YouTube Censored Footage of Anti-CCP Protests with Age Restrictions, Demonetization

YouTube censored The China Show podcast, which was covering the massive anti-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) protests in China.

Matt Tye and Winston Sterzel were once the first YouTubers in China, according to their podcast description, and now they expose the CCP on The China Show. YouTube age-restricted both their podcast and another show, China Uncensored, which were covering the mass anti-CCP protests in China, as MRC’s CensorTrack recorded. The China Show was also demonetized.

“When YouTube age-restricts a video, it kills it,” Sterzel said on their Dec. 2 show. He explained that YouTube’s age restriction not only prevents people under a certain age from viewing a video, but it prevents anyone who is not logged into an account from viewing the video. Many people view YouTube videos without being logged in. Sterzel said a restricted video cannot be embedded or preview play. “It doesn’t get shared out, and YouTube doesn’t promote it,” he said. “It completely destroys it.”

The China Show’s video had over 815,000 views at the time of the show, but Tye said the video would likely be at 2 million views if it had not been age-restricted. After an appeal, the restriction has since been lifted, he said, but the damage was done. Tye explained that he objects to the censorship not because “we want to be famous,” but because “it stopped the message of showing the Chinese protestors that wanted the Chinese government to step down.”