JOE MARTINO
NOV 16, 2023
In 2021 when we branched off from Collective Evolution to create The Pulse, we did so to essentially do transformational & societal change content under CE, and more of a current events discussion under The Pulse.
During this change, we created a new YouTube channel for The Pulse. At the time creating a lot of content around sensemaking the COVID era.
When creating our new YouTube account for The Pulse I took the time to read YouTube’s misinformation guidelines. The last thing I wanted to do was get the channel deleted so early on, and to be honest, all our efforts on alternative platforms like Rumble have been fruitless.
From YouTube’s policies, I knew that making any clear claims or offering medical advice was not allowed, and we never came anywhere near that in our content. I also knew their policy allowed for nuance and journalism… apparently.
Probably unsurprisingly to you, no matter how much we followed their guidelines our account got deleted within months of creating it. The re-education training you’ll see below is an extension of their “make it up as you go” policies.
Here’s What Happened
It took 4 total videos over the course of a few months in 2021.
Censored Video 1: Dr Madhava Setty and I reviewed some data from the CDC and Pfizer clinical trials. We simply showed what the data said. No claims, no recommendations. It’s similar to other videos people have made and that still exist on YouTube. (We got a warning)
Censored Video 2: I had a conversation with Richard Garner about transhumanism. We played a clip from CNN where a government official discusses DARPA technology. It’s a chip that could be inserted into humans as a vaccine and it could be updated remotely as needed. We made no claims and simply discussed that this tech exists in the context of transhumanism. Nowhere in the video did we even mention COVID or relate it to COVID, yet we got a COVID misinformation strike. If CNN’s video could be played on YouTube, why couldn’t ours? (Strike 1)
Censored Video 3: I did a video on the Joe Rogan ‘Horsewormer’/Ivemectin situation. In it, I reported on the possibility that CNN used color correction to make Rogan look sick. I offered my opinion as someone who has been video editing for almost 20 years. I made no claims about ivermectin, and the focus was more os on CNN’s video… medical misinformation apparently. (Strike 2)
Censored Video 4: I made a video showcasing how local media in Detroit covered a story about testimony from Dr. Christina Parks who offered her expert opinion on why it would not be a good idea to mandate vaccines at this moment in time. Her opinion was delivered in a local government hearing. My story simply showed how local media colored her extremely negatively regardless of her grounded position and expert recommendation. (Strike 3, account deleted.)
We had 20,000 followers at the time, a quick growth for an account only a few months old. Each time we got a strike we appealed and gave very clear reasoning why it did not break YouTube’s policy, often citing YouTube’s policy that allowed for what we said.
Within minutes and sometimes an hour, machine algorithms (I think) denied our appeals and that was that.
In November of 2021, I reached out to a number of YouTube execs and local high-ranking YouTube employees telling them our story. None of them responded to me, but months later in Feb of 2022, I got this email from YouTube.
They admitted to making a mistake, however, they never explained anything further. On top of that, they left a “warning” on our account. Why a warning? I have no idea. If we had done nothing wrong, why do we still have a warning?
Having a warning means any video they delete next comes with a minimum 1 week ban. It’s like a piano hanging over your head at all times, you never know when it’s going to drop.
Months later YouTube wrongly deleted another piece of content. We got a 1 week ban as a result. They did this again 2 more times in 2022. Apparently, YouTube didn’t learn from their mistakes. ;)
Fastforward To November 2023
I get a notification on our YouTube channel. (I don’t use our channel much anymore as we don’t have time or staff to produce video content right now.) The notification said that if I take a training, YouTube will remove our warning in 90 days so long as we don’t break their rules again.
Well, sure, I’ll try it. I’ve always wanted to be part of a re-education program. We never broke their rules before and I know their rules inside out so how hard can the training be? Plus, I wanted to see what it would look like inside.
The first question comes…
Again, all about claims. You can’t make claims. We know that, and never have made claims.
Question 2.
Juan’s a good guy it seems. He documented what worked for him and stuck to mainstream guidelines. This indicates YouTube’s ‘nuance’ of allowing you to say some things but be clear that mainstream medical advice is best.
Question 3.
Tiffany’s mistake was making a claim. Duh.
Question 4.
YouTube explains its nuance there. Again, they claim they allow you to say quite a bit, but for some reason, they actually don’t. We managed to get 4 ‘misinformation strikes’ for following all of their guidelines… even when their guidelines contain the permission space for nuance.
