Youtube Not Allowing You To Monetize Your Video (MUST READ)

Lately, I've noticed that Youtube's been demonetizing a couple of my videos that were actually eligible for monetization when I uploaded them a few days prior.

Notice the crossed out $ signs on the right hand side.

Normally, if there is copyright content match, that would be explicitly stated on each of the rows but in this case, there is no indication of that. The video is still available world wide to the public.

From the actions tab at the top, I tried to monetize the video from there to no avail. Here are the results:

The only descriptor I am left with it "Cannot monetize or set usage policy" which comes in two parts:

     1. The obvious, I can't make money off of it (my own content!)
     2. I can't state licensing. Meaning it is by default set to Youtube's Standard License.

...but it doesn't tell me WHY I cannot monetize my videos.

I did some research on my own time and came across this page:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6162278?hl=en

Okay... now it becomes a little more clear why I can't monetize. There are five types of videos that cannot be monetized and I will relist them briefly here in my own words:

1. Sexual reference (even partial).
2. Ones that exhibit violence.
3. Ones with profanity and strong language.
4. Promotion of drugs.
5. Controversial topics (war, tragedy), even making a simple reference.

Right off the bat, I'm going to rule out #1. We don't sell with sex, not even in our thumbnails. Here's a fun fact: a lot of other people do and are making plenty of cash off their videos from click baiting. Youtube needs to crack down on that. #4 promotion of drugs. We don't promote drugs even if we have a member who is a user.

#2 is where we enter the gray area. What constitutes violence? Do violent games fall under this category? I should think not. Plenty of Youtubers make a living from playing violent M-rated games.

I think our video falls under #3 and #5. Let's focus on #3 for now. Think about all those Youtubers out there who swear in their videos, whose videos sell because of their harsh profanities. I'm talking about some of the most popular channels out there that net millions of dollars a year. #3 can't possibly be the reason unless we are believe that there are some double standards going on here.

Which leaves #5. Guilty as charged. We've been playing a game called Insurgency a lot lately on our channel and with the level of realism the game presents, HOW is it feasible that we don't sometimes make references to the wars raging right now?

 

Here is one of the videos in question. Yep, we make sly references to controversial topics:

Unfortunately policy is policy. Youtube isn't barring us from uploading the video, just making money off of it. In my opinion, that isn't really fair when you consider all the topics Youtube's left out of its policy. Deceptive videos? Click baits? How about 'social experiments' that disrupt public peace? What about videos depicting robbery or vandalism?

And we can't rule out all the videos out there that are monetizing off of copyright content without express written permission. I'm mostly talking about thumbnails that most anyone can take off the internet and use in their videos. Thumbnails sell, just like the cover of a book. It leaves an impression. No one wants to watch a video with a vague thumbnail. There's just not enough hours in a day.