We're Under Attack

A few days ago, YouTube recommended this video to me. I'm deleting my channel, not a joke. That got my attention. I clicked. Saw that he has over 600 ,000 subscribers. Was a little surprised I hadn't heard about David Wood before.

David made some intriguing points. Maybe I should delete my channel. Let's talk about what David shared, and then I'll talk about what I plan to do with this channel. In a follow-up video, David made this interesting point.

YouTube, Censorship, and Christian Content

Think about me. Now think about yourself. Now think about me. Now think about yourself. Now think about me. Now think about yourself. Who knows more about YouTube? This is certainly true concerning 99 .9 of people who watch his videos.

But even though this channel is significantly smaller than his, I'd say I'm pretty qualified to talk about YouTube. For David, the big issue is YouTube's apparent hostility toward his content.

I appeal the strike. YouTube instantly rejects the appeal because they don't actually read them. And a bunch of us complain to Team YouTube on Twitter, and I contact YouTube directly and complain. And YouTube eventually admits that they were wrong for banning my content.

But sometimes it takes weeks to get them to fix their mistake. By the time they fix their mistake, I've already served my entire seven-day sentence. These guys are like cops who walk around arresting people for no reason, and then reluctantly release the people after they've served their entire sentence for completely bogus charges.

YouTube has adopted a punish-first-ask-questions-later, guilty-until-proven-innocent

YouTube has banned several of his videos.

I made a video where I interviewed the friend of a girl who had been murdered by her family in an honor killing. That video was banned for hate speech. I made a video condemning cartoon killings. Banned for hate speech.

I made a video criticizing the British legal system for helping child traffickers. Banned for hate speech.

Which results in strikes, the inability to upload for a period of time, and the threat of losing his channel altogether. It seems that most of the time, David is able to successfully appeal the bans and strikes.

True, we would probably get YouTube to fix their inevitable mistakes, but again, sometimes that takes days or weeks.

But he is frustrated with the time and stress it takes to resolve these quote-unquote mistakes.

By YouTube. So, it's very difficult to get started on long-term projects when there's no long-term stability.

David says that YouTube is hostile towards Christian content. So instead of continuing to feed the enemy, he wants to fight back by depriving it of at least one, albeit relatively small, source of its power.

To defeat YouTube, you have to reverse the power flow. You have to make it so that the things you control are feeding off of YouTube and other platforms so that the things you control are constantly growing and getting stronger.

In other words, the shark suddenly sees the giant multi-headed mutant lamprey and uses the lamprey as its new food source.

David plans to put his content on platforms that won't censor his content.

Defenders Media has built a platform where my videos can't be banned unless I post something illegal. All of my content that's currently here will be there. That platform launches next week.

His goal is to become uncancellable, since YouTube currently has the power to cancel his channel at any moment.

Later in June, my new website and community app will launch. These are also set up to host content. They're owned by me, so they're uncancellable.

I sympathize with a lot of what David said. I received a lame strike for one of my videos related to Joe Biden and his mandates. But I appealed it, and YouTube removed the strike pretty quickly. Joel Osteen took down two of my videos, even though they were clearly fair use.

But again, I appealed that, and since Osteen didn't have a case against me, the videos were reinstated and the strikes removed. If you like this video, a subscribe would make my day. For David, this is a full-time career, which means YouTube's decision probably affect him more.

If YouTube shuts down his channel, he would essentially lose everything. So I understand his desire to safeguard against that.

So if you're like me, and you have one big channel, one main way to stay connected to your community, and YouTube can nuke you at any time, you're being stupid, like I've been for several years, because I could see this coming.

I'm in a different spot. I have a full-time job, and YouTube is more a side project than anything else. I don't depend upon YouTube at all. I do back up all my videos on Odyssey, though, in case YouTube does shut down this channel for whatever reason.

Interestingly, I probably wouldn't have found out about David's channel if he hadn't planned to delete his channel. But if he wasn't on YouTube, I would never have found out about his ministry at all.

Love it or hate it, YouTube's algorithm provides a unique opportunity to reach new people with our content, and a concern I have is that if we leave YouTube, we start creating content that won't reach nearly as many new people, especially people who disagree with our viewpoints.

I get lots of hate comments, which I actually see as a success, because this means I'm reaching lots of people who don't agree with me. I support what David is doing, and although we probably have many theological disagreements, I'm now invested in what he's trying to do, and I plan to follow this new journey he is embarking on.

I really hope he succeeds, and I'm excited to see what he ends up building.

I'm just not scared of YouTube, and I'm not scared of the desert. So, if someone has to burn his channel to the ground and figure out how to defeat YouTube, it might as well be me.

Plundering the Egyptians and Staying on YouTube

So, will I delete this channel? No. I agree with Voti when he described using platforms like Amazon and YouTube, which fundamentally disagree with Christian principles, as plundering the Egyptians.

People have even been offended that there would be a link to Amazon on here. You know, we're plundering the Egyptians.

YouTube gives me the opportunity to reach an incredibly diverse audience with the truth of the gospel, and I plan to milk this opportunity for as long as I can. It's not a waste of time for me to deal with YouTube's problems, if the payoff is that I can reach new audiences with the gospel.