The Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia is one of the most brutally obvious signs of America’s public health crisis. The so-called “open air drug market” in the middle of the country’s sixth most populous city is where hundreds of people use drugs, some of whom are unhoused, usually without being arrested by the police. It is a failure of our health care system, our cities, and our drug enforcement policies on public display.
For some, it’s also a content farm, where they turn other people’s misery into engagement and profit.
As I am writing this, 675 people are watching a YouTube livestream from a channel called USALIVESTREAM of a camera that is panning back and forth over the corner of Kensington Avenue and East Allegheny, where there’s a SEPTA train station that people congregate around. As is normal on YouTube, to the right of the video is a chat where viewers can talk to each other, and pay to post stickers and “super chats,” highlighted messages that cost as much as $500. The revenue generated from this chat is split between YouTube and the YouTube channel owner. YouTube and the channel owner also make money via pre-roll ads viewers have to watch before the video starts. It is a live version of a growing trend, mostly on YouTube and TikTok, where people make videos of people in distress, specifically in Kensington.
The dire situation at Kensington is such that the live feed is always capturing multiple people who are clearly in distress, slumped over while they’re standing, asleep in camping chairs, or using drugs. None appear to be aware they are being filmed and exploited as a form of entertainment.
read more: https://www.404media.co/youtube-is-monetizing-the-suffering-of-an-open-air-drug-market/
The $500 donations must be money laundering. I can’t see a normal user on YouTube donating to a unmanned livestream and definitely not that amount of money.
Ever watch a vtuber stream? There’s apparently people out there with cash to just burn.
Vtubers do things. They talk to the audience, play games, draw, cook and a bunch of other things. A lot of it is para-social which explains why some people donate a lot. This is a generic livestream of a street.
Okay, maybe there are thousands of people out there who just like watching Vtube streams, with cash to burn, in this day and age. Or, maybe someone’s using livestream donations to launder money.
Does either one make more sense? I think both are true, and the latter is far more probable.
Was in a WoW guild with a dude obsessed with a vtuber.
Nerdy professions make lots of money for dudes who don’t get out a lot.
I think it’s just the journalist being silly, there is a tier on YouTube for a $500 donation because that’s part of the YouTube system but has anyone ever used it for this stream? Incredibly doubtful.
I imagine like most webcam streams it makes very little money.
Edit - I’ve watched some and looked through the vods, no adverts so it’s probably not monetized - likely due to showing drug use, also no one has donated in any of the sections I’ve looked at.