YouTube Rewind Video Attracts Vehement Criticism
Each year, YouTube organizes a collective video effort called YouTube Rewind, in which popular content creators, as well as television and film stars, give a brief and family-friendly recap of major moments on the site over the previous 12 months.
The latest Rewind video has received a historic number of “dislikes,” currently at more than 10 million.
While these videos are meant to serve as a sort of promotional device for the site to market itself to both content creators and advertisers, the saccharine tone and squeaky-clean mainstream references leave many YouTubers and viewers confused.
YouTube Rewind fails to address any controversial events linked to the site.
In 2018 alone, YouTube banned conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and nearly banned popular site celebrity Logan Paul for uploading a video in which he and friends discover a dead body in a forest in Japan and proceed to make jokes about the dead man.
Meanwhile, the site’s top channel, PewDiePie, is headed by a man who has repeatedly made Nazi jokes and has appeared to endorse websites and YouTube channels that featured anti-Semitic content.
For better or worse, some of the most negative stories involving YouTube are the ones that the public remembers, and more importantly, they highlight many serious issues about how the site is being run, and the troubling development of large audiences who seek out especially shocking and sometimes disturbing content.
Video Game Workers Moving Toward Unionization
Recent press regarding long hours and zero-hour contracts within the game design industry have led to the creation of unions for employees of game development companies internationally. Several groups in the UK are seeking to give voice to the needs of lower-tier employees, who often earn less than a living wage.
The steady rise in the popularity of video games worldwide has made the game development industry extremely appealing to many job seekers, especially for many who are entering the job market for the first time.
And thanks to this eager and broad talent base, companies have been able to offer low wages for entry-level positions, and individual workers can be replaced at a moment’s notice.
Young and first-time employees are willing to put up with substandard conditions just for a chance to have a foot in the door of the industry, at least up to a point.
But as the industry ages and matures, company leaders will need to address widespread employee concerns and eventually fall in line with other entertainment industries, all of which have long since allowed for unionization based on specific industry roles.
