Category: Youtube

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A Transphobic YouTube Prankster Could Face a 12 Year Sentence

Newsweek is reporting that an Indonesian YouTuber named Ferdian Paleka could face up to 12 years in prison following a transphobic “prank” he and his friends filmed and posted earlier this year.

Paleka’s channel has a pretty substantial following despite being a relative newcomer to the platform. At the time of writing, the account has been around for about 5 months, and yet it is well past the 100k subscribers mark with over 9 million total views.

The “prank” video has since been deleted for violating YouTube’s terms of service after a mass-flagging campaign brought it to the company’s attention. Footage still survives on the platform, however, in the form of reaction/commentary videos and some apparent reposts.

In the video, after throwing around some transphobic slurs on camera, Paleka gave out “aid packages” to trans women, claiming it was food.

Upon opening it, they discovered it was actually rotten bits from the garbage and chunks of concrete.

The video sparked a lot of outrage, though not, initially, any criminal charges. PinkNews reports that in a follow-up false apology video, Paleka seems unphased by the backlash, stating “I personally would like to apologize for what I’ve done… not.”

The Indonesian government is not known for being particularly progressive when it comes to LGBT issues. As Paleka himself states in the original video, “[Trans people] do not obey the government, so, don’t blaspheme us—we only want to help the government.”

But, perhaps giving into immense public pressure, police later arrived at his home amid a swarm of protesters, leading to a chase which ultimately resulted in his arrest. He is being charged under Indonesia’s Information and Electronic Transactions law, which carries a maximum sentence of up to 12 years in prison.

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An 8-Year-Old Boy With a Multi-Million Dollar Income Was Named the Highest-Earning YouTuber of 2019

Well, this is depressing…

How much money did you make in 2019? This 8-year-old kid on YouTube probably out-earned you.

In fact, he out-earned almost everyone.

Ryan Kaji earned a stunning $26 million on YouTube in 2019, making him the highest-earning YouTuber in the world. Ryan started his channel, Ryan’s World (formerly Ryan ToysReview), when he was just 3 years old. It consists of toy reviews, science experiments, educational videos, playing games, and more.

This is the second year in a row that Ryan has been the highest-earning YouTuber, beating other popular YouTube celebrities like PewDiePie and Jeffree Star. His income last year was $22 million.

Ryan’s YouTube fame has also evolved into other, more traditional show business deals, like a preschool-aimed series on Nickelodeon and a deal with Hulu.

Unsurprisingly, Ryan’s impressive year is causing a lot of jealousy on social media.

“I hate my life,” one person wrote.

“I need a YouTube channel,” another said.

“I might fuck around and start reviewing toys,” another joked.

Life isn’t quite that simple for this 8-year-old millionaire, though. Earlier this year, Ryan’s channel was the subject of a complaint filed to the Federal Trade Commission. A nonprofit called Truth In Advertising (TINA) claimed that the channel “deceptively promotes a multitude of products to millions of preschool-aged children in violation of FTC law.”

“When a YouTube video directed to children under the age of 5 mixes advertising with program content, as Ryan ToysReview videos frequently do, the preschool audience is unable to understand or even identify the difference between marketing material and organic content, even when there is a verbal indicator that attempts to identify the marketing content,” TINA Executive Director Bonnie Patten and Legal Director Laura Smith wrote in their complaint.

Ryan’s dad says their family strictly adheres to YouTube’s terms of service and cares about their viewers’ safety.

Something else to consider: Ryan is eight. So does he understand?

Who knows?

The post An 8-Year-Old Boy With a Multi-Million Dollar Income Was Named the Highest-Earning YouTuber of 2019 appeared first on UberFacts.

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A Famous 73-Year-Old YouTuber Who Made Massive Meals for Orphans Has Passed Away

This guy sounded like quite a human being.

The man behind the extremely popular YouTube channel Grandpa Kitchen has sadly passed away at the age of 73.

Narayana Reddy amassed a following of more than 6 million followers on YouTube with his cooking videos. In the videos, Reddy prepared enormous meals for orphans, making him a beloved hero in many circles.

Reddy was a 73-year-old grandfather whose generosity shone through in his how-to cooking tutorials, as he laid out how to make such dishes as pizza, lasagna, donuts, and many other meals. All the proceeds he received from his massively popular videos were donated to charities because Reddy truly tried to help the needy people in his community in India.

