Benny and Rafi Fine — the creators of the popular React channels — announced on January 26th their intention to license the React format.​ Although they claim the licensing program, called React World, would be, "a huge step… for the entire global media industry," most creators saw it as a massive leap backwards capping off several weeks of turmoil on the platform.

[Update]: Late last night the Fine Bros took down both their React World announcement and the subsequent calcification video. They also posted an apology message to Medium that states they will discontinue React World, release all past copyright claims and rescind all their "react"-related trademarks.

"The concerns people have about React World are understandable, and that people see a link between that and our past video takedowns, but those were mistakes from an earlier time. It makes perfect sense for people to distrust our motives here, but we are confident that our actions will speak louder than these words moving forward."

[Medium]

Licensing would entail creators using the React formats — what constitutes their format is still in question — in exchange for sharing ad revenue with the Fine Bros. Rumors quickly spread that the Fine Bros had also trademarked the word "react."

In the announcement they portray React World as the America's Got Talent to the Fine Bros' Britain's Got Talent, while in the same breath positioning their new venture as more equitable than television licensing, and championing their comparatively DIY ethos.

Countless YouTubers made videos mocking the Fine Bros or calling out what they felt were baseless and predatory practices, while past videos that were critical of the Fine Bros resurfaced. Boogie2988 "reacted" to the React World video. Ozzy Man mocked their overuse of the medium close-up. Dan Bull rapped his feelings about the declining state of content freedom on YouTube. Redditors on r/videos derisively posted examples of "react" content that they felt invalidated the Fine Bros' arguments, like a clip from Beavis And Butthead and a short film from 1901. Even the Philip DeFranco came out against React World to his 3.5 million subscribers.

While the React World FAQ explicitly states, "we do not hold a copyright on reaction videos overall," many creators still felt concerned that the move could see reaction videos of any kind taken down for infringement by Fullscreen, Inc, the multi-channel network(MCN) which represents the Fine Bros, FOX and NBCUniversal among others. More confusingly, the same FAQ dances around whether or not React World is an MCN stating: "We are not an MCN from the perspective of what passes for an MCN these days."

At first it seemed users' worst fears were coming true, as videos began to surface of creators whose work had been blocked by Fullscreen, the most egregious of which came from LeKevPlays — 10-subscriber strong YouTuber whose video was manually blocked after a whopping 8 views. Then earlier tonight, the Fine Bros posted a video simply entitled "Update."

In the new video they admit to trademarking "React" — though they claim their choice to do so was merely an attempt to keep their channel name — and try to frame the overwhelmingly negative community response as merely a confusion in terminology. While their initial video relied on the Got Talent series as a metaphor, their apology likened React World to something considerably less glamorous:

"You could start [a restaurant] on your own and possibly find huge success, but if you love Burger King and want to be part of that organization, if you joined you'd be able to get access to things like menu items and recipes and specific logos and promotional support. It's the same kind of things with React World: you can join… or make your own reaction videos completely without us."

Seemingly the message for the digital fry cooks of the world is clear: we'll stop taking down your videos. A note in the description of the update states, "If you have a Content ID claim, we are working to resolve the issue by early next week," presumably alluding to the takedowns that occurred between the 26th and tonight. For all other issues, the Fine Bros posted their email address and promised to be "personally checking" it.

All this comes after several weeks of mounting tension on the platform as more creators publish videos critical of YouTube.

At least 20 channels have recently been temporarily terminated, age-restricted or had monetization suspended. Each of the complaint videos plays off the same frantic script: channel features being removed, a loss of income or the complete suspension of a channel with no reason given, and no communication with a representative from YouTube — sometimes for weeks on end.

I Hate Everything had his channel temporarily deleted over a video where he destroyed several DVD copies of a terrible CGI kids movie. Gun demonstration channel Hickock45 was briefly deleted due to accidental cross-posting to the (apparently stricter) Google+ . In the case of Eli The Computer Guy, he threatened to quit entirely, after his channel was ground to a standstill by a community strike on a 2-and-a-half-year-old video that showed a minor HTML hack . The list goes on and on and on.





While most if not all of these issues have since been resolved, trust in the platform's fairness and ability to respond to the community has clearly been shaken, yet no big creators have abandoned YouTube outright. Likewise, amidst calls to unsubscribe from the Fine Bros, a livestream shows their numbers dropping: compared to their initial 14 million+, the 80,000 or so they've lost tonight are a drop in the bucket. Framing their move into MCN territory as an exciting business opportunity left a bad taste in the mouths of many creators, but not their fans.

We've reached out to YouTube and the Fine Bros for a statement and will update if we receive one.



