A YouTuber posted a video criticizing a problematic trend on the platform, but it was taken down before the offending videos were
- Kurtis Conner is a commentary YouTuber with over 2 million subscribers.
- He recently called out YouTube for taking down one of his older videos where he criticized a trend that he felt was harmful.
- In the video he spoke about a "female Viagra prank" he'd seen on several channels, where a man would spike their girlfriend's food or drinks with a pill that was meant to increase libido.
- Conner told Insider he was surprised to see that many of the prank videos were still available to watch on YouTube after his own video criticizing them was removed.
- In a response on Twitter, the TeamYouTube account said Conner's video "didn't meet the bar to stay on the platform because it still has the potential to put people at risk."
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YouTuber Kurtis Conner runs one of the most popular commentary channels on the platform, where he has over 2 million subscribers. He posts comedic videos where he critiques movies, influencer behavior, and popular culture trends.
On May 5 Conner tweeted that one of his older videos where he called out a dangerous prank had been removed for violating YouTube's community guidelines. He was confused because he saw that some of the videos he had been criticizing were still available to view.
"The gist of the video was me talking about a certain couple on Instagram who made these videos about the guy giving his girlfriend this 'female Viagra' and I was saying how ridiculous and harmful it is to be showing that on the internet," Conner told Insider.
"When doing research on this topic, I saw that this couple, in particular, wasn't the only couple participating in this trend."
He said he was baffled by the fact there was a video of a man effectively drugging his girlfriend without her consent, and people either didn't have a problem with it or found it funny.
"Even if the videos were fake, it's still a pretty harmful thing to be putting it online and showing it to an impressionable audience," he said.
Conner tweeted about his video being taken down with some screenshots of the videos that were still live on YouTube. The TeamYouTube Twitter account responded to Conner, saying they removed the videos in question.
They also stood firm on the decision to keep his video offline, saying it "didn't meet the bar to stay on the platform because it still has the potential to put people at risk."
"They said that they don't allow 'harmful pranks' to be shown on their platform, but I wasn't doing any pranks," Conner said. "I was saying how harmful the pranks were, but the actual pranks are still up on YouTube, which makes no sense to me."
Many of Conner's videos follow this theme of condemning behaviors that he thinks could be problematic. In a recent one, he called out a disturbing trend where YouTuber couples would "prank" their friends into thinking they were in abusive relationships by pretending to hit each other, and even use fake blood.
Conner said he was "blown away by the sheer insanity" of it, and couldn't believe such content was allowed on YouTube. The video was set to private by the user who posted it, Sebastian Bails, rather than being removed by the platform.
The appeals process seems to be lacking, as many creators feel like they are left in the dark if their content is removed.
"It's frustrating because on the creator's side, there's not much we can do after an appeal is filed," he said. "We just have to hope that our reasoning somehow changes their mind, and it rarely does."
This is the first time any of his videos have actually been taken down, although some have been flagged as non-advertiser friendly in the past and demonetized.
"I totally understand the age restriction on that video, I thought that was a fair decision and assumed it would end there," he said. "But I guess not."
Creators have long thought their content is demonetized and removed for seemingly inconsistent reasons. For example, YouTubers Nerd City, Sealow, and Analyzed recently identified a long list of words that immediately get videos demonetized, including "gay" and "lesbian" but not "straight" or "heterosexual," but YouTube denied such an identifier exists.
Conner said he doesn't know how YouTube could fix the system, for creators, but "more communication and reasoning" behind their decisions "would make a lot more people less upset with them."
"I'm on YouTube's side in all this is what's most frustrating about this whole thing," he said. "I don't want those pranks on YouTube either. I think critique should be allowed and even encouraged, not removed if I'm talking about a controversial topic."
A YouTube rep responded to Insider's request for comment saying they would look into the situation.
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