A content creator is fighting with YouTube over a recently uploaded Mega Man 2 speedrun documentary. At first, Google's streaming platform age-restricted the documentary for excessive profanity, but has since maintained that restriction for violating its "sex and nudity policy." To be clear, the documentary contains neither.
YouTuber SummoningSalt's odyssey began shortly after uploading his 80-minute Mega Man 2 documentary on September 17. As ArsTechnica reports, the documentary was well-made, intriguing, and informative--a perfect way for Mega Man 2 fans to kill 80 minutes. Four days later, the video became age-restricted for what YouTube called "excessive swearing."
While there are certainly some curses in the documentary, they're generally from interviewed subjects. SummoningSalt investigated and found a total of 19 curses over 78 minutes, which amounted to a curse-per-word rate of about 0.16 percent. "Videos with 21x the amount of swearing per capita remain un-restricted," SummoningSalt noted.
For those unaware of how YouTube monetization works, age restrictions on a video can be awful for content creators. It means not only limiting your total viewer pool but also preventing your video from showing up on someone's recommended video algorithm. It also limits the number and types of ads YouTube runs in the video, further restricting revenue for the creator.
To their credit, YouTube investigated, admitted that it had "made a mistake," and removed the age restriction a day later. Then a week after that, the age restriction returned once again citing swears as the reason.
Now outright angry, SummoningSalt made another appeal, only to receive a different explanation this time around. Apparently, an 80-minute documentary about Mega Man 2 violates YouTube's "sex and nudity policy." I guess Mega Man is technically naked, but it seems a tad nitpicky when we’re talkin’ about a robot.
Given the time and effort that when into making this documentary, SummoningSalt is understandably upset to not receive nearly as much of a payoff just because someone at YouTube thinks Mega Man is a sexy piece of robot ass.