YouTube demonetizes content flagged by moral judgments enforced through algorithms

Evidence

In Safiya Nygaard’s “I Went to an Amazon Returns Store,” one of the products found and purchased is an “herb and spice grinder.” Nygaard, apparently, was under the impression that this product was, in fact, just a grinder for fresh or dried herbs. After doing a little research online, and after looking more closely at the grinder’s packaging and instructions, she discovered that it was a product designed very specifically for grinding marijuana, along with easily filling and forming joints. “For this video’s monetization sake,” Nygaard says, “which is already hanging in the balance just by bringing this up, I’m not going to try it.” Nygaard will tell us about the grinder but will not use it. Discussing products designed for drugs—and certainly, using them, even if not with any intended use in mind—is one way that Nygaard has found her videos either demonetized or threatened with demonetization. The influencer is subject to a set of moral judgments about proper and improper behaviors and content. The weed grinder exceeds the judgment of interesting and becomes too much, too different, too distinct. — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 279