A Dark Side of YouTube

I usually wait a while until things cool down to discuss certain things, and this is one of those times. Not too long ago, a woman entered YouTube headquarters and shot a few people before killing herself. What drove Nasim Aghdam to do this, and why the video sharing website? And is this a reflection of others frustrations at trying to grow their channels?

Several sites spoke to Aghdam's brother and he went on about her issues regarding YouTube. Stuff about not being given the chance to grow her channel, which was mostly a vegan type channel. That being said, it's a very petty thing to get upset about. Vegan lifestyle isn't something you think of trying to promote on YouTube. That seems more suited for something like this, a blog. Word of mouth would be a lot better on this than a video sharing site. Unless there was something in Aghdam's videos, there's no way the website was causing her channel not to grow.

Now, YouTube hasn't always exactly been on good terms with people, either. Last year, advertisers were pulling ads off the site because of some of them appearing in hateful videos. They have tried to work on what can be "advertiser friendly" and it still frustrates some. A problem with the site and Google is that they don't always have explanations for what works and what doesn't. Asking questions is a joke with answers typically being handled by bots and not being informative. People do get ticked at what this giant does. It doesn't matter if you are big or small on YouTube. They determine what is good for advertisers in their own way and you don't have a choice of anywhere else to go, unfortunately.

I view Aghdam as one that was mentally unstable, a common thing for when these shooters find themselves plastered on the news. There are better things to have a grudge on, and YouTube is not one of them. At the same time, the site is not always understanding how things work in certain circumstances. A lot of things have to be fixed in multiple areas. It's just a matter of when.