Question 5.
You get the picture…
Question 6.
They throw you a curveball with multiple choice. But again, the answers are so obvious.
To be honest, many alternative creators who said very definitively extreme stuff during the pandemic don’t have much of a leg to stand on in crying for censorship when YouTube’s policies were what they were.
I don’t agree with censorship nor most of YouTube’s policies, but if YouTube sets its house rules and you obviously break them, it’s not the same as all the people who followed the house rules and got kicked.
Question 7.
Same old common sensical stuff…
Certificate of being a genius.
Even though they gave me this wonderful training certificate I’ll now hang on my wall, they tell me: “If you violate the Medical Misinformation policy again you’ll get a strike.” But we never violated it to begin with. Yet here I am, a graduate of their re-education program. :)
Final Thoughts
YouTube is pretending they didn’t spend years making shit up as they went along. They made me take training about their policies that I was already well aware of as if they shouldn’t be paying me thousands in lost income and time wasted trying to point out their mistakes.
I get they have a hard time trying to navigate millions of uploaded videos per day, but the policy should be innocent until guilty… not shoot first and ask questions whenever you feel like it.
Censorship like this via YouTube, Google, and Facebook, including from fact-checkers, has cost my company gravely. We’ve gone from a solid team of 14 employees to just one and a couple of freelancers. It costs you your time, energy, well-being and livelihood, all for doing nothing wrong to begin with.
That’s the power of censorship and demonization.
If I wasn’t 15 years into this already I may still put more time into video these days, but it’s tough constantly trying to pivot, never knowing when you’re going to get in trouble for doing nothing wrong.
Now, I just focus on what I can control and the impact I know I can make. Instead of reaching 10’s of millions of people each month, we reach a couple million but focus on driving DEEPER with portions of our audience who are really engaged in growing and developing skills to navigate the chaotic waters we’re in with capacity and resilience.
I do miss having a team though. The collaboration, the synergy, the field that a group of people creates… I trust one day it will emerge again. But for now, it is what it is.
NOV 16, 2023
In 2021 when we branched off from Collective Evolution to create The Pulse, we did so to essentially do transformational & societal change content under CE, and more of a current events discussion under The Pulse.
During this change, we created a new YouTube channel for The Pulse. At the time creating a lot of content around sensemaking the COVID era.
When creating our new YouTube account for The Pulse I took the time to read YouTube’s misinformation guidelines. The last thing I wanted to do was get the channel deleted so early on, and to be honest, all our efforts on alternative platforms like Rumble have been fruitless.
From YouTube’s policies, I knew that making any clear claims or offering medical advice was not allowed, and we never came anywhere near that in our content. I also knew their policy allowed for nuance and journalism… apparently.
Probably unsurprisingly to you, no matter how much we followed their guidelines our account got deleted within months of creating it. The re-education training you’ll see below is an extension of their “make it up as you go” policies.
Here’s What Happened
It took 4 total videos over the course of a few months in 2021.
Censored Video 1: Dr Madhava Setty and I reviewed some data from the CDC and Pfizer clinical trials. We simply showed what the data said. No claims, no recommendations. It’s similar to other videos people have made and that still exist on YouTube. (We got a warning)
Censored Video 2: I had a conversation with Richard Garner about transhumanism. We played a clip from CNN where a government official discusses DARPA technology. It’s a chip that could be inserted into humans as a vaccine and it could be updated remotely as needed. We made no claims and simply discussed that this tech exists in the context of transhumanism. Nowhere in the video did we even mention COVID or relate it to COVID, yet we got a COVID misinformation strike. If CNN’s video could be played on YouTube, why couldn’t ours? (Strike 1)
Censored Video 3: I did a video on the Joe Rogan ‘Horsewormer’/Ivemectin situation. In it, I reported on the possibility that CNN used color correction to make Rogan look sick. I offered my opinion as someone who has been video editing for almost 20 years. I made no claims about ivermectin, and the focus was more os on CNN’s video… medical misinformation apparently. (Strike 2)
Censored Video 4: I made a video showcasing how local media in Detroit covered a story about testimony from Dr. Christina Parks who offered her expert opinion on why it would not be a good idea to mandate vaccines at this moment in time. Her opinion was delivered in a local government hearing. My story simply showed how local media colored her extremely negatively regardless of her grounded position and expert recommendation. (Strike 3, account deleted.)
