On January 9, Warhammer 40k lore YouTuber The Remembrancer - real name Andrew Perkins - breathed a sigh of relief. YouTube had reversed a decision it made on December 18 that kicked his channel out of the YouTube Partner Program, stripping Perkins of his ability to make money from ad revenue and subscriptions, which Perkins says is his main source of income. "I'm just relieved I can get back to working on what I love to do", Perkins tells Wargamer. He's keen to move on from the last three weeks, during which he contended with a kafkaesque appeal process and weird messages from YouTube staff, in an effort to get a straight answer to a simple question - why was his channel ever demonetized in the first place?
The Remembrancer is a lore channel that delves into the histories of Warhammer 40k characters large and small. Videos range from one minute shorts on minor characters, to substantial guides to the most important figures from each of the Warhammer 40k factions, presented with a mixture of original narration and quotations from 40k novels.
Wargamer spoke to Perkins directly before his channel was reinstated, and he was able to show us evidence of his exhaustive video making process - pages of hand-written notes, hundreds of script files, and the massive project file for his most recent video. He says that one of his longer videos, like the Master of Mankind video below, represents around 50 hours of work.
Responding to our query on January 9, a spokesperson for YouTube says "Upon review, the channel The Remembrancer does not violate the YouTube Partner Program policies, and channel monetization has been reinstated". "Occasionally, a channel can be mistakenly suspended from YPP", they add, stating "This is not the experience we want creators to have with YouTube". "We're investigating what went wrong here and our strategic partner manager is in touch with the creator directly". Perkins confirms that his partner manager has indeed been in touch.
Perkins says the only explanation he ever received for why his channel was demonetized was that a "significant portion" of his videos violated the 'Inauthentic Content' policy. An email Perkins received on December 23 from a member of YouTube Support told Perkins that Inauthentic Content included "content that exclusively features readings of other materials you did not originally create… songs you did not originally create which have been modified to change the pitch or speed… highly repetitive content with minimal variation across videos… mass-produced, or content using a similar template across multiple videos", and "image slideshows or scrolling text with minimal or no narrative, commentary, or educational value".
When Perkins asked which of his videos, specifically, had broken the policy, and in what way, he was told by a different YouTube support agent "as much as we want to indulge in answering to which video or videos violated our YouTube Partner Program Terms [sic]. Unfortunately, we cannot disclose that as it is against our policies." His next opportunity to appeal would be March 3. But without any indication what, specifically, was wrong with his work, he had no way of knowing whether anything he tried would be successful.
The timing of the demonetization, just before Christmas, was stressful for Perkins. After submitting an appeal against the decision on December 18, he received the news that it had been unsuccessful on December 23. "It was the day before we were flying to go visit [my family] for Christmas". When we spoke to him, his channel had not yet been reinstated: "This is really stressful because now I don't know what's going on with my finances". Since announcing his problems with YouTube, many fans have signed up to his Patreon - possibly the same fans who were no longer able to subscribe to him on YouTube.
It is difficult to glean what, exactly, went wrong to get that original demonetization decision, or who was involved in evaluating his appeal against it. Perkins had a dedicated support agent thanks to his place in the Partner Program, but they referred the case to the YouTube Partner Support Team. A message on January 8 from a member of the support team states that they were not actually involved with the review. The review was managed by another team entirely, who never spoke to Perkins directly.
The messages Perkins received from the Partner Support Team are also just plain weird. One message, received on December 30, opens by addressing him as "Little Andrew". Some emails contain positive thinking aphorisms that are at odds with the subject matter: "I want to assure you that I did the best that I could, so this is just a little wish for you to have some light in your day"; "I hope that you find success and happiness in all your pursuits"; "Remember, even when things don't go as planned, there's always an opportunity to learn, grow, and come back stronger".
Perkins posted the video above about his demonetization to his channel on December 30, and fellow loretuber Majorkill posted a followup video decrying the situation on January 5.
Wargamer sent a large list of questions to YouTube on January 8, inviting the platform to explain why Perkins had been demonetized, why no-one could give him a satisfactory explanation for the takedown, what role algorithmic or AI agent judgments might play in the suspension or appeal process, and why the tone of emails from the Partner Support Team was so strange. As noted above, YouTube acknowledges that Perkins was "mistakenly suspended", and states it is "investigating what went wrong here". We'll update this story as and when we get answers to more specific questions.
Perkins is a UK citizen, and the UK is a signatory to the European General Data Protection Regulations, which provide citizens with certain rights in relation to their personal data. These rights even extend to data held by American businesses that do business with GDPR signatory nations. Citizens protected by GDPR have the right to access the data a business holds on them; a formal request that isn't absurd should be answered within a reasonable time frame, or face potential sanctions. GDPR rights extend to many kinds of data, including subjective data like credit checks or performance reviews. The subject even has the right to obtain information about "the existence of automated decision-making, including profiling… and meaningful information about the logic involved".
Now that The Remembrancer channel has been reinstated in the Partner Program, Perkins has published a new video, explaining his future plans. "I feel like a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders", he states. He is very grateful to the support he has received from the community, both financially, and from other content creators raising awareness.
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