YouTube is allowing right-wing creators with millions of subscribers to misgender and deadname trans people on its platform — and monetizing that content through advertising. YouTube has claimed for years to be committed to protecting trans people from hate speech and harassment on the platform while resisting advocates’ calls to explicitly prohibit intentionally deadnaming or misgendering trans people — forms of harassment that involve using a trans person's former name or incorrect pronouns. Media Matters reviewed the YouTube channels of popular right-wing pundits including The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, Michael Knowles, and Candace Owens and found that they have repeatedly misgendered and deadnamed high-profile trans people, including minors. What’s more, their content misidentifying trans people was frequently monetized, meaning that YouTube and the creators likely profited from this bigotry. Though YouTube has temporarily suspended or demonetized accounts in the past for violating its hate speech and harassment policies by promoting bigotry against LGBTQ people, the platform’s lack of explicit rules around misgendering and deadnaming has left YouTube rife with monetized anti-trans vitriol.
Not only does YouTube allow content like this to be monetised, they are often also actively promoting it. Alt-right videos regularly pop up in YouTube recommendations, even for users who never watch any political content.
All that matters is engagement, and apparently that kind of content is very effective in keeping people watching. Regardless of the broader consequences.
Yep I get recommended Anti-trans videos in completely unrelated searches. Like this absolutely vile Blair white one comes up whenever I search for ASMR now. Even though it shows naked trans people and I’ve reported it dozens of times.