YouTube, the American video-sharing platform, is now shutting down all weed channels at an alarming rate. The move comes shortly after the social media giant Facebook began restricting weed page views.

The move by YouTube has negatively affected the existing massive subscriber bases and revenue streams of various YouTuber are who cover the topic of cannabis.

According to Dontae, the founder of Loaded Up Entertainment (hashish leisure and manufacturing company), his web page recently received three strikes over the past months which eventually led to the deletion of its YouTube channel.

“We are strongly considering moving to other platforms that may allow weed websites like WeedTube which was developed following the censorship of Hashish on YouTube. The deletion of Loaded Up is an indication that platforms like YouTube are primarily meant for people to use, but there are platforms where people can visit without the risk of being censored,” said Dontae.

Loaded Up Entertainment is ranked among other numerous channels that produce weed related clips that have been purged over the past weeks. Before its sudden deletion, Loaded Up previously had over 200,000 subscribers on their channels. The move by YouTube to remove these weed pages is due to community guideline violations.

 A Description of YouTube’s Community Guidelines

According to YouTube’s community guidelines, video’s that promote the abuse of drugs which may consist of smoking or drinking violates YouTube’s group guidelines. The move by YouTube is personal, considering that the use and content containing cannabis is legal in some form in almost 30 states.

However, YouTube has remained silent on their crackdown of weed-related videos and pages, but they have continued with their firm enforcement of community guidelines.

Theories Surrounding the Crackdown of Weed Pages by YouTube

The move to purge weed related videos began when YouTube ran ads containing ‘objectionable content” that comprised of videos that were showing disturbing content, violence and promoting hate speech.

Following a boycott of various corporate advertisers against YouTube for showing questionable content, the social media platform made has promised to enforce its community guidelines and make sure that all ads appear with the proper content.

At the beginning of this 2018, Logan Paul, a vlogger posted a clip of a man who had commit suicide in a Japanese forest. The act later led to the public outrage and an open letter to YouTube.  While responding to the issue, the social media platform confirmed that they have been listening to what viewers have been saying and the actions a single source can significantly affect the whole YouTube community

What now for Cannabis Channels?

Cannabis YouTuber’s are now under fire and major channels such as “Vader OG” and “Jorge Cervantes” who is a well-known horticulturalist have been shut down without warning.

It is quite clear that the removal of these weeds channels from YouTube is as a result of the enforcement of community guidelines on the platform.

Unfortunately trying to appeal community strikes or banning is not easy and creators are now looking at other platforms such as Twitch to begin building their channels.