On February 5th, 2023 iBerleezy was terminated on YouTube approximately twenty minutes after Beyonce lost to Harry Styles for Album of the Year at the Grammys. Upon this discovery users flocked to TikTok and Twitter to report that his channel had been taken down.
Not even twelve hours after the initial reports of his channel being terminated #FREEBERLEEZY was trending on Twitter. Some users were even reporting that when the channel was terminated, they were in the middle of watching his videos when it suddenly became unavailable. The hashtag trended consistently for over twenty-four hours with users calling on YouTube to restore his channel. His latest upload at the time was Poop Killer, which is set in a very pixelated adult shop where the antagonist has a toilet for a head.
When people looked for his channel, there was a notice saying “This channel has been terminated for violating guidelines on nudity and sexual content.” Thirty-six to forty-eight hours after his channel was terminated, it was restored with fans rejoicing of his return to the platform. Since then YouTube has yet to issue an apology nor statement regarding it.
This incident rubbed many the wrong way as Berleezy is one of the top three viewed POC gaming creators on YouTube. The basis that his channel was terminated on sexual content only further highlighted what CoryxKenshin said in his video titled “Youtube: Racism and Favoritism.” Black creators are treated extremely unfairly on the platform, receiving strikes on videos without proper justification, getting demonetized frequently, and most notably the algorithm being rewritten to exclude said creators from searches.
M0istCr1TiKaL, a white YouTuber with twelve point two million subscribers, on his Penguin0 channel has over twenty videos featuring adult toys in the thumbnail but has not received a single consequence for it other than age restricting. By the same logic Berleezy lost his channel, Penguin0 should have been terminated a long time ago. However, M0istCr1TiKaL is one of many creators who have this type of content.
As someone looking to get into content creation after graduation, seeing this occur is very disheartening. YouTube has shown several times that they do not like creators of color. Coupled with guideline changes that make it harder for content creators that cater to a more mature audience, it feels as if there is no place for others like me on the platform. There is no current rival to YouTube so it leaves two options; suck it up or get off the platform. Furthermore, it frightens me because Berleezy has over two million subscribers. Smaller creators without that level of backing are left out of luck and forced to start from square one.
YouTube is a social media platform with many issues, however this has happened on too many occasions to POC creators to be considered a coincidence. YouTube needs serious change.
