Maine outdoorsmen who post trapping videos on YouTube were stripped of their ability to earn money on the platform, with little explanation as to why.
Two of those channels were reinstated Friday after a Bangor Daily News reporter questioned YouTube over why the channels were demonetized.
Joe Holland runs The Jefferson Scoop, a seasonal ice cream shop that will open soon for the summer. In the off-season, he hunts, fishes, traps and does other outdoor activities that he videos and posts to his popular YouTube channel.
Likewise, Jeremiah Wood, an assistant regional biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife in Ashland, spends his off-time trapping in the season and posting educational videos and podcasts about it on his Trapping Today website and YouTube year-round, including helpful information such as current fur prices.
YouTube, which is owned by Google, is one of the few that allows channel creators to earn money from subscribers, merchandise, advertising and marketing.
Both outdoorsmen recently posted videos on their YouTube channels explaining that they stopped posting content because YouTube demonetized their pages. YouTube cited its animal abuse policies as the primary reason for the demonetization in emails with the creators.
Maine outdoorsmen have embraced social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to share videos of their fishing, trapping, hunting, hiking and other outdoor adventures in Maine as a way to earn money. YouTube’s decision to strip such pages of their ability to make money, despite no proof that they violated any rules, puts thousands of dollars of income at risk for the creators.
Holland estimated Friday that he lost between $10,000-$15,000 while he was demonetized. With no ice fishing videos posted, he lost his sponsorships for that type of content.
YouTube has specific guidelines about content, but some of them are ambiguous. For example, part of its definition of animal abuse is “where a human maliciously mistreats an animal and causes them to experience distress outside of traditional standard practices.”
The media giant defines allowable “traditional standard practices” to include hunting and food preparation.
It also defines animal abuse as “the malicious infliction of serious physical or psychological harm that causes an animal to suffer.” There are exceptions for what are considered accepted practices such as hunting, trapping, pest abatement, food preparation, medical treatment or animal slaughter that “shows harm to an animal or group of animals.”
YouTube offers training on its policies to channel owners, and in some cases it’s required.
“We’ve reinstated the channels joehollandfishing and Trapping Today to the YouTube Partner Program, which were previously suspended by mistake,” said Boot Bullwinkle, a policy communications manager at YouTube, in an email on Friday.
When channels are mistakenly suspended and it’s brought to YouTube’s attention, the company takes appropriate actions, including restoring the channel back to the YouTube Partner Program, Bullwinkle said.
Holland, whose channel has more than 42,000 subscribers, said in his explanation video published on March 5 that he has posted more than 800 videos over the past decade without any violations. He woke up one morning to find his channel demonetized.
Holland appealed YouTube’s decision in mid-February, but was denied reinstatement. He corresponded with Brian, no last name available, at YouTube several times seeking a specific reason for being demonetized, but was repeatedly told he had violated the company’s policies and content rules.
He was referred back to the original notification that cited animal abuse.
He surmised that his 30-episode documentary series “A Maine Wilderness Trapper” is what drew YouTube’s scrutiny. He said the series, and any other videos he posted, observed ethical practices and were educational, and it pained him to take them down because he knew they were presented in the right way.
He wasn’t getting rich from his YouTube channel, but it helped bridge the gaps during low-earning months of the year, Holland said Thursday. He declined to say exactly how much money he made off his channel each year, but he earned enough to buy a snowmobile one year and a trailer for it the next, he said.
He has taken down all of his trapping videos, plus some that were primarily about camping out or otherwise contained trapping elements. He never showed live animals caught in the traps or the killing of them. Dead animals were shown in a respectful way, he said.
“It looks like a hit on trappers,” Holland said in his video. “If the policy is not allowing trapping, be honest.”
That video drew more than 550 comments, mostly in support of Holland’s channel. Some encouraged him to resume posting his content on a competing channel.
Some of the outdoorsmen are moving from YouTube to Rumble, another social media platform that allows channel owners to earn money from their posts. But Rumble doesn’t have the same reach as YouTube, so users don’t earn as much money.
Holland had planned to apply for reinstatement next month, when his 90-day suspension was up. He has yet to figure out what to do with the trapping videos, perhaps posting them on a separate channel or another platform.
“I worked hard to make sure I knew my audience. There might be families, kids and people new to trapping who watch my videos and I tried not to be offensive to them,” Holland said.
Wood, in his swan song video explaining how his channel was demonetized because of some of his trapping content, said he would discontinue it and not apply to be reinstated. The entire purpose of his channel was to educate people about the ethics, methods and modern approaches to trapping.
Wood, whose channel was eight years old, had 8,650 subscribers and his explanation video had 8,800 views, with 186 commenters mostly supporting his content.
“YouTube determined what we do as trappers is unethical so they shut off our ability to make money from ads,” he said in the video.
He considered moving to Rumble, but described it as a ghost town. He said in his video he was posting his material to his website and weighing his options, but said he would not publish videos on YouTube anymore. He did not show live animals in traps or being killed.
On Friday after learning his channel had been reinstated and that YouTube admitted making a mistake, Wood said he was inclined to continue with his Trapping Today channel.
“But to think someone can flip a switch and turn it off made me think I should diversify,” he said.
A few of the YouTube channels that offer trapping videos now carry a warning at the beginning of their episodes letting viewers know there may be violent or uncomfortable material.