I don't think that's really the case, at least as far as I can tell from the people on my subscription feed who have put out "YouTube just demonetized me" videos in the last few weeks. I understand that monetized hate content has served as a catalyst for this, but in many ways, this current "Adpocolypse" is actually a lot more sinister than simply targeting single groups or ideologies to "effectively silence". YouTube and its advertising partners are moving to take out the voices of a far larger and more varied population with this move.
I watch YouTube more than anything else, and I actively curate my subscription and recommendations streams, specifically to keep out politics and social drama. So, my feed is very apolitical. It's pretty much nothing but videos about drawing, cartoons and comics, wrestling and video games. Yet, over the last several weeks, many of the channels I subscribe to, that produce distinctly apolitical content, have put out videos talking about how YouTube has demonetized dozens or even hundreds of their videos, all at once. As several of these folks have pointed out, YouTube has taken the opportunity of the controversy of monetized hate material to overreach, and impose deliberately conservative standards to their monetized content that falls in line with the standards that have been traditional to mass media for generations, and which advertisers in general are far more comfortable working with. They've changed their standards from the usual internet agreement lingo of "nothing defamatory, abusive, hateful, threatening, spammy, infringing, illegal, etc." (lingo which can be found in the
Terms and Legal link at the bottom right of this very page) to cast a much wider net with incredibly amorphous and arbitrary terms, like, "tragedy and conflict, sensitive social issues, sexually suggestive content, sensational and shocking, profanity and rough language, etc."
Check it out on Google's support page.
Google may very well be happy to be rid of certain specific voices that have been amplified through the YouTube platform, but I think it's a lot more to be considered a fringe (or rather "do away with the fringe") benefit wrapped up into a policy that has a wider purpose of flattening its content base to fall in line with the traditional, conservative standards that advertisers hold fast to. As I've stated, I think that's a lot more sinister, especially given the arbitrary nature of the rules as they've so far been implemented. It absolutely is not being portioned out in equal measures. Well known and popular DIY Youtubers are getting their work silenced, while big-money firms that deal in the same material, like late-night network talk shows and news programs, make YouTube's top trends daily, and run their content freely, front-loaded with ads. It means to me that not just dissenting voices or voices that come from the wrong side of certain social or political lines are being silenced. Rather, it's the voices that have made YouTube what it is that are being silenced -- new voices that originate independent of established media institutions, that are not beholden to archaic standards or advertiser wishes, and that are able and willing to discuss issues more openly than those established media institutions.
It's the same old publisher middleman bullshit, really. A story as old as recorded history. Except this time, it's Google once again stomping all over it's old mantra,
"Don't be evil."