#VoxAdpocalypse

YouTube has long had a rocky relationship with its queer users, due to a history of restricting queer content. Those tensions deepened this week when Vox video journalist Carlos Maza called out YouTube and right-wing personality Steven Crowder, saying that Crowder has harassed him for years using the platform. 

Crowder is the host of Louder With Crowder, a political commentary show airing on Blaze TV, a conservative broadcasting network with cable, satellite, and streaming assets that hosts talking heads like Glenn Beck and Ben Shapiro. Maza says Crowder has targeted him personally because of his race and sexual orientation. 

Maza is the host of Vox’s YouTube series Strikethrough, which analyzes news media’s role in the Trump era. For the past two years, Maza said on Twitter last week, Crowder has taken aim at him through Louder With Crowder, on which he regularly mocks Maza for being gay and Latino. The effect, Maza says, is that Crowder’s followers have harassed Maza and invaded his privacy.

Maza first detailed his concerns publicly on May 30, illustrating Crowder’s behavior through a video compilation of Louder With Crowder video footage that he shared to Twitter. The compilation features repeated clips of Crowder mimicking Maza with an exaggerated lisp, saying that Maza “sashays” around, and painting him with other homophobic stereotypes, all while referring to him as “the gay Vox writer.”

YouTube responded to Maza publicly in a series of tweets on June 4. The company disagreed with Maza’s assessment of Crowder’s behavior, arguing that Crowder’s language isn’t harassment because it’s couched within a larger political debate. 

The company’s statements sparked debate and discussion Wednesday, as well as anger from Maza and his supporters. And though YouTube subsequently did penalize Crowder — sort of — it was because of a “pattern of egregious actions,” and not because of the specific language used in his videos about Maza.

YouTube’s official position regarding Crowder is confusing and difficult to parse, but it has major implications for YouTube’s many communities, especially those consisting of marginalized creators who are often subject to abuse. And with the situation unfolding during the opening days of June, which is Pride Month, YouTube’s actions have resonated with users, and infuriated them.

YouTube clarified to Vox in an email that the company had found that Crowder had not directly incited his followers to go after Maza, despite Maza saying that a large number of Crowder’s fans had harassed him as a result of Crowder’s videos.

According to YouTube, the platform considers the context of all criticism when reviewing harassment claims — that is, it scrutinizes whether the criticism is coupled with a larger debate or whether it’s intended mainly to target an individual.

In Crowder’s case, YouTube decided that since Crowder’s main goal was ostensibly to respond to Maza’s opinions on various contemporary issues, as expressed in Maza’s Strikethrough videos, his videos were not instances of hate speech; instead, they qualified as analysis. YouTube also clarified in a policy change that some controversial clips could remain on the site if they were part of broader analytical commentary.

Still, YouTube’s public statement confused and enraged many onlookers who felt it was a slap in the face to the platform’s queer community members. Among those angered by the response was a cadre of Google employees, who swiftly formed a social media protest to express their frustration with (Google-owned) YouTube.