We’re shocked — shocked! — by this hot scoop from VICE News on the Steven Crowder/YouTube brouhaha:

What YouTube intended as a slap on Crowder’s wrist has instead turned the video creator into a martyr standing against Big Tech overreach. https://t.co/kmDHcgAz4M

Guys:

More from VICE News:

Provoking tech platforms into such awkward public positions could be lucrative in its own right. Crowder claimed in a series of giddy shows last week that YouTube’s selective enforcement of its policies even provided a financial shot in the arm.

As conservatives like Ben Shapiro and self-styled freethinkers like Joe Rogan came to Crowder’s defense, he pushed “Mug Club” memberships at a 30% discount. The deal gave fans access to the right-wing BlazeTV for a year for just $69. And Crowder’s show on Thursday went so far as to nominate Maza as Louder With Crowder’s employee of the month “for selling more Mug Clubs than ever in the company’s history.”

…

Nearly 86,000 users subscribed to his feed over that 7-day span, according to the analytics firm SocialBlade. That’s up from just 15,000 the week before. Numerous Twitter users likewise shared photos of themselves drinking from official Mug Club mugs.

There was also spillover growth for some Crowder allies. Shapiro — who ran ads about the controversy on Facebook and publishes sponsored content to Crowder’s Facebook page — likewise saw an uptick in YouTube subscribers to his channel for The Daily Wire last week, per SocialBlade.