Call to Arms by Joerg Sprave of the Slingshot Channel, to form a Youtuber's Union to combat censorship and demonetization - youtubers unite!

Joerg Sprave of the Slingshot channel (great channel) is calling for a formation of a Union of Youtube users and creators:

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]




There's a transcript linked in the video description and here is a partial excerpt of the transcript with the Youtube Union list of demands:

- Bring back monetization for smaller channels - freedom of speech and fair chances shall not
be limited in any way, not in my book.

- Stop letting bots decide whether or not a channel receives a strike or has to be removed. At
least the verified partners have a right to speak to a real person if you plan to remove their
channel.

- Open up direct communication between the censors ("content department") and us
Creators.

- Stop using demonetized channels as "bait" to advertise monetized videos. If the creator can’t
make any money on that video, you shouldn’t make anything either, even if indirectly.

- Stop demonetization as a whole. If a video is in line with your rules, allow ads on an even
scale. Keep your nose out of our content. If your advertisers don't like that, let them go back
to the dying print media until they come back, tail between their legs.

- Stop preferring some creators over others. No more “YouTube Preferred”. Spread out the ad
money over all YouTubers based on audience retention, not on ads placed next to it. You
know full well that you need controversial videos so you can bombard the audience with
videos that contain your ads. So pay those guys too. A car manufacturer can’t just pay the
sales force. They have to pay the engineers, accountants, workers and even the cleaning
team as well. Otherwise they can’t maintain their business. Same here.

- Community guidelines are OK. Nobody wants to see beheading videos, at least I don’t want
those. But bring out clear rules with clear examples about what is OK and what is a No-No.
Stop referring us to these rubbery rules some slippery lawyers put together for you so you
can interpret them any way you like.

Here is a blunt message for you, YouTube. Listen closely.
Start of message:

Our deal as partners is: We make videos and bring in the views. You provide the infrastructure and
bring in the ads.
We creators are doing our job, every day. Now you do yours as well! Do it now. Focus on your
simple tasks in our partnership, and keep your hands off everything else. Don’t mess with our
content. Don’t prefer some partners over others. Don’t go political. That isn’t for you. Understood?

Come on, it ain’t that hard.
End of message.

How will we get YouTube to give in to this?
By hitting them where it hurts.

- Publicity.
- Reach.
- Money.
First we will gather strength. As soon as we have enough momentum, we can start applying some
pressure. I guess the press will be interested in our movement, and it is time that the world realizes
what is going on behind the scenes of the world’s one and only FreeVoD monopoly.

Then we can voice our issues by jointly approaching the YouTube decision makers. There are several
ways how to do that. If we have enough of an audience behind us, they WILL talk. Look at Logan Paul.
Susan W. personally dealt with the issue.

We will raise so much stink that in the end, they WILL talk to us first before they change anything,
just to make sure we agree and this won’t end in one more PR disaster. This is what big corporations
do today. Change something? Go ask the union guys first.

It may sound hopeless, but it isn’t. Without unions, people would still work 12 to 16 hours a day, six
days a week. Without unions, we’d probably all live in communism now. Unions prevented open
rebellions in many countries, simply by making the majority of workers happy, or at least happy
enough not to join the commie party.