YouTube has done it again. Out of nowhere, MC’s account is just gone. I don’t know if any of my followers know SuperMCGamer (Matthew, though everyone calls him MC), but this guy is one of the most fantastic content creators I follow.
Twice a year he runs a charity marathon for organizations like St Jude, Charity Water, or Child’s Play Charity and he and his friends help raise TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS for these organizations. Literally his last marathon alone raised $55,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital . He created his own community from scratch called Fun for Freedom, who also run marathons and have monthly charities.
He woke up this morning to find his channel gone. Over 1400 videos, well over a hundred thousand subscribers, vanished. He received no notice that his channel was to be terminated, not from YouTube nor his partner Maker Studios/Polaris.MC is one of many people whose sole income comes from content created and shared online. He’s also a livestreamer on Twitch, a member of the prominent Minecraft ‘Mindcrack’ Server and their community, and has connections with dozens of other people online from artists and musicians to fellow YouTubers and charity organizers. He, like many people, receives ad revenue from Ads on his channel as well as generous people who support his Patreon. This is his job, his passion, his livelihood. And YouTube has taken it from him.
Incidentally, around this time last summer, another content creator I follow and a friend of MC, Millbee (Millbeeful) also had his channel terminated without warning because of one editing mistake in one video. YouTube doesn’t allow female breasts on videos [severe eye roll]. One frame of Millbee’s video had cartoon breast from a visual novel he was narrating. Millbee found his channel gone, only from one strike, without warning. He was ‘fired’. The incident (thankfully resolved, having restored Millbee’s channel to normal) is now nostalgically called “Boobsgate”. It attracted a broader attention from the online community, including help from the well known games critic Total Biscuit (aka TotalHalibut or The Cynical Brit) Millbee also depends on his online content for income, and has turned to more streaming on Twitch because of YouTube’s lack of consideration for him.
Anyone who knows even a little about these talented online creators knows that they live paycheck to paycheck just like anyone else, only a minute percentage make ‘the big bucks’. Avid followers watch every ad they can to help support their favorite creators, and some of us even go the extra mile and donate or become patrons of them.
YouTube has rules. There is a ‘three strike’ rule. Out of nowhere, MC, who has been doing this for years, has been fired from his job. No notice, no severance package, he was just booted to the curb. Now, chances are he’ll get his channel back; he’s a fairly successful creator and is partnered with Maker, the same as Millbee and TB as well as hundreds of other creators. But that’s beside the point.
Corporations like Google and YouTube have repeatedly enacted vicious and unprecedented practices like this on unsuspecting creators so many times in the last year. It’s ridiculous. People like MC spend their lives bringing joy and entertainment to hundreds of thousands, even millions of others, whether through his quirky and hilarious Let’s Plays of Minecraft or Nintendo games, his tight knit community events that bring together people internationally, and especially his efforts as a charity organizer. He should not have to endure the risk of losing his livelihood at the whim of whatever incompetent moderator who nuked his entire life’s work.
So in the mean time, if you can make it, check out MC’s Twitch channel, his other websites, and give him some love on Twitter. He truly is a wonderful guy and has done so much for so many. We who follow him love him and the community he’s nurtured for us, and we’ll all be showing up in droves to support him through this tough time.
Thanks for reading, here are some links to MC and his work:
https://www.youtube.com/user/SuperMCGamer [currently inactive]
http://www.funforfreedom.com/
http://zeldathon.net/ [He’s got a charity marathon coming up this summer, stay tuned on his twitter]
*Edit: here’s the Mindcrack subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/mindcrack/
http://www.twitch.tv/supermcgamer
https://twitter.com/SuperMCGamer
<3 XOXO MC. Hang in there, we’re all behind you. ;)
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