I am almost certain another factor is clickthrough from "undesirable" referral links. ReviewBrah [0] (The Report of The Week) is the most family friendly channel with high subscribers that I can think of. He reviews fast food and has a unique fashion style and personality. Very clean.
He has become a popular meme and is regularly linked to from 4chan. I struggle to find a single thing that could warrant demonetisation (having looked through the youtube guidance), yet a large chunk of his videos are automatically demonetised.
Basically, it ranges from use of copyrighted characters, attempts to game the autofill system, said characters doing weird and non-child-friendly shit, and actual exploitation of children.
The only other factor I can think of with ReviewBrah is that he's often negatively reviewing products from huge companies (fast food chains) that might advertise on YouTube. Would Burger King want to run an ad before he reviews chicken fries or whatever?
There are a huge number of other food reviewers that don't have the same issues with demonitization, even if they have slightly less ad-friendly content. That said, it's a good suggestion; it's much easier to find a way to shoot down your suggestion than it is to think of it.
Criticising products is totally fine, otherwise all video game or movie reviewers would be demonized.
Demonetization is for "upsetting" content from a brand perspective (terrorism, catastrophe, sex, violence, ...), but the models get it wrong from time to time.
I think you're over-generalizing from one example. I follow a few differnt channels that are totally harmless and boring, and they all complain about demonitization.
It seems like the algorithm just defaults strongly towards demonitization. Maybe it will learn and get better, but at the moment lots of things are getting demonitized.
Good point, it very well could be. However, I'm inclined to think that this isn't the case, solely from how much positive feedback he gets, as well as how little negative comments he gets. I mean, finding a negative comment about ReviewBrah on any of the Chans is nigh impossible.
Another hypothesis I've heard that would explain the same effect is that youtube groups uploaders with the preferences of their viewers. If someone has lots of viewers who also watch videos of undesirable topics, that uploader will be considered undesirable as well.
I became familiar with ReviewBrah a couple weeks ago when browsing broadcasts on my shortwave radio and found his radio show. He sounded like an old-timey broadcaster and I imagined him to be a Jewish gentlemen and in his 50s.
He has become a popular meme and is regularly linked to from 4chan. I struggle to find a single thing that could warrant demonetisation (having looked through the youtube guidance), yet a large chunk of his videos are automatically demonetised.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeR0n8d3ShTn_yrMhpwyE1Q