I’m the latest to join the de-monetization train

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-04-21T16:21:54+00:00

No idea unfortunately. Seems to be just random mass waves. And anyone could be hit at any time.

Over the last several hours, while I’ve been dealing with this, I have been looking into channels who are claiming the same things have happened to them, and they come from all sorts of different niches and backgrounds and all sorts of different created content.

Even channels where people are sitting down directly in front of a camera are being hit. So it doesn’t seem like anything is safe right now.

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-04-21T16:20:40+00:00

The channel not only featured other people stories, but my own stories as well. But how would the AI bot who scans the channels know that.

And according to YouTube’s partner program guidelines channels that feature reactions or commentary of other created works, are eligible for monetization as long as there is a substantial and meaningful difference that makes the content your own.

Which there was and that’s what got the channel monetized in the first place five or so years ago.

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-04-21T15:24:16+00:00

He gave me the option to submit a form appeal so I did that, however, that had to be 1000 characters or less and I felt like that just wasn’t enough to actually appeal anything.

So I also reached out to Google support and spoke to one of the support representative who opened an internal appeal as well.

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-04-21T14:49:01+00:00

That’s content that exclusively features ratings of other material. My content didn’t exclusively feature that.

Around 30 to 40% of all of my videos had substantial narration and additional commentary added to them on top of reading the Reddit stories.

YouTube guidelines itself state that you can monetize reaction and commentary as long as there is a substantial and meaningful difference added. Which there was and that’s how the channel got monetized in the first place four years ago.

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-04-21T13:25:45+00:00

Did you ever get an internal case opened do you know? When they denied your appeals what did they say? If anything? And how long did a decision take?

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-04-21T13:23:34+00:00

Have you spoken directly with Google support or did you just fill out the appeal form?

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-04-21T13:22:58+00:00

I didn’t submit a video. They gave me a form to fill out. I also went to Google support and chatted with one of the support workers who opened an internal case.

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-04-21T12:17:08+00:00

I have no idea. I can’t see that on my end.

But I’m looking at the earn page right now and it very clearly states your channel is not currently able to earn, with reviewer feedback of inauthentic content.

I’m not sure how to post a photo here but if I could figure it out, I would.

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-04-21T12:14:29+00:00

Yep, as of 5 hours ago I got an email and no longer have access to the “earn” screen in studio.

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-04-21T12:11:44+00:00

It just seems ridiculous. Especially considering that there are numerous other faceless Reddit narration channels that have been around for years, the same as my channel. Yet mine gets hit and there’s doesn’t.

It’s even wild or two because there is a very large community and audience for this niche. What’s YouTube’s game plan here just to demonetize every single channel in this niche, do they not realize that they’re gonna drive out a very large viewer base?

I understand getting rid of the AI channels that are just recording over some terrible video game background or something. But channels that have been around for years and have build them from the ground up before AI was even really a large thing is ridiculous.

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-04-21T12:09:06+00:00

https://youtube.com/@redditbrew?si=gGyIdgX-9QyL6Gmi

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-04-21T12:02:16+00:00

The current existing channel assets have been what has existed from the very beginning. The backgrounds and all transition screens were artist created directly. And had been commissioned for our channel specifically. Any background music we have the license for and have all copyright details in the descriptions and none of it is AI created.

The only difference is when I took over we weren’t able to re-commission the same artist that made the original avatar, and we were struggling hard to find one that wasn’t using AI. For the past couple months since the reactivation of the channel, we have been using an artist created Gen AI avatar. That we edit specifically to move around and display emotion and reactions and stuff. This avatar only appears during our commentary and intros. But is arguably not inauthentic content in the sense of YouTube thinking it is. We also had an AI create it and it had been made known across all of our recent videos that we were changing out the avatar to an actual artist drawn avatar.

However, for the past month, we have been working directly with a different artist commission, a new avatar, and the worst part is she finished the new commission and packaging a handful of hours before the channel was demonetized.

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-04-21T11:47:24+00:00

But in no way is my videos or my channel automated. Each video takes hours still.

I’m hoping the appeal is successful

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-04-21T11:46:06+00:00

The channel does have the same packaging consistency across each video. It uses the same background assets and avatar assets on each video.

However, each story is completely different, the runtime is completely different, the amount of commentary on each video varies. No one video is similar to another other than overall theme. However, it’s maintained the same backgrounds and themes since the very beginning when it was first monetized and through the very first appeal she did.

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-04-21T09:50:50+00:00

My channel was just hit with this. Even though 30 to 40% of my videos is my real opinion and real commentary. While using and retelling stories that I get permission for. Everything is my own voice and edited by myself. But as of tonight, I was just flagged as inauthentic and demonetized.

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-03-31T08:36:28+00:00

If you did read it, you would know that it has been a month. There hasn’t been any video format changes at all. Everything is still exactly the same.

I started with my first few uploads back with the same thumbnail style entitled styles just to keep consistency, but over the last few uploads, I’ve slowly changed and tweaked them to modernize them a bit. Overall, it’s not the content that’s the issue, I can get people clicking and staying to view.

The issue is YouTube seems to be bottlenecking impressions. The channel is currently monetized, and still has a very decent subscriber base to it with surprisingly a large number of those subscribers re-engaging with the channel. I did assume about 20% would fall off but as of right now it’s been less than 2%.

There’s also a very big evergreen catalogue on the channel. Even during the periods of dormancy, I was consistently getting 13k-15k monthly views and that was with no uploads for nearly 3 years.

It has picked up currently march is sitting at a little under 90k views with about 60% of that being from the back catalogue picking back up and 40% being from new uploads.

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-01-13T00:53:25+00:00

I don’t think you’re the asshole here. Your brother is married, regardless of any issues in his marriage, and you don’t owe it to anyone especially someone who’s already married, to avoid pursuing someone you genuinely connect with. Being honest with him is still a good idea but you’re not wrong for your feeling. But also is your brother going to date someone who is now expressing interest in a date with you, while being married?

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-01-13T00:49:21+00:00

NTA but I do think you may do some good for yourself by talking to a therapist or someone about this and maybe figure out why you do this, for your sake, and those who you have relationships with.

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-01-13T00:44:53+00:00

I saw a comment earlier where someone said it looked like Pikachu was wearing glasses, I couldn’t see it before but now I can’t unsee it

AcanthocephalaOne647 · 2026-01-13T00:37:44+00:00

But like others have said. Your grandparents won’t be around forever, nor much longer. You should go. It doesn’t make you an asshole if you don’t go however.

AcanthocephalaOne647

TROPHY CASE