Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg, the owner of the most subscribed channel on YouTube, has hit out against the site’s new “advertiser-friendly guidelines,” saying that the site “doesn’t care about its creators.”
PewDiePie, who has over 47.8 million subscribers on the video-sharing site, shared his thoughts on YouTube’s latest push to make YouTube more appealing to advertisers. This push has seen the site demonetizing videos that haven’t fallen in line with their newly outlined ad-friendly guidelines, meaning that some creators have lost out on money as a result of these strict policies. While YouTube’s parent company Google claimed that these policies have always been in place, it wasn’t until the release of these guidelines that many YouTubers began reporting that their videos were being demonetized, leading to widespread concern from video makers who make a living on the site.
Now PewDiePie has thrown his hat into the ring regarding the debate, mocking the absurdity of the guidelines – which warn against everything from “vulgar language” through to “sexual humor” – saying that he’s “pissed” that “YouTube began demonetizing people’s videos without any notice.”
“That’s the YouTube way, isn’t it?” PewDiePie continued, adding: “Why would they talk to their creators? I mean, it’s not like we are the core of the website … it’s the same story over and over. YouTube make a change, they don’t explain why or what it does, it leads to people being confused and people get pissed off.”
Discussing his thoughts on the new guidelines, he continued: “I don’t understand why YouTube treats everyone on YouTube like they’re a fucking child. That’s not the case anymore. Are kids … the only people who spend money? It doesn’t make any sense.”
Though PewDiePie stated that these policies won’t hurt him financially given the size of his family, he notes that smaller channels will be affected and criticized the lack of communication from YouTube, calling it “insane.” “YouTube doesn’t care about their creators,” he added.
Watch the video below:
