YouTube fans are shaking their heads in disbelief today, unable to come to terms with the fact that a rigorous system of doing absolutely nothing to prevent corrupt, unethical behaviour somehow failed to prevent corrupt, unethical behaviour.

With the revelation that a famous YouTube star deliberately failed to disclose their commercial arrangement with an external company or service, many are asking: why didn’t our system of zero checks and balances prevent this?

“I can’t understand how this happened,” sobbed one confused YouTube commenter. “I always assumed from their winning smile and quirky on-screen persona that they had been rigorously trained in journalistic ethics and were subject to intense scrutiny from an in-house legal department.”

“They told me over and over again that they were better than the mainstream media, that they were the future of journalism. Why would somebody exploit a zero-accountability platform for personal gain? Why?”

For their part, Google have committed to a program of zero reform, expressing their confidence that “no effort at all on our part” will fix the issue.

Ethical watchdog GamerGate expressed a reluctance to act when approached for comment, with a spokesegg explaining that “none of the people acting unethically were women, so we’ll be giving this one a pass”.