YouTube Manual Review

Over the last couple of years, it has become increasingly difficult to monetize a gun-related YouTube channel. Then, last month, YouTube further cracked down on gun channels with restrictive new policies. While not everyone has taken YouTube’s shifting policies well, the gun community is branching out and creating alternative video hosting solutions. So color me surprised . . .

. . . when I saw this in my inbox. I literally did a double take at the subject line, having read it the first time with a ghost “not” interjected as the fourth word.

Though I did not request a manual review on this video — and, in a feeble attempt to fly under YouTube’s radar, have thus far chosen not to request one on any videos demonetized by the company’s algorithms — this one crossed their desk for whatever reason. Despite demonstrating the functionality of an NFA-restricted short barreled rifle and a silencer, including the repeated installation and removal of said silencer, YouTube has found my CMMG BANSHEE 300 BLK SBR Range Review (TTAG review here) worthy of advertisement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zqQ00_FupQ

So…uh…good? I guess? My YouTube revenue barely covers the video creation cost — and only if I don’t put any value on my time — but it’s fun. Approved video or not, I’m still be moving to another website soon.

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24 COMMENTS

  1. It’s a trick. They realize they will be soon facing fierce competition. Only now are they worried about that.

    • Hopefully! They’ve done extreme damage to their relationship with the guntubers, but I’d love for them to stop the bleeding. I don’t want to have to switch to a gun-only channel to get my fix.

      It probably helped that it’s a genuinely great review video.

      • I wish the shift to gun only video hosting would happen faster. For one, it is probably the only category where I go through looking for a lot of related videos at once, and when I’m not I’m pretty much not interested in them at all. That means there’s little benefit to ME for bundling them all up in one place.

        Much more importantly than what I like is that it gives me an option to take my eyeballs someplace else for the stuff I’m interested in. I’d rather google not benefit from my interest in firearms if they are going to behave the way they do.

  3. I could attribute this to a few things

    1-Likely an accident that the AI missed it.
    2-They did A/B testing figured the blow back was bad enough not to bother
    3-They’ll wait for all the buzz to die down, people to return to YouTube for videos like a battered spouse after the alternatives dry up
    4-(really 2A) They’re going to back down until the mid terms get closer and/or are over. E.g. they want people in office that are more sympathetic to their corporate line.

  5. There you go! The blowback is massive as far as I can see. Mebbe YouTube know that…

  6. No one actually watched the video. The subject was scanned for those evil words and letters and numbers: .223, 5.56, .45, .9 or 9, mm, caliber, AR-15, etc.

  9. Hope you aren’t holding your breath….what one reviewer givith, another can taketh away. Seriously, I wouldn’t read anything into this other than a minor reprieve. In the longer term, we need an organization that will host conservative and gun content without interference. YouTube is looking dead for that in the near term, and Google knows way too much about all of us already.

  11. YouTube took down Small Arms Solutions. Accused him of supporting terroism simply because he reviewed a gun made in the UAE. YouTube sucks.

  12. I know someone who reviews content for Google properties, including YouTube. As you might expect, they outsource the job to low-paid workers who just want to clock in and clock out. This might reflect official policy, but there’s no real reason to think so. It’s just as likely to be the result of someone not really looking or caring.

  13. Funny how throwing a few crumbs at the peasants can calm a rabble… well at least that’s what Marie Antoinette thought

  14. I’d like to see all the gun owners come together for a unified strategy. Some argue that we should stay on YouTube because it reaches a wide audience, instead of “preaching to the choir” on gun-specific video hosting sores like Full30. Others argue that we should leave so they stop profiting from us. I would like to see all of the gun channels post teasers on YouTube, with links to the full videos on other sites.

    • I still have yet to see a good video on setting up a slide fire equipped rifle, a solvent trap, or a video about finishing a 80% on Full30.

      They do have some Royal Nonesuch video on there so I will give Full30 credit for that.

  15. My videos were demonetized due to the 1,000 subscriber requirement. I had numerous firearm-related that were demonetized beforehand though…for no good reason.

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