YouTube is shutting down, and issuing “strikes” against, accounts that feature marijuana or marijuana-adjacent content at an unprecedented rate. The crackdown is leaving many in the community who’ve built large subscriber bases and revenue streams wondering, “what the hell changed?”
Dontae, founder and executive producer of the cannabis entertainment and education production company Loaded Up Entertainment, told High Times that his page received three strikes over the last few months, resulting in a deletion of its YouTube channel last week. A video from the channel’s educational series about the best munchies to eat while high was the final strike, Dontae was informed days after the deletion.
Everyone please go comment and email @YouTube tell them you need the Loaded Up Youtube Channel back! #stayloadedup
— Loaded Up Entertainment (@loadedup_ent) April 24, 2018
“We are definitely considering moving to other platforms,” he told us. That might include sites like The WeedTube, which was created in response to cannabis censorship on YouTube. Loaded Up’s deletion “gave us an awakening call that social media platforms are just tools for us to use—and that you have to go really go for a platform where people can go that’s not going to be censored out.”
Loaded Up—which had about 200,000 subscribers before the deletion—is one of numerous channels producing weed-related videos that have been shut down in recent weeks. Other channels have seen an uptick in specific videos “flagged for review” and “deleted” due to alleged community guideline violations.
What Does YouTube’s Community Guidelines Actually Say?
Videos that promote “violent or dangerous acts” or show “drug abuse, underage drinking and smoking, or bomb making” violate YouTube’s community guidelines. Well, when it comes to content featuring marijuana, which is legal