[Michael Thibault]

Haven't seen the video, but understand that the situation was handled less than decorously. Which isn't surprising, given how little the topic of death is discussed in society, and how long-lived people tend to be at this point (i.e. how little death we experience before our own). Yes, 'fear death'. The kicker for this Logan character (or is it a pair of sibs) is publishing straight to that venue, to that audience. He didn't have a clue what else to do -- and there are many things he could have done with that same footage, and a bit of reflection, to make any number of valid points. 'Opportunity missed' is the tragedy for Logan.

[Tim Seventh]

Working as intended

This video by Logan was posted more than a week ago and removed a day after he posted it. The viewers reacted by unsubscribing, the creator apologized for his mistake. It is content decided by the wallet. Youtube in that case is working as intended.

However if youtube voting/liking system can be used to flag videos, that would be an improvement.

[inmypjs]

Expressing conservative views gets you demonetised much quicker

Someone who has had most videos demonetised had this to say about it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfFO9v7iatU

[Anonymous Coward]

Who is

Logan Paul ?

[Pascal Monett]

Re: Who is

Nobody worth knowing.

[inmypjs]

Re: Who is

"Logan Paul ?"

If you watched the vid I linked you would know he and his brother provide youtube with a "belching sewer pipe of ADHD drivel".

[Anonymous Coward]

Aah... but watch how quickly and hard Youtube will come down on you if you post video "copyrighted" content.

[Anonymous Coward]

watch how quickly and hard Youtube will come down on you if you post video "copyrighted" content.

Not so sure about that. Of late I've seen loads of full BBC shows up on YT (even watched a few myself). And some have been there years.

Now I know I may have eclectic tastes, so I may be the only person who found one or two of the more niche shows. But there's also quite recent WILTYs and content from Live At The Apollo.

[Anonymous Coward]

String him up.

It's clearly the only language he understands.*

*What. A tad insensitive?

[ukgnome]

I wonder

Just how much money did YouTube make out of that video and have they donated the money to a charity that helps vulnerable people?

If they haven't they are shit!

[Bernard M. Orwell]

who?

"But as one of YouTube's biggest "stars"...."

I'm a YouTube watcher by habit. I probably watch more content on YouTube than I do on any other media, streaming or otherwise. I rarely watch TV these days at all.

But, in all of this time, I've never come across this guy before. Who the hell is he? Is this not the Streisand effect at work?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: who?

There are more 12 year olds watching Youtube than any other demograph? So I am guessing you and me are not 12 years old?

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: who?

I too watch youtube .youtube isnt a channel , its a content delivery method. Saying you watch youtube isnt like saying you watch BBC4 , where that would imply a certain type of content - it's not even akin to saying "I watch TV" , Its merely stating that sometimes you "ingest" information and entertainment in a moving-pictures-with-audio kind of way. No wait, its not even that as a youtibe vid could be audio only , or a collection of stills etc.

I watch A lot of automotive / engineering videos for entertainment / education / motivation. There are many series of high quality videos being output by highly skilled and motivated individuals, (eg roadkill / mcm ). On the tech side theres Computerphile / AVGN / LGR . I imagine there is lots of quality content regarding stamp collecting , model trains , alchemy , dressmaking or any other interest you may have.

I dont know how much they're making , but it seems theyre scraping by.

Its a damning indictment of modern society that the ones making the real money are the absolute morons in the top 10 list.

[Potemkine!]

The good side of so-called "social" media is it enables idiots to show to the World+Dogs their true capacity so nobody has any doubt about who they really are.

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

and then, weirdly, instead of putting them in a special place where they cant hurt themselves or others, world+dog gives them millions of dollars.

hmm , maybe youtube is that special place ...

[ratfox]

What I don't get is...

why did people ever watch this guy?

The fact that he was "punished" for going too far is actually encouraging; but I really can't understand why channels like this one and PewDiePie become popular.

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: What I don't get is...

Can you understand why the Kardashians are popular?

or why people watch that celebrity jungle thing?

The opening scene to the movie "Idiocracy" may go some way to explaining things

[Anonymous Coward]

What ever happened to "Faces of Death"?

It's truly amazing how much society has changed in 20+ years. If his video was posted back in the 90's, it would have been sucked into the cult world, and everyone else would have been completely oblivious.

Today, you can't skin a cat without someone getting offended. Back in the day, it was all the rage...

(see "There's more than one way to skin a cat!" quotes...)

[Flakk]

Re: What ever happened to "Faces of Death"?

Two comments:

1. If he HAD produced his video in the '90s, it would have been behind the counter at the video rental store.

2. People making a big show of taking umbrage at everything (and then having this behavior validated by an echo chamber) is indeed a problem. This... doesn't seem like a problem with "muh feels". This seems more like a problem with a celebrity (albeit Internet celebrity) displaying a shocking lack of humanity. For the lulz.

[Anonymous Coward]

Acceptable

It is publicly only acceptable to complain about that video, and write articles like this one. There is only one opinion allowed to be voiced in public.

But millions of people watched it and didn't complain or really care. It didn't bother them. They didn't think it was a big deal. Some thought it was funny. Others thought it was dumb. Some were curious and bored.

[Florida1920]

Ads on YouTube?

Never seen one since adding uBlockOrigin. What really honked me off was when the copyright holder forced YouTube to remove Oliver Nelson's The Blues and the Abstract Truth. Why is it the crap endures while the spiritually uplifting stuff gets pulled? I'm quite sure Google revenue has nothing to do with it.