Yeah that too. But I mostly meant a mostly opaque list of keywords that get you demonetized, and it's possible that there is an AI that assesses how likely a video is to put a viewer in a "click ad mood" or how likely it is to keep viewers watching. Unfortunately I don't know exactly how it works, but if they do this, I assume they also do a whole lot more subtle things.

Controversial videos might actually do fine if they keep viewer watching and clicking on ads. But many things critical of the current consumerist and propaganda model at least gets a chilling effect. Creators know this is more work so many would avoid it. And some might not be able to make a living even though their content would be valuable for society and drop out.

So alphabet (massively) shapes the content our society sees the tube.