Nationwide — Cory “CoryxKenshin” Williams, a famous gamer and online personality, is calling out YouTube’s policies in his latest video where he claims that the platform has unfair practices toward Black YouTubers.
It started after CoryxKenshin, who has been making videos since 2009 and now has more than 14 million subscribers, uploaded a YouTube video of his gameplay of the new horror game called The Mortuary Assistant. He said that upon sharing the video, it was “age-restricted” and YouTube did not give a reason why.
The age restriction would mean that his video would get fewer views and less ad revenue. He said he was confused at that time because he really makes efforts to make his content family-friendly.
CoryxKenshin said he tried to appeal the restriction but YouTube rejected it, still without giving a specific explanation. He was more confused when he searched around the website and found that videos of the same game posted by other gamers were not age-restricted.
He then contacted his partner manager, who presumed that his video may have been age-restricted because of a particular scene in the game itself wherein a character battles self-harm. But CoryxKenshin noticed that Markiplier, another famous gamer, featured the same scene but his video wasn’t age-restricted.
He sent another appeal to YouTube through his partner manager citing the comparisons. The age restriction was then removed from his video. But it bothered him how it seemed like it should take a non-Black YouTuber for YouTube to consider his claims. After a few days, both his and Markiplier’s video became age-restricted.
“Why is my channel so much more heavily scrutinized than my peers?” CoryxKenshin said in the video. “When I say peers, I mean people around my level, around my view count. Just to keep it simple: Why is my channel so much more thoroughly scrutinized, especially so when I’ve been number 1 trending multiple days in a row which I’ve done multiple times?”
Moreover, many people have shown support to CoryxKenshin after he posted the video, which currently has over 5 million views.