YouTube nukes ASMR channels, accusing them of posting “sexually gratifying” videos and linking out to content on other platforms that violates YouTube’s TOS

YouTube says it terminated a number of female-run ASMR channels last week because they linked out to “content that violates our nudity and sexual content policy.”

“Our external link policies apply equally to all creators across YouTube, and this action was taken in accordance with our long-standing policies, not as a change in policy or targeting of ASMR content,” a spokesperson told 404 Media.

But in its email to these creators, where it informed them their channels had been deleted without warning, YouTube said they had “severely violated” its policies, and that “[e]xplicit content that’s meant to be sexually gratifying isn’t allowed on YouTube.”

Folks hit with the termination include ItsBunniiASMR, Slight Sounds, Nananightray, Roseasmr, Simoneasmr, and Janina Wilhelmsen–some of whom also upload NSFW ASMR content to platforms like OnlyFans and Fansly, but told 404 Media that they make sure to keep that content separate from the SFW videos they make on YouTube.

Slight Sounds, who’d been posting ASMR content online since 2013 and expanded into NSFW ASMR a few years ago, said she made “a very big point” to draw a line between her SFW YouTube content and her NSFW content on other platforms.

“Women will make a choice, an autonomous choice, to do something that doesn’t even affect the other content they’re making. It is a wholly separate experience,” she said. “And we’re still being told that we’re sexualizing ASMR on YouTube, and we’re being sexual. I find it really disturbing to hear that, when I am making content that is looking into the camera and saying ‘you’re okay, you’re safe,’ and giving people a place to escape the world and just be with themselves and me for a little bit.”

Slight Sounds said YouTube’s decision to terminate her channel for content she’s making on another platform means she’s “being punished for something that has nothing to do with my YouTube.”

“My content has stayed consistently the same,” she said. “I have not pushed any boundaries.”

ItsBunniiASMR, who had ~230,000 subscribers when the termination hit, streamed ASMR content on Twitch and used YouTube as a library for earning passive income.

“There are people who really do depend on this kind of content to get a good night’s sleep, deal with insomnia, or manage mental health issues like anxiety, PTSD, and depression (therapy and whatnot isn’t exactly cheap or accessible to everyone),” she said. “And in times like this when world issues feel so heavy and no one can afford anything, having a free, easily accessible option, where the creator can benefit from just views is so important.”

She added that she feels “incredibly dishearten[ed]” and that YouTube’s decision sexualized content she intended to be SFW and family-friendly. “YouTube deciding to ban my account and many others feels like they are siding with gross sexualization of ASMR from people outside the community,” she said. “Making it feel like something that is intended to be comforting, is taboo.”

Slight Sounds feels similarly; she told 404 Media that because ASMR content creation tends to be female-dominated, “I think people, especially men, confuse closeness and intimacy with sex.”

“There is this inherent thing that happens when men interact with women online in a specific way, and there is this sexual energy that they feel, even if it’s just closeness that they’re feeling. I think that ASMR has always had this undercurrent of: No matter what you do as a woman in ASMR, someone is going to find it sexual. Someone’s going to call it weird. Someone’s going to fetishize it,” she said.

As YouTube said, the policy it used to ban these creators is not new.

In 2019, it formally banned content that, while not containing actual sex, is “meant to be sexually gratifying in nature.” Three years later, it said it had “strengthened our policies to better identify and action ASMR content that is sexually gratifying,” and that “ASMR videos with audio sexual sounds may be age-restricted or removed from the platform.”

But, as 404 Media noted, some of these creators have been making ASMR content on YouTube for years, and are just now finding themselves actioned against.

What we also find interesting is that YouTube says it banned these creators for violating its external link policy. That policy is pretty straightforward: “Links that send users to content that violates our Community Guidelines are not allowed on YouTube. In some cases, we may make exceptions for content with educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic context, including content that is in the public’s interest.”

This is a wake-up call that YouTube considers any content creators link to within its purview to action against, regardless of where that content is hosted. It’s posted on your own personal website? YouTube can control it. It’s posted on Instagram? YouTube can control it. It’s posted on OnlyFans? YouTube will control it.

An interesting policy, considering other off-platform rules YouTube has. If a creator is convicted of heinous crimes, YouTube will only delete their channel if their actual content violates its Community Guidelines or is closely related to the crime(s) they committed. You kill someone, but your channel is about flower-picking? It stays up, baby. (Though it’ll probably get demonetized.)

It also seems these creators were not warned before their channels were terminated, which means they opened an email and realized their digital careers had been instantly nuked, with no option for them to fix what YouTube didn’t like.

YouTube did say affected creators could appeal its decision, but those who took that route told 404 Media their channels weren’t reinstated.

One also mentioned she felt YouTube’s policies around what constitutes “sexually gratifying” content are unclear. This means creators aren’t able to accurately judge what they’re allowed to post on the platform, since what they think could be sexually gratifying and what YouTube thinks is sexually gratifying might be two wildly different things.

We’ve seen similar issues impact creators in other niches. Gaming creators, for example, spent years unsure whether and how YouTube’s policies against things like graphic violence affected them. Were they allowed to monetize a video if they were mowing down NPCs in GTA V or slaying feral ghouls in Fallout: New Vegas?

YouTube eventually laid down a less opaque law, but it still issues occasional updates that affect mature gaming content, how it’s monetized, and who can watch it.

Will ASMR creators also get a better picture of what YouTube thinks they shouldn’t post? Maybe, but for creators like Slight Sounds and ItsBunniiASMR, clarification will arrive far too late.