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Days after CoryxKenshin accused YouTube of playing favorites and/or being racists, Markiplier uploaded a video to test this theory. The video is a playthrough of a game called Orc Massage on Steam, which features a lot of nudity and se*ual content. It was Mark's attempt to gauge how much time it would take for YouTube to age-restrict his video.
At the time of writing this, the video has not been restricted, despite being on his channel for 20 hours.
On August 24, CoryxKenshin, one of the biggest African-American gaming creators on YouTube, posted a video titled YouTube: Racism and Favoritism. In it, Cory accused the Google-owned platform of intentionally sabotaging his channel by age-restricting the walkthrough of Mortuary Assistant, a well-recieved horror game released this month.
The YouTuber's main gripe was with the fact that none of the other creators who had played through the same level got age-restricted. Cory, in fact, used Markiplier's video of the same content in his argument. Now, the latter has publicly uploaded a video specifically to test the theory that YouTube disproportionately favors certain creators.
"So far so good...": Markiplier tweets about his experiment testing YouTube's algorithms to determine bias towards him
Between CoryxKenshin and The Act Man's recent allegations against YouTube, the world's biggest video hosting platform is not having a good month. While Act Man was demonitzed for making a few sarcastic Twitter comments, he has accused YouTube of not taking steps against real-life doxxing.
Cory's allegations of the platform playing favorites have gained a lot of traction in the community, with many creators coming out in support of him. Inconsistent moderation has been a long-standing complaint against YouTube by many content creators, and adding charges of racism have only fueled the online debate.
In the video above, CoryxKenshin details his past experiences with bans and restrictions, which, according to him, may have been racially motivated. In the video, he compared his 14 million-subscriber channel with big names such as Markiplier and Jacksepticeye, asking pertinent questions like:
"Why is my channel so much more heavily scrutinized than my peers?"
Markiplier and CoryxKenshin
In his fight against the unjust restrictions put on his video, Cory had submitted Mark's video as evidence after they had rejected an appeal. Only after this counter-appeal did YouTube remove the restriction.
However, as pointed out by the creator, this indicated that the initial ban and rejection of the appeal were either mistakes or unjustly motivated against a person of color. In fact, when he pointed it out in an email, both videos were age-restricted in response. CoryxKenshin was understandably not impressed, as he rued:
"They saw that I saw that there was some unfair stuff going on. So then they tried to appease me by the age restricting the video. I say, 'Wait why are you doing that because I sent Markiplier's clip?' And then they say, 'Oh okay, well, let's just age restrict them both.'"
Many have come out on social media in support of the allegations, but Markiplier seems to have one-upped them. He showed his support by uploading a video titled Try Not To Get AGE-RESTRICTED Challenge, in which he sarcastically plays a clear adult game to see how long it would take for YouTube to age restrict him.
The experiment appears to have paid off because the video was uploaded more than 20 hours before this piece was being written, and YouTube is yet to age restrict it. This is despite the fact that significant parts of the video contain nudity and clear se*ual connotations.
Markiplier even jokingly baits the proverbial censors at the end after a particularly provocative scene as depicted above, sarcastically saying:
"Nope, nope, nope. Okay alright, well. Family friendliness achieved. Here's my TV rating. Wow, G! Rated for the general audience."
Fans react to Mark's show of support
Fans praised Mark for taking a stand with dissenting voices such as Cory's. Many commended the fact that he is not only taking a stand but is also proving the very point people have been talking about:
Several fans on Twitter supported his stance as well:
Even though the video has crossed two million views and people have been talking about it on social media, YouTube is yet to come out with a statement. All in all, it does not seem like the video sharing platform has a way out of this mess.
