We’re on the third day of reporting about firearms channels on YouTube being under fire especially with the latest policy on content featuring firearms or violations of the Community Guidelines. Spike’s Tactical got suspended due to the latter and now, another firearm channel on YouTube, InRange TV is now posting its videos on PornHub, which is basically the YouTube of porn.

InRange TV is not solely posting videos on PornHub, but in also other platforms that allow for video sharing of their content and that includes Facebook, Full30, and Bitchute to ensure that their content remains to be found even if YouTube shuts their channel down. For InRange TV, Pornhub is a safe harbor.

InRange TV posted their reply to Bloomberg on Facebook when they were contacted by the media organization on their move to PornHub:

"Hello,

Thank you for your interest in InRange and for looking into this issue deeper as it is obviously an important one that deals with far more than just our content on InRange, but touches at the core of social media’s control over what has become increasingly “the public sphere of conversation”.

YouTube’s recent update on their policy towards firearm content is extremely poorly worded and open ended. It is unclear what their goals are directly, as well as what content is (or might be) actually effected. YouTube’s actions against firearms related, as well as some other, content over recent history has been increasingly arbitrary and capricious so there is little reason to believe that this new policy is not going to be used to hammer content creators into whatever corner they see fit. Over the last year or so we’ve seen our content be de-prioritized, flagged erroneously, demonetized by AI bots with little recourse, subscribers lose their notifications and subscription status without warning and more.

InRange has taken a number of steps to partially mitigate this attack against our legal and responsible content: we deleted our AdSense account entirely and moved to a crowd sourced funding model wholly via Patreon, have posted a number of videos in regards to digital rights and issues above and beyond that of just firearms related content, and we’ve decentralized the distribution of content to multiple delivery networks. At this time we are currently publishing content simultaneously on YouTube, Full30, Facebook, BitChute and now PornHub. We will not be seeking any monetization from PornHub and do not know what their monetization policies are, we are merely looking for a safe harbor for our content and for our viewers.

I would like to point out that a very simple search on YouTube for marijuana and bong reveals substantial results of people explaining, teaching the use of, advocation and actively using a Federally illegal schedule 1 substance:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=marijuana+bong

While I personally believe that people should have autonomy over their own body and be allowed to make personal choices about what they intake into themselves, I can’t help but find it hypocritical and disturbing that clearly illegal activity is acceptable while clearly legal activity, such as the content we distribute via InRange, is being actively persecuted.

In summary, we are looking for a safe harbor for our legal content and viewers, monetization aside. YouTube has the global dominance over the public narrative and it is unacceptable, in our opinion, for them to threaten livelihoods and legal content regardless of whatever current moral panic is in play.
If I can be of any further assistance, please let me know.

Sincerely,

Karl Kasarda

&

Ian McCollum"

We do not know if more firearm channels on YouTube will be following their move to PornHub. Some of their viewers might not agree with this move as they may be turned off by porn. Some are even calling for a new video sharing platform for firearms owners and call it GunHub. It’s not a bad idea at all if firearms enthusiasts want their own social media platform to use, then they better raise the funds to create their own video-sharing platform so they do not have to worry about their content other the mercy of YouTube and other social media sites.

You might be wondering where airsoft now is in this issue, So far, no airsoft channel has been suspended or banned and heard reports that YouTube is taking down some airsoft videos. What we know is that YouTube considers airsoft as toys. It may happen to airsoft YouTube channels if they violate the Community Guidelines and that general goes to other channels too, even if they are not dealing on firearms.

The story (and exodus?) continues…