Anyone can go to YouTube, create a channel, and then upload videos of whatever it is they have to say or display — in some cases, like with independent wrestling promotions and the wrestlers themselves, that’s generally a good thing. With someone who just wants to spew hate speech, though, you can see where YouTube would — and should — be uncomfortable.

Their advertisers certainly have a problem with the latter, as YouTube faced an advertising boycott earlier this spring in response to all of the hate speech shared on the video platform. The problem is that YouTube’s response has been far too scattershot, and it’s impacted innocent targets, like the aforementioned independent wrestling promotions.

The short of it is that YouTube developed an algorithm to figure out what content is advertiser-friendly and what is not — basically, what is allowed to make money for its video producers and what should be difficult to find or earn from. That algorithm, though, is still learning, and it’s standing in the way of far more than just those spreading their hate speech on YouTube.

Wrestling content on YouTube is now considered “restricted” and can only be found through search if that mode is off. It doesn’t matter if the content is PG or graphic in nature, either: even WWE’s videos — those of a company that promotes itself as PG — don’t show up on YouTube in restricted mode, as these screenshots of a search with...

...and without Restricted Mode on show:

Non-WWE videos that are’t necessarily tagged as wrestling continue to appear with Restricted Mode on — that’s how a video on NFL player Rob Gronkowski survives, as does a PEOPLE feature on WWE performer Nikki Bella. WWE’s channel is hidden while Restricted Mode is on, though, as are innocuous things hosted by that channel like Zack Ryder unboxing a Ninja Turtle toy.

This happened without warning, with silence from YouTube, and basically spread through word of mouth once it was noticed by some companies who had gotten used to making money from YouTube. Beyond Wrestling has the largest YouTube subscriber base of any independent wrestling promotion, and it’s fair to say the videos they produced there helped build that company to begin with.

“When Beyond Wrestling first started we were based in Ohio,” Beyond Wrestling’s owner, Drew Cordeiro, told Cageside Seats. “We ran studio tapings exclusively — no fans attended our events and the wrestlers stood ringside to support and critique their peers. We released the matches on YouTube for our wrestlers to take to other promoters to find work and they eventually gained so much momentum we decided to run a traditional pro wrestling live event with a paid audience.”

Beyond grew as its channel did, shifting to Providence, Rhode Island, expanding to Boston and elsewhere in Massachusetts, and they are now one of the most successful indie wrestling promotions in the northeast. They’ve gone far beyond their local roots, though, thanks to YouTube — and their presence there even helps create the live shows they’re also known for. “Digital media accounts for roughly 1/5 of our overall revenue,” says Cordeiro. “Considering we lose money at the gate for almost every show, we rely on YouTube to put together the types of cards we have since 2013. Now we're looking at potentially scaling back the number of shows we run or reducing the number of out-of-area talent for each show. Either way, changes are coming.”

That’s bad news for Beyond, and it’s bad news for the performers themselves, who are able to be paid to perform and have a place to do so in part because promotions like Beyond were able to make extra money on YouTube to continue to go bigger. Exposure given to these performers not only helps them get paid for performing on the indies, but it also gives them additional opportunities to hone their craft and be noticed by the larger companies like WWE, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Impact Wrestling, and more.

Not every independent wrestler is as lucky as, for instance, Joey Ryan, who has been a successful independent wrestler for some time now, and utilized YouTube for his own benefit but doesn’t rely on it. As Ryan told Cageside Seats: “It's always nice to have different ways to supplement income, and I've been fortunate enough to have a few viral videos to help me, but my main source will always be wrestling and merchandise sales to my fans.”

Ryan has worked for WWE, for Impact Wrestling, for Lucha Underground, for Ring of Honor, and for many other promotions. He famously signed an endorsement deal with YouPorn to showcase his groin-based offense, and by himself has nearly half of the YouTube subscribers that Beyond Wrestling does.

He’s not the norm for an independent wrestler, though, hence his reference to his fortunate situation, and thinks that YouTube’s policy is going to be a problem for others such as Beyond: “What this will hurt is promotions who use that income to help run higher quality shows for the fans.”

Limitless Wrestling, based in Maine, is one such promotion. Randy Carver, Limitless’ owner, explained the importance of YouTube to his promotion to Cageside. “YouTube has been integral in building our audience over the past year and a half, especially within the last six months. We've run some unique matches that made their way online, as well as clips from matches like Chris Hero vs. Zack Sabre Jