Youtube reverses decision to censor Red Dead Redemption 2 suffrage video

This week Youtube made headlines over a controversial stance which saw a gaming channel suspended after several videos being deleted on the platform, which showed violent scenes from the game Red Dead Redemption 2 taking place against a suffrage.

In a video called 'Annoying feminist fed to Alligator', the Youtube account Shirrako showed a suffrage get lasso'd, dragged through a swamp, fed to an alligator and then beaten up. It is an undeniably violent act which takes place, but of course this is within the context of being a video game; and similar violent acts have been involved in similar games for generations now, with the Grand Theft Auto series having similarities with the Red Dead franchise.

Anyway, Youtube deemed the clip bad enough to violate policy and eventually the channel was suspended. Since then, the channel and its videos have been restored and overall it has probably had a positive effect for the channel Shirrako due to the surge in publicity it has generated. A Youtube employee said the guidelines were not violated as first thought, which lead to the restoration.

Overall - the whole episode has shown that even video game violence is now being questioned by the Youtube policy which hints towards a change in becoming more child-friendly and politically correct.
As mentioned earlier, it isn't that the act is not a bad thing, it's that it's done within the context of a video game which makes it understandable, the same way that cartoons can be violent; it doesn't mean that the violent act is acceptable in real life.

Watch the video and make your mind up for yourself. Do Youtube have a moral standard to keep to? is the in-game attack against an ideology? or is it just a case of militant feminism destroying good-natured fun?

- Youtube Drama

The Rise and Fall of H3H3 productions, and what it says about Youtube culture?

If you've kept an eye on H3H3 productions lately, then you would know that Ethan Klein in particular has increasingly come under pressure from not only his enemies, but also his fans - and for various reasons which will be discussed below:

The first and main reason was the decline in content on his original H3H3 Productions channel, which resulted in H3H3 giving more focus to their other Youtube channel, The H3H3 podcast.
Like many famous podcast channels, it featured a variety of guests and discussions, which generally didn't go down well with his main audience.
In short, the move away from his usual content towards doing a podcast was disliked by many, as they saw him almost as 'selling out' - because he could easily churn out weekly content via a podcast, whereas the original channel was more artistic in its ideas, which were typically more humorous.
So, although H3H3 started appearing more, Ethan in particular was seen as less comical - often airing his own opinions which weren't always agreed upon. This differed from his original channel, where his opinions weren't as vocal - and he was mostly playing the role as a comedian (this is a classic example of a funnyman turning serious, which his audience didn't take to).

The second reason why people turned was because of his video game release, which was literally the first video in months on his old channel. Again, it was seen as a money grab and inappropriate considering Ethan would previously criticise other Youtubers for promoting other avenues of income (see Jake Paul's constant pushing of his 'merch', to the disdain of H3).
Reflecting on this, Ethan blamed his depression for lack of videos, which may be a genuine reason for his lack of original content, although even then - some viewers have claimed it was a cheap excuse.

Another factor which didn't help was the infamous Bill Burr podcast, which was seen mostly as cringe-worthy due to their bad chemistry and Ethan's inability to connect with Bill. The whole exchange felt uncomfortable and showed than Ethan was probably a better entertainer than host.

As a result of all of this, many videos have now popped up criticising Ethan, claiming he has changed for the bad, and that his Podcast is simply poor content. Although Ethan's image is far from dead, it does not look good for the future as Youtube fans can be fickle (see Epic Meal Time's tragic decline from grace)
This leads us on to the question in the title - what does this say about Youtube culture?

In short, it says that Youtube fans can turn upon their once idols, if not pleased. Personally, I do not think that H3H3 has done much wrong, and it was inevitable that with more fame, they would branch out as a brand. Of course, part of the original H3 charm was that they would often critique people for opening up and doing cringey things, so H3H3 would always be open to this criticism themselves. Perhaps more dark, is the amount of people out there willing to jump on someone when things change, as seen by the sheer amount of criticism videos now out there, which is a lot considering H3 have not done anything massively controversial.

In conclusion, it will be interesting to see how it all pans out and where H3 will be in a years time.

- Youtube Drama