INVISIBLE AND UNPAID
May 18, 2025
I didn’t stop creating because I gave up. I stopped because the system made sure my work would never be seen, and never be paid. I covered all the production costs. I worked full-time for over a year. YouTube kept everything — the control, the visibility, the revenue — and gave me silence in return. No warning. No transparency. No income. If this is the creator economy, it runs on unpaid labor and buried voices. I wrote about it. And I wrote it for those who’ve lived it too.
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WHEN PLATFORMS PROFIT FROM YOUR WORK AND WARN NO ONE
I didn’t go bankrupt because of mismanagement. I went bankrupt because my editorial manager repeatedly refused to pay me for my work. I covered all the costs: hosting, tools, software, thumbnails, editing, promotion — everything. I kept producing under pressure, with no contract, no salary, and no support. YouTube does not reward effort. You can invest ten times more time and resources — it won’t change anything. The algorithm doesn’t care. The platform has no conscience. And while empathy is optional in business, fair compensation isn’t. In labor law, an employer cannot both suppress your work and refuse to share the profits it generates (and yet, it needs to be made clear: the profit doesn’t come from your invisible video — it comes from the virality of the system itself, which drives millions of people to join the gold rush in pursuit of “YouTube money.”).
I’m not asking YouTube to give away 100% of its revenue. But paying €0 for 18 months of full-time work, or $0.98 for 215 hours on Twitch, is not a business model. It’s wage theft. This is not a single bad experience. This is the systemic failure of the freelance model. Not a store exploiting ten interns — but millions of creators, educators, and artists being denied recognition and value at scale. And if my work weren’t buried, I could at least try to monetize it elsewhere: through sponsors, clients, partnerships, sales. But being both invisible and unpaid removes every option. No visibility. No leverage. No survival. And worst of all, no one warns you. YouTube Studio never says: “Most of you will never be paid. Proceed without expecting compensation.” There’s no alert: “Your content may be suppressed, ignored, or discarded — regardless of quality.” No disclaimer. No warning. No informed consent. Yet the consequences are real: creators invest months or years before realizing they were never meant to be seen, never meant to earn, never even meant to exist in the system. No recognition. No value. No dignity. Just silence — automated and monetized.
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#YouTube #Creators #UnpaidWork #Freelance #Algorithm #WageTheft
