Being distasteful isn’t enough to get kicked off YouTube, explained YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki at Recode’s Code Media conference in Huntington Beach, Calif. Monday when asked why the account of controversial YouTuber Logan Paul hasn’t been terminated yet.
“We do terminate accounts all the time,” Wojcicki said, explaining that the company has a three strikes and you’re out rule for accounts that violate the platform’s policies. “He hasn’t done anything that would cause those 3 strikes.”
Instead, YouTube decided to not run any ads against Logan Paul’s videos, and not share any ad revenue with him anymore. “We think that’s actually a pretty strong statement,” she said.
Wojcicki admitted that YouTube could in theory change its rules, but argued that it was hard to make rules that were fair to both sides. “One the one side is censorship, and on the other side is too much freedom of speech,” she said. “It’s a complicated and very nuanced place where that line is drawn.”
Asked about criticism from brands like Unilever who have threatened to remove their ads from the service if the content isn’t cleaned up, Wojcicki said that the company is looking to address these concerns with previously announced changes to its ad policies, which include limiting the channels that can run ads, as well as reviewing YouTube Preferred publishers.
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“We take their feedback very seriously,” she said. “We want to do the right set of things to build their trust.”
