Beauty Creator’s Video leads to Youtube Donation
Screenshot of thumbnail of YouTube video used to fundraise for Black Lives Matter.
Although the remaining three former Minneapolis Police officers involved in the death of George Floyd were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter, supporters of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement continue to protest racial injustices, educate peers online, sign petitions, and donate funds.
Over the last 17 days of protests, students, everyday workers, celebrities and digital influencers or creators have given their money to the cause and used their social media accounts to motivate others to follow suit. Aware that some people are struggling financially during the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, makeup artist Zoe Amira used her YouTube platform to create an opportunity that allowed those unable to donate their money to still contribute money. Her idea: let subscribers and those looking to support BLM to donate their time. Later their time would be converted to money.
On May 30th, the 20-year-old beauty creator uploaded a video called “How to financially help BLM with No MONEY/leaving your house(invest in the future for FREE)”. She encouraged her 79,300 subscribers, and her thousands of followers on other social media platforms to stream views for a vision, a shorter title for the video. The monetized YouTube video would generate money through ad views. The YouTuber advised viewers to turn off ad-blockers and watch all the ads in the hour-long video to contribute to the streaming fundraiser. She posted that 100 percent of the AD revenue will be donated to organizations associated with BLM such as protest bail funds and family funerals.
Beauty creator Zoe Amira reposts on Instagram a promotion for her video fundraiser.
On June 4, Amira shared in a screenshot that the estimated revenue from AD revenue was $21,539.51. She wrote, “I’m excited to share with you guys just how successful this has been so far! Thanks everyone! Keep streaming and talking and engaging with each other about the stuff that matters to you.”
After garnering over 7.5 million views, supporters of the project noticed the video (which featured a complication of Black art by Black creators) was removed from her YouTube channel. After speaking with a YouTube representative about the removal, Amira wrote on June 10, “It was found to violate Google monetization guidelines, in that it encourages ‘users to click or watch ads to increase the contribution’ and I am working with them to amend that so that the video can return and stay up!”
On Twitter Zoe Amira updates followers on what is happening to the views for a vision fundraiser video on YouTube. Screenshot of tweet.
She later added that since YouTube supported the effort, the popular video platform decided to donate the same amount raised by the video to organizations that would have received the donation before the video was removed. In the same statement, Amira thanked everyone that supported the video. In the future, she plans to update everyone on the final amount donated as well as which organizations received the contribution.
Amira is credited with being the first creator to use their AD revenue on a monetized Youtube video to fundraise. Her video led other digital influencers to do the same with their videos. So far, it is not clear if YouTube has also removed those videos and if they plan to make more donations honoring the amount raised in other videos.