As social media content creators gain popularity, their goal often becomes "how can I make money off of this?"
It's the age old story that I've heard a countless amount of times, as I'm sure you have too. A creator gets big enough to monetize their content. They start making enough money from their content that they quit their jobs to focus on creating full-time. But eventually, the bubble bursts--they lose their monetization, their income.
This cycle seems to effect smaller-scale creators--not major players like Mr. Beast, more like mid-tier cosplayers or influencers. Compared to big creators, small to mid size creators have a smaller following, may put out less content, or may simply be very niche content. But that isn't why they are more likely to lose their monetization. The true reason is more than likely in the fine print.
Have you ever read the terms and conditions or policies on a website or app before agreeing? Most people don't. And why would they? Terms and conditions are often incredibly lengthy and full of legal jargon that the average person may have a hard time fully understanding. Spotify has one of the longest privacy policies out there, which would take the average reader almost an hour to fully read.
But, reading and understanding policies is often the key to not being swindled by the company who created them. This is why so many creators get demonetized. Maybe their YouTube video was "too repetitive", or their Instagram video contained a loop. This is often why content creators censor their language to avoid words like "died" and choose to instead say things they won't get flagged, like "unalived." Even moving to a new home can effect monetization under some policies.
This creates a whole debate on informed consent that is important throughout all industries. It is a known fact that most people are not reading the terms and conditions, privacy policies, or informed consents. They simply agree in order to get to the next step. Is informed consent really informed if the document is unreasonably long or uses language that is far too complex? Many medical offices have switched to using short, plain language informed consent forms for their procedures. So why can big social media platforms not do the same with their terms and conditions? The need to be thorough and to protect one's company from litigation is valid, however is it fair to the user that they need to sit for an hour with a dictionary in order to fully understand what you want them to agree to?
Hi Olivia, thanks for this insightful post! I think it's so sinister that terms and conditions/consent forms are often ridiculously long and worded in confusing, misleading ways. This definitely seems purposeful; a way to get people to agree to get tracked or to let platforms do what they like with their content. I agree that some transparency and writing these contracts with audiences in mind (making them more readable and with clearer language) would make this whole process seem more ethical.
ReplyDelete