"YouTube is going full authoritarian": NELK Boys channel demonetized and suspended from Partner Program 

Popular Canadian YouTube channel NELK has been suspended from the YouTube Partner Program due to a violation of COVID-19 social distancing guidelines.

NELK, also referred to as NELK Boys, is a channel known for their vlogs and prank videos. It primarily comprises of Kyle Forgeard, Jesse Sebastiani and Steve Deleonardis. The channel has 5.7 million subscribers on YouTube and is often known to get embroiled in controversies due to the problematic behavior of its members and the nature of their pranks.

Recently, NELK was in the news for staging a gym protest online and if that was not enough, they are currently being investigated by authorities for throwing parties in the midst of a pandemic.

Their most recent visit to Illinois State University has landed them in hot water as hundreds of people can be spotted crammed together in a clear violation of strict social-distancing measures:

YouTubers known as Nelk boys, after hosting an “open up gyms” protest and partying their way through LA, are now traveling to colleges encouraging students to ignore COVID restrictions to party. Pls watch these videos this is what they’re promoting to their 3.5M young followers pic.twitter.com/sJSLEJpQYS

— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) September 10, 2020

As a consequence, YouTube has now demonetized their channel in what is now being deemed an authoritarian move as they replied with the following tweet:

More from YouTube https://t.co/erIGRLjiA1

— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) September 12, 2020

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Is YouTube ushering in an age of authoritarianism?

In light of YouTube's recent decision, popular YouTuber Optimus spoke out against this new problematic trend of censorship, where YouTube recently seems to have assumed a dictatorial control over content creators.

From handing out a slew of bans to channel strikes, akin to a LeafyIsHere or a Penguinz0, YouTube has been on an authoritarian spree of late. Keeping this in mind, Optimus states:

"YouTube they've been making some very odd decisions recently , they've been making a lot of worrying decisions in recent months. We've had demonetization, we've seen copyright trolls , we've seen YouTube's inadequacy to respond to content creators ...Now we literally have YouTube going completely rogue and becoming almost authoritarian and I think this is a very scary concept."

He then goes on to state that while he condemns such kind of irresponsible behavior on the part of the NELK Boys, YouTube has no right to police creators for their actions off the platform.

He then proceeds to attack YouTube's double standards and hypocritical approach:

"YouTube is more or less doing this like a PR stunt I say. They're not doing something minor, they're taking away someone's income source because they did something YouTube disagreed with off the platform.

"People who do absolutely nothing wrong get hit with their stupid shit all the time . We now have a multi-billion dollar conglomerate owned by Google basically telling people what they can and can't do outside of their time on their platform.

"This draconian policy basically allows them to destroy content creators in any way they want. They honestly go for things that are non issues but when there are actual issues , they are silent as f*****g day."

He then provides the example of Jake Paul's recent troublesome behavior, where he was criticized for holding similar parties and also had his house raided by the FBI. He follows it up by mentioning a proven animal abuser, Peluchin Entertainment, who is still allowed to exist on YouTube.

Keeping this in mind, he ends by saying:

"Why do you guys react only to certain circumstances? YouTube needs to stay in their own lane and shut up."

As the news regarding the NELK channel being demonetized went viral, several took to Twitter to express their views:

NELK Boys DEMONETIZED BY YOUTUBE FOR COVID PARTIES! According to TeamYouTube account, NELK’s channel was suspended from the partner program for off-platform behavior.Senior Outrage Correspondent Malice Jon says “WHAT?”What are your thoughts? pic.twitter.com/72Wo2IErRS

— Def Noodles (@defnoodles) September 12, 2020

Nelk just lost monetization because of activities outside of YouTube. So, basically YouTube will now punish you for behavior nothing to do with their website. @realDonaldTrump needs to step in ASAP!! https://t.co/D3AJSS1f5K

— Eight Thoughts (@FaZeBigHog) September 12, 2020

Oof. They got NELK too?Shieeeet; it's like I said, unfortunately if your Career is "YouTube" or Streaming; you're at the mercy of whatever whims Big Tech decides matters that day.There's no "Worker Protections" there; no Unions to back you up. 🤷 pic.twitter.com/8AhFAMRSM8

— Chad of the CHAZ (@ChadoftheChaz) September 12, 2020

And at the same time they don’t remove ad revenue from actual pedophiles or criminals but if you party then there goes ur job..I tried to laugh this off because of how ridiculous it is but there’s nothing funny bout this

— Lerix (@Lerix20) September 12, 2020

This is legit terrifying. Youtube will NEVER enforce this evenly. Perfect example? Jake Paul.How about LITERAL pedophiles & cat murders have thriving channels & youtube refuses to remove themHoly Shit. pic.twitter.com/x0a2E6BCx4

— TheQuartering (@TheQuartering) September 12, 2020

Hey @YouTube Why didn't you suspended Jake Paul's channel, he had a party at his house, and it was crazy. But you suspended the Nelk bros. I call this double standards.

— Candie little (@CandieLittle) September 13, 2020