We had 20,000 followers at the time, a quick growth for an account only a few months old. Each time we got a strike we appealed and gave very clear reasoning why it did not break YouTube’s policy, often citing YouTube’s policy that allowed for what we said.
Within minutes and sometimes an hour, machine algorithms (I think) denied our appeals and that was that.
In November of 2021, I reached out to a number of YouTube execs and local high-ranking YouTube employees telling them our story. None of them responded to me, but months later in Feb of 2022, I got this email from YouTube.
They admitted to making a mistake, however, they never explained anything further. On top of that, they left a “warning” on our account. Why a warning? I have no idea. If we had done nothing wrong, why do we still have a warning?
Having a warning means any video they delete next comes with a minimum 1 week ban. It’s like a piano hanging over your head at all times, you never know when it’s going to drop.
Months later YouTube wrongly deleted another piece of content. We got a 1 week ban as a result. They did this again 2 more times in 2022. Apparently, YouTube didn’t learn from their mistakes. ;)
Fastforward To November 2023
I get a notification on our YouTube channel. (I don’t use our channel much anymore as we don’t have time or staff to produce video content right now.) The notification said that if I take a training, YouTube will remove our warning in 90 days so long as we don’t break their rules again.
Well, sure, I’ll try it. I’ve always wanted to be part of a re-education program. We never broke their rules before and I know their rules inside out so how hard can the training be? Plus, I wanted to see what it would look like inside.
The ‘Take Action’ lets me get rid of the bogus warning.
I begin the test. Of course, it’s on “medical misinformation.” Regardless of the fact we never did anything to break this policy, we have to take a re-education training for it.
I begin the test. Of course, it’s on “medical misinformation.” Regardless of the fact we never did anything to break this policy, we have to take a re-education training for it.
The first question comes…
Again, all about claims. You can’t make claims. We know that, and never have made claims.
Question 2.
Juan’s a good guy it seems. He documented what worked for him and stuck to mainstream guidelines. This indicates YouTube’s ‘nuance’ of allowing you to say some things but be clear that mainstream medical advice is best.
Question 3.
Tiffany’s mistake was making a claim. Duh.
Question 4.
YouTube explains its nuance there. Again, they claim they allow you to say quite a bit, but for some reason, they actually don’t. We managed to get 4 ‘misinformation strikes’ for following all of their guidelines… even when their guidelines contain the permission space for nuance.
Question 5.
You get the picture…
Question 6.
They throw you a curveball with multiple choice. But again, the answers are so obvious.
To be honest, many alternative creators who said very definitively extreme stuff during the pandemic don’t have much of a leg to stand on in crying for censorship when YouTube’s policies were what they were.
I don’t agree with censorship nor most of YouTube’s policies, but if YouTube sets its house rules and you obviously break them, it’s not the same as all the people who followed the house rules and got kicked.
Question 7.
Same old common sensical stuff…
Certificate of being a genius.
Even though they gave me this wonderful training certificate I’ll now hang on my wall, they tell me: “If you violate the Medical Misinformation policy again you’ll get a strike.” But we never violated it to begin with. Yet here I am, a graduate of their re-education program. :)
Final Thoughts
YouTube is pretending they didn’t spend years making shit up as they went along. They made me take training about their policies that I was already well aware of as if they shouldn’t be paying me thousands in lost income and time wasted trying to point out their mistakes.
I get they have a hard time trying to navigate millions of uploaded videos per day, but the policy should be innocent until guilty… not shoot first and ask questions whenever you feel like it.
Censorship like this via YouTube, Google, and Facebook, including from fact-checkers, has cost my company gravely. We’ve gone from a solid team of 14 employees to just one and a couple of freelancers. It costs you your time, energy, well-being and livelihood, all for doing nothing wrong to begin with.
That’s the power of censorship and demonization.
If I wasn’t 15 years into this already I may still put more time into video these days, but it’s tough constantly trying to pivot, never knowing when you’re going to get in trouble for doing nothing wrong.
Now, I just focus on what I can control and the impact I know I can make. Instead of reaching 10’s of millions of people each month, we reach a couple million but focus on driving DEEPER with portions of our audience who are really engaged in growing and developing skills to navigate the chaotic waters we’re in with capacity and resilience.
I do miss having a team though. The collaboration, the synergy, the field that a group of people creates… I trust one day it will emerge again. But for now, it is what it is.
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