Is demonetization becoming a trend?

The premise

• Youtube in a single decision wiped out possibly millions of jobs by demonetizing the income streams of Youtubers
• Youtube was pressured into this decision by a pullout from advertisers who threatened to boycott Youtube due to controversial Youtubers

So as we can see in the Youtube example, demonetization are used in a similar way as economic sanctions. Economic sanctions are how the US government demonetizes foreign countries like Russia or North Korea, or how funding is restricted from terrorists. Have controversial Youtubers reached a point where they are seen in a similar way as the US sees foreign countries and terrorist groups? Does the US government see controversial Youtubers as domestic terrorists?

Except these economic sanctions did not come from the US government but instead came from the private sector which acted mysteriously similar to how a government would act. How was all of this made possible? First Youtube is centralized, and Youtube takes most of the ads on the Internet, and as a result when there are only two places for advertisers to go (Youtube or Facebook) the result is a sort of advertiser lock in. At the same time Youtubers don't have anywhere else to go to get ad revenue and are also locked into Youtubes algorithms and the decisions made by Google.

Will demonetization become a trend?

When something works once as a proof of concept then it typically is added to the activist's toolkit. Economic activists in the private sector have proven that it is possible to censor content via a boycott mechanism. This is interesting because this mechanism can be applied to anything and not just restricted to content on Youtube. It can be the case that a smart contract could piss off enough people in enough industries that the private sector comes together to punish anyone discovered to be lending aid and financial support to that smart contract. ISPs also have the ability to monitor what users do and sell that information which means advertisers can access it but it also means private companies may be able to buy other data such as usage patterns in the future.

Conclusion

Demonetization if it is a trend will spread beyond Youtubers and into all sectors. In the end the lesson to learn is we must respect our stakeholders, whomever they might be. These stakeholders are the advertisers if you're a Youtuber, your sponsors if you're a blogger, athlete, etc, your users if you are a developer, your investors if you are doing an ICO. There will always be stakeholders and these stakeholders must always be respected because they keep the income flowing in. In order for controversial Youtubers to continue to generate income they will need to find ways to create new stakeholders and remonetize themselves without the help from Youtube. For Youtubers who don't want to be put into the controversial Youtuber group they will have to obey Google's algorithms and adjust their content. At the end, no matter the industry, anyone can be held accountable to the stakeholders.

References

1. http://www.startribune.com/youtube-ad-boycott-could-spell-trouble-for-alphabet-s-google/420652223/