Technology

58303 readers

9 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

390

YouTube Is Monetizing Human Suffering at an Open Air Drug Market (www.404media.co)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

82 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

I totally agree, a charity trying to raise awareness and help the problem should be running it.

I'm watching now and from what I can tell it doesn't appear to be a monetized account as no adverts have shown, there's not been a single donation either only a lot of comments about how awfull the situation is. there are moderators in the chat though it's impossible to tell on a recorded stream how many comments they're removing.

Really it's just a street cam, you can see loads of them in all sorts of areas - it's different because there are lots of people buying drugs and hanging around but they're doing it on a public street so why should this one be any different to the popular time square or rue de mars streams?

Overall my take-home is that after watching fifteen minutes of it I'm somewhat less likely to do heroin today, and that's probably a good thing. These people's lives haven't changed because I've seen them buy and consume drugs, when you're smoking crack on a cold street it's not like every one in you life can't tell. It's sad but it's a reality hiding from won't help either.