Reddy started the YouTube channel in 2017 and shot to incredible popularity in a short amount of time. On his Patreon page, Reddy wrote, ‘We entertain people by cooking food and donate the proceeds to charities. Our goal is to provide basic necessities like food, clothing, school supplies and birthday gifts to the orphans.”

Reddy’s grand-nephew talked about how the YouTube channel got started: “We used to have jobs in the city and would visit him during the holidays and he would always make big meals for us. We then got the idea that we should do the same for the community.” His grand-nephew added that his family will continue the elder Reddy’s work.

Here’s one of Reddy’s cooking tutorials that he became so well known for:

After Reddy’s passing, Grandpa Kitchen posted one final video tribute to the man who gave so much to so many:

He was a great man, and he will be missed by many.

The post A Famous 73-Year-Old YouTuber Who Made Massive Meals for Orphans Has Passed Away appeared first on UberFacts.

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Mom Posts Warning to Parents After Finding Suicide Content on a Child YouTube Channel

One of the biggest challenges of modern parenting is keeping your kids safe from things they shouldn’t see online. While limiting screen time, setting up filters, and restricting certain channels entirely helps, the fact of the matter is that it’s an uphill battle against the endless amount of content out there. That’s why parents are always on the lookout for any new app or feature that might help them out.

But, as one mom discovered, even those aren’t foolproof. Even on YouTube Kids, which claims to provide a safe and simple place for kids to explore the world through online videos. Meridy Leeper posted about her family’s recent horrifying experience.

Photo Credit: Facebook

Leeper worried if she should post about the video or not, then decided against staying silent.

This is an exceptionally hard thing for me to post. I’ve thought long and hard about this. I’ve decided it’s way too important not to bring awareness to other parents. This is not up for criticism. I only want to let all parents know what to watch for….

She shares her shock at what she found on her daughter’s “safe and simple” video site.

Kids youtube, roblox, fortnight… no matter how much you think you are monitoring your child.. notifications to what your child is watching. It doesn’t matter. My 7 year old child was taught how to attempt suicide by kids youtube and these games. She has expressed that she doesn’t feel neglected or unloved. Instead, she was constantly told to ‘go kill yourself’ by other gamers, by kids youtube. Shown HOW to.

Leeper also shared a drawing of a figure in a dress, with a downturned mouth, at the end of a noose.

Photo Credit: Facebook

Leeper’s daughter drew it the day after she had a severe anxiety attack triggered by a video.

Sunday night, she had a full blown anxiety attack. Which I held her and sang to her while she got through it. Monday, she drew this in school.
This is a VERY real danger! I NEVER thought I would find myself helping my SEVEN YEAR OLD CHILD through an anxiety attack.

Parent to parent, Leeper writes a warning that even kid friendly websites can show harmful material.

PLEASE, keep your children away from these things. I’m just so glad my child was able to express her feelings before she actually tried to harm herself. I never thought something as ‘innocent’ as kids youtube would have these subliminal messages. Again, I’m only sharing our experience in the hopes to prevent another child going through this.

After her post was shared several hundred thousand times in less than 10 days, Leeper posted the actual video.

Photo Credit: Facebook

Leeper writes:

Several concerned parents have asked (rightly so) which videos my daughter watched on kids youtube that prompted her suicidal thoughts. There are several in the comments of my original post… but this is the very one that gave her the idea of hanging herself.

As she mentioned in her original post, the video looks like it’s for kids, yet contains images of violence and self-harm.

At 1:56 minutes in there is scene of the girl using a butcher knife aggressively on a cake. At 2:21 minutes in, is the build up to the hanging/suicide scene. This video starts out very cutsie and catchy… then turns very dark. I’m putting this out there so parents can be aware to keep thier kids away from the ‘doki doki’ videos that promote self harm and suicide. Here ya go….

Many commenters said the video in question is hosted on YouTube with a warning page and that parents are responsible for supervising their children’s online activity.

Photo Credit: YouTube

The video starts with a notice. “Warning: This video contains references suicide, self harm, and domestic abuse, if this kind of thing makes you uncomfortable, please don’t watch this video. Viewer discretion is advised.”

But can a child who sees a little cartoon girl with ribbons and hearts in her hair understand this warning? And would it keep her from watching it anyway and being exposed to violence and despair?

It looks so innocent.

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