YouTube has remonetized the channel of conservative commentator and comedian Steven Crowder after banning advertisements on his content over a year ago.
YouTube reinstated Crowder into its Partner Program on Wednesday after suspending him on June 5, 2019, over comments and jokes he made about then-Vox journalist Carlos Maza, as well as for selling merchandise with the label “Socialism is for f*gs,” according to Tubefilter.
At the time it demonetized Crowder, YouTube had conceded that none of Crowder’s content had violated its hate policies. The video platform ultimately decided to pull advertising off of Crowder’s content after stating that the commentator had engaged in a “pattern of egregious actions” that “harmed the broader community and is against our YouTube Partner Program policies.”
Crowder celebrated his reinstatement into the Partner Program during his show on Thursday.
“I know that the Left was furious with the Vox ad-pocalypse, right? You wanted us to be banned. That didn’t happen. You wanted to claim that we violated policies. That didn’t happen. You wanted us to apologize, and that did happen for 26 minutes, I believe, if you watch that [old] video,” Crowder said, referencing an “apology” video he did last year.
“Then your only win was, ‘Well, at least we made sure that Louder With Crowder – that they will cease to make a living on YouTube.’ And then we made our living off of Mug Club, but you could still sort of cling to, ‘Well, at least they’re still not actually making money on YouTube.’ So that was the one win on the scoreboard for you guys. You were one and six,” Crowder said. “Now you have to wipe off the one and put your mouth on the table while your friend just smacks you for misbehaving. That’s about what you got. All of the victories are gone. I understand we could be demonetized tomorrow. We don’t care. Our conversation with YouTube has always been, ‘We just want to have a fair shake on the platform.’”
Crowder: 1
The Left: 0#CrowderRemonetized pic.twitter.com/CatsI4IDA4— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) August 13, 2020
Crowder also parodied Hank Williams Jr.’s song “A Country Boy Can Survive” retitled as “A Mug Club Can Survive.”
#CrowderRemonetized pic.twitter.com/jiBHSRtZe0
— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) August 13, 2020
Maza, who split from Vox earlier this year, responded to YouTube’s decision on his twitter account, slamming the social media company and claiming that it has refused to enforce its own rules on content moderation in order to make a profit.
“YouTube has reinstated Steven Crowder into its Partner Program, meaning they’ll once again allow him to monetize his videos. Demonetizing was already insufficient, but this decision proves that YouTube has no real interest in enforcing its anti-hate policies,” Maza said in the beginning of a six-tweet thread.
“I said it last June, and I’ll say it again: YouTube has a tremendous profit incentive to keep hate speech on the platform. Hate performs well and drives up the company’s numbers. It has never had any interest in enforcing its rules, and uses them solely to distract journalists,” Maza continued. “YouTube has spent years actively promoting white supremacist and transphobic content. It’s the largest radicalization engine on the planet. It is bonkers that journalists continue to act as if this is a moderation failure, when it’s actually YouTube’s entire business strategy.”