2 creators get YouTube notice on EVM videos, monetisation curbed

Mishra’s YouTube channel, Sohit Mishra Official, has over 3.68 lakh subscribers, and Meghnad’s channel has over 42,000 subscribers.

Mishra told The Indian Express that four of his videos on the subject of EVMs were placed under “limited monetisation”. Of these, monetisation was eventually restored for only one video, upon Mishra’s request for a review.

The platform curbed Meghnad’s earnings from advertisements for four of his live-stream videos recently. Each of these videos, which are two to three hours long, features Meghnad answering audience questions on EVMs, sharing updates on the Supreme Court hearing about 100% VVPAT counting, and discussing electoral bonds, among other things. “I have applied for review and am yet to get a response. I have no clarity as to why this has happened,” he said.

However, according to YouTube, advertisements on Mishra’s and Meghnad videos were blocked on the ground that they violated the advertiser guidelines. These violations include promoting demonstrably false information about public voting procedures, political candidate eligibility based on age or birthplace, election results and Census participation that contradicts official government records, sources said.

When reached for an official comment, a YouTube spokesperson told The Indian Express: “All channels on YouTube must comply with our Community Guidelines. Creators who wish to monetize their videos with ads are held to an even higher bar and must also comply with our Advertiser-Friendly Guidelines. Any claims that are demonstrably false and could significantly undermine participation or trust in an electoral or democratic process are in violation of our policies. These guidelines are enforced consistently, regardless of the creator, their background, political viewpoint, position or affiliation.”

The move comes just months after YouTube began adding “context panel” to videos on EVMs. As first reported by this newspaper on January 7, apart from highlighting the “safeguards” in place to ensure “free and fair” elections, the context panel, placed right below the EVM-related videos, also includes a link that directs viewers to FAQs released by the Election Commission of India about the voting process and voting machines. This was introduced following a request from the EC.

Asked if the Commission had also requested YouTube to take steps to demonetise such videos, an EC spokesperson said: “We have no comments.”

Among Mishra’s three videos that have been penalised, so to speak, is one in which he speaks to a software expert, a senior journalist and commentator, a political leader, and another creator about EVMs. The discussion lasts over an hour, and the video is titled: “Questions over the EVM, one-sided Election Commission, and a weak democracy”. Uploaded on March 8, the video had garnered over 94,000 views as of Friday.

Another video that was affected, titled “Will there be free and fair elections in India?”, was uploaded on March 25 and has over 40,000 views. In it, Mishra questions whether the elections can truly be considered free and fair when central agencies act against opposition leaders and parties, and concerns about the EVMs have not been addressed by the polling panel.

The third video of Mishra’s is about BJP members appointed as independent directors of Bharat Electronics Ltd, one of the two PSUs that manufactures EVMs. He cites a letter written by retired IAS officer E A S Sarma to the Election Commission asking the EC to intervene in the matter. While the video was uploaded on January 30 and has over 1.5 lakh views, the monetisation was limited recently, Mishra said.

Further, he told The Indian Express that at a time when the Supreme Court had issued notice in the case of 100% counting of VVPAT slips, his videos talking about the concerns on EVM and VVPATs had been placed on limited monetisation by YouTube. “By not allowing monetisation on such videos, creators will stop making videos on EVMs,” he said.

To be eligible to earn ad revenue from YouTube, a channel should have at least 1,000 subscribers with 4,000 valid public watch hours in the past 12 hours or 1,000 subscribers with 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days, according to YouTube.

Once a creator switches on monetisation, the advertiser-friendly guidelines apply. How much a creator earns is based on a number of factors, including the subscribers, the number of ads that can be placed in the length of the video and the type of content. Videos where the focal point is violence, profanity, adult content and other sensitive topics may not be suitable for advertising at all, YouTube’s advertiser-friendly content guidelines say.

“During the upload process, we use machine learning to figure out if a video meets our advertiser-friendly content guidelines. We also check scheduled live streams. Before the stream goes live, our systems look at the title, description, thumbnail, and tags,” YouTube says.

If a video is on limited monetisation, the creator may not get any ad revenue that YouTube makes on it, but will be able to earn from the YouTube Premium paid service, memberships and superchats, which can be substantially less than ad revenue. However, for live videos the revenue from superchats can be more depending on the level of engagement.