You’ve seen his video memes everywhere, including Fox News, but now everyone’s favorite pro-Trump meme maker has been targeted and demonitized by YouTube. Known by his online moniker Carpe Donktum, you have definitely seen at least one of his perpetually-viral short videos in which he uses clips from movies, music videos, and cartoons to make hilarious political statements.
NEW VIDEO: The Gunfight at No Wall Corral pic.twitter.com/nol61IHdPM
— Carpe Donktum? (@CarpeDonktum) January 12, 2019
On Friday, the meme-maker was notified that after a year of posting his original content on YouTube — gaining three years worth of watch time, and not one single strike on his account — he is no longer eligible for monetization through Google AdSense.
It’s a success story really…
Guy joins @YouTube@TeamYouTube says we want to help you be successful
Guy is successful@TeamYouTube say we no longer want you to be successfulIt really warms the heart.
Technofascists.
— Carpe Donktum? (@CarpeDonktum) January 18, 2019
“It was a small source of income, the first year was best. After that the Demonetization started, any video that was popular would be ‘unsuitable for advertisers’ while views were spiking, and then magically OK when the views slowed down. In one case a video was demonetized and deemed OK four times in two weeks, as the view spikes were inconsistent,” he explained to The Gateway Pundit. “The reason given to me was ‘Reused Content’, despite all my content being an ORIGINAL take on existing content.”
Live Shot of CNN right now#NancyGetsGrounded pic.twitter.com/CWzE5UcDdR
— Carpe Donktum? (@CarpeDonktum) January 17, 2019
Donktum explained that it was hard to make money this year because of the “ridiculous lengths that the YouTube Team was willing to go to award the ad revenue to a third party.”
“In one case, two weeks after uploading a video, they contacted the owner of Nirvana’s Copyrights to award them the ad revenue from a video that used ‘All apologies’ played on a xylophone. Their song… PLAYED ON A XYLOPHONE,” Donktum added. “This ruling was upheld, by the way.”
Though he is upset about losing the revenue stream, the comedic genius explained that he does not make memes for the money.
“I don’t make Videos for the money, any money I make doing this is purely a BONUS. I do what I do for the love of making videos and making people laugh. My support of Donald Trump inspired me to do what I do, in the end I don’t care about fame or money, this is a hobby that has turned into something more. Ultimately I don’t care if YouTube pays me, but I know that there are lots of people that count on the money they make from the platform, if shedding light on this helps them retain their status GREAT,” he told TGP.
YouTube has responded to the outrage on Twitter, saying that they are going to look into the issue.
Censorship, a play in two acts.
After a year of providing original content, getting over a million views, 3 YEARS worth of watch time in minutes, and NOT A SINGLE strike on my account… My content is NOT ELIGIBLE for monetization this year.
THANKS @TeamYouTube @YouTube pic.twitter.com/BRGskXrLgg
— Carpe Donktum? (@CarpeDonktum) January 18, 2019
