The video project Real Women, Real Stories features women who recount personal stories of trauma they have survived, including rape, sexual assault, sex trafficking, and beyond. Some of our stories are painful. But all of them need to be heard.
Some of the videos on our YouTube channel have received millions of views and thousands of comments. Most of the videos have been posted and reposted on major and minor news sites around the world, on blogs, and shared countless times on social media.
YouTube generally monetizes popular videos - that is to say, an advertisement is placed before of the video and whomever runs the channel receives a share of the proceeds. This is how Real Women, Real Stories has paid for the production of these important videos.
But YouTube recently decided to demonetize Real Women, Real Stories videos. YouTube has justified this by saying some videos, including ones we have published about sexual assault and rape, are not "advertiser-friendly."
Yet this standard is not applied uniformly. There are thousands of videos from the very same nature on YouTube that do have advertising. Worse, these are often sensationalized, click-bait videos. Real Women, Real Stories features real trauma survivors standing up for women's rights, yet we are punished.
Please sign this petition to urge YouTube to stop suppressing women's rights videos and to re-monetize Real Women, Real Stories so that we may continue to do this important work. You can also contribute to our Patreon to help support us.
