Yesterday I wrote about the ongoing public battle between Vox’s Carlos Maza and Steven Crowder. Much to my surprise, YouTube told Maza last night that there was nothing in Crowder’s videos which violated its rules: “Our teams spent the last few days conducting an in-depth review of the videos flagged to us, and while we found language that was clearly hurtful, the videos as posted don’t violate our policies.”

(2/4) Our teams spent the last few days conducting an in-depth review of the videos flagged to us, and while we found language that was clearly hurtful, the videos as posted don’t violate our policies. We’ve included more info below to explain this decision:

— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) June 4, 2019

(4/4) Even if a video remains on our site, it doesn’t mean we endorse/support that viewpoint.

There are other aspects of the channel that we’re still evaluating– we’ll be in touch with any further updates.

— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) June 4, 2019

Here is Maza’s initial response:

https://twitter.com/gaywonk/status/1136056663927087105

Gizmodo spoke with someone at YouTube who offered this additional information of the situation:

We take into consideration whether criticism is focused primarily on debating the opinions expressed or is solely malicious. We apply these policies consistently, regardless of how many views a video has.

In videos flagged to YouTube, Crowder has not instructed his viewers to harass Maza on YouTube or any other platform and the main point of these videos was not to harass or threaten, but rather to respond to the opinion.

There is certain behavior that is never ok: that includes encouraging viewers to harass others online and offline, or revealing nonpublic personal information (doxxing).

None of Maza’s personal information was ever revealed in content uploaded by Crowder and flagged to our teams for review.

That also didn’t sit well with Carlos Maza:

https://twitter.com/gaywonk/status/1136137201262178304

https://twitter.com/gaywonk/status/1136155983317745664

Last night it seemed that might be the end of it. The battle was over and Crowder had won. However, earlier today YouTube announced it would suspend Crowder’s monetization “because of a pattern of egregious actions has harmed the broader community.”

Update on our continued review–we have suspended this channel’s monetization. We came to this decision because a pattern of egregious actions has harmed the broader community and is against our YouTube Partner Program policies. More here: https://t.co/VmOce5nbGy

— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) June 5, 2019

Carlos Maza was not satisfied with this and he complained once again about Crowder’s t-shirts.

https://twitter.com/gaywonk/status/1136342694442217472

https://twitter.com/gaywonk/status/1136345466474553344

Maza’s Vox co-worker German Lopez called it “worse than nothing”:

https://twitter.com/germanrlopez/status/1136348344530477056

But others thought it was an absurd decision:

If @YouTube is now going to police insulting speech — not violent speech, not incitement, not actual fake news — because a virulently censorious, radical activist masquerading as a journalist complains about being insulted, they're a joke.

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) June 5, 2019

And then, before the sides could even settle in, YouTube clarified that the demonetization of Crowder’s channel was temporary. He would just have to remove a link to his t-shirts to get himself reinstated:

To clarify, in order to reinstate monetization on this channel, he will need to remove the link to his T-shirts.

— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) June 5, 2019

Maza was not happy:

https://twitter.com/gaywonk/status/1136356146049167365

To be fair, the t-shirts are one of the things that Maza has repeatedly complained about in the past few days including just a few hours ago (note the 2 examples above): “Crowder’s revenue stream isn’t from YouTube ads. It’s from selling merch and “Socialism Is For Fags” shirts to millions of loyal customers, that @YouTube continues to drive to his channel. For free.”

But if the demonetization of Crowder’s channel is temporary, it seems YouTube is demonetizing a lot of other channels today:

Breaking tons of channels have just been fully demonetized by @TeamYouTube due to the #VoxAdpocalypse !

Mostly channels that stream on YouTube.

— KEEM 🍿 (@KEEMSTAR) June 5, 2019

We have details in incoming video, but YouTube and Vox have launched an all out WAR on ALL independent creators. Thousands of channels under review!

PLEASE TWEET us if you’ve been demonetized under the new #VoxAdpocalypse guidelines! Will be discussing in tonight’s show.

— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) June 5, 2019

Channels are being fully demonetized at a insane rate. I can’t keep up! #VoxAdpocalypse pic.twitter.com/j7EdwzKvMp

— KEEM 🍿 (@KEEMSTAR) June 5, 2019

So it appears that Carlos Maza and Vox are having an impact even if it’s not exactly the one they intended. Crowder is promising a live update on the situation will begin soon. I’ll add the stream if it’s available.

#VoxAdpocalypse is trending #5 in the U.S.
We'll be going LIVE in a few. Feel free to push it higher!

This is beyond politics now. This is massive media corporations vs ALL of YouTube's independent creators.

— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) June 5, 2019

Update: Here’s the Crowder live-stream.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkcHRxwr6oY