YouTube’s Softcore Porn Problem

And how it’s messing with up-and-coming creators.

Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

Here’s a question: For the 500 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute, how many human- and AI-hours does it take to moderate it? A metric shit tonne, I believe, is the answer.

So things slip through the cracks—porny things.

YouTube has a set of rules, right. These rules auto-flag things, but they’re not really rules that govern. In practice, they’re a set of constraints that certain creators can use to navigate the waters and game the system to their benefit — one way is by posting softcore porn.

And you might be asking, well, why post it on YouTube when you can post it on the sites and platforms that specialize in that? And oh 🍯, yes, of course, they do that — but just like any creator trying their hand at business, they have a marketing funnel.

And YouTube Is Ground Zero

YouTube has one of the most massive userbases online — just like a writer posting content on writing platforms, answering questions on forums, and tweeting, all to get people to come to their blog, email list, or buy their product — these creators are posting teasers for where they make the real money, i.e., sites like Onlyfans.