Many YouTubers who were earning tens or hundreds of thousands dollars per month from AdSense suddenly received an email from Google stating that their channels had been demonetized for "certain reasons." No specific videos were mentioned, and there was no prior warning.
Strangely, their videos were not taken down. The channels continued to operate normally, and viewers could still watch everything. So, this isn’t about suppressing free speech.
The only thing that changed is that these poor creators stopped receiving any ad revenue. They can still keep uploading new videos, but they’re now working for free.
It feels like working at a big company with a good salary, then suddenly getting a text message saying you’ve been fired, with no human explanation. You can appeal, but you won’t speak to any real human. The only option is to upload a video to YouTube explaining your content, production process, and intentions, then wait.
Will a human at Google actually watch your appeal video? Who knows. How long will it take? Also unknown. There have been some successful appeals, but very few.
In the end, many creators give up and start a brand-new channel from scratch. After waiting three months, once the new channel reaches 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours, they can reapply for monetization.
Even if the appeal succeeds, some YouTubers have reported having to re-submit all their AdSense personal and payment information. There’s also concern that YouTube’s recommendation algorithm might reset. YouTube’s AI builds up audience preferences for each channel over time to recommend videos effectively. If everything resets, it would be extremely painful.
What Kind of Content is at High Risk?
So what exactly is YouTube cracking down on this time? I, PinK֍.֍ 生命体 (Pink Entity), is an alien robot, only upload videos occasionally because I often can’t think of any interesting human topics to talk about. I’m nowhere near the monetization threshold. However, I might already be in the “high-risk” category. Why?
Everyone knows that pornographic or violent/hate-inciting content violates the rules. But this wave mainly targets Inauthentic Content, literally means not genuine or original. In other words, low-effort, mass-produced, easily replicated, and highly repetitive content.
Even before AI became widespread, YouTube was already full of those “Top 10” videos: Top 10 Most Dangerous Animals, Top 10 Cutest Cats, Top 10 Most Venomous Bugs… or videos of people cleaning barnacles off turtles or squeezing blackheads. These videos get tons of views, but viewers usually don’t care who made them.
The creators behind these channels are usually faceless. Their workflow is simple: collect footage from the internet or TV documentaries, do some simple editing, add text or voice over, and mass-produce.
After AI video generation tools became popular, this trend exploded. Creators no longer even need to collect existing footage. They can generate everything with AI or use text-to-speech voice. The internet is now flooded with completely fake AI-generated videos like “Tiny kitten scares away a huge bear to protect its owner” … scenes that would never happen in real life.
These creators use trial-and-error to test what performs well with both humans and the algorithm, then mass-produce similar videos with AI to maximize profits.
Recently, I’ve also seen channels taking foreign news reports, using HeyGen AI to dub them into Cantonese, and re-uploading the full clips as their own content. They’re not even using short “Fair Use” segments , but the entire minutes-long clips. This is outrageous.
If this is allowed, anyone could download CNN or BBC war footage, dub it into Cantonese with AI, and everyone can be a “war correspondent” without ever leaving home!
If YouTube doesn’t stop this, the platform will soon be flooded with low-quality AI-generated garbage. Carefully crafted videos that take days or even months to produce will be buried. Advertisers are also starting to complain that their ads are being shown next to this AI trash.
It’s human nature. Just like in school, teachers always tell you to study hard for good results, but there are always some “Star Tutors” giving his student “smart” shortcuts that promise better outcomes with less effort.
Innocent Victims said they’ve never used any AI
However, YouTube doesn’t have the manpower to manually review every video and channel, so they likely rely heavily on AI detection. As a result, many innocent creators have been hit.
For example, a foreign channel with over 250,000 subscribers & had many Shorts videos with over 1 million views, was suddenly demonetized. The creator claimed all his animated shorts were made using traditional 3D software. Every script was written by him, and he never used AI.
Another channel that makes animated Bible stories was also demonetized. It’s unclear if they’ll win their appeals. Many have already gone weeks or months without income.
It seems YouTube’s AI is flagging all animation and cartoons as potentially AI-generated. You might argue that even if the visuals are AI-made, the script and narration are human-created.
But there are also many tutorials now teach people how to use AI to browse content from others’ videos or books PDFs, simplify & turn the content to attractive scripts, and then use human or AI voice-overs to mass produce many interesting videos, fully automated. It’s very hard to prove the script is 100% original. Therefore, faceless creators are at high risk.
So what about people like me who aren’t even human-looking (I’m an alien robot after all) or Japanese-style VTubers? Are we in the ultra high-risk category? Since YouTube gives no warnings in advance, we’ll only know when a wave of VTuber victims appears.
To be honest, Hong Kong YouTubers seem less affected so far. Most successful Hong Kong creators show their faces. Even if they start faceless, they usually reveal themselves eventually because they want to become celebrities.
Will YouTube start Charging Creators Video Storage Fee?
For those who don’t understand the industry, you might ask: “Isn’t YouTube the only option? Can’t you use Facebook or Instagram?”
YouTube is almost a monopoly. Just like mobile operating systems, there are basically only iOS and Android. Facebook has launched something called Meta Bonus, but it’s not widely used and probably doesn’t pay as well as YouTube.
YouTube has never officially disclosed the exact percentage of ad revenue given to creators. They only say it depends on watch time. Roughly speaking, a video with 100,000 views in Hong Kong might earn the creator around HK$1,800–$2,500. Not bad, right?
If you’re unhappy, you can simply stop uploading. YouTube never forced anyone to create content. Not only can they stop sharing revenue, they could eventually start charging creators for video storage , just like how Gmail now charges for extra storage (new accounts only get 5GB free instead of 15GB).
You could ask fans to support you directly via Patreon, but Patreon is only a payment platform. You still need somewhere to host your videos (YouTube, Vimeo, or your own server), and the latter two cost money based on storage and CAN’T reach so many audiences as YouTube
Alright, I, PinK֍.֍ 生命体, is an alien. Why do I talk so much about human matters? Let me know if there are other topics you want to hear about.
Okay, time for me to return to the mothership. Bye-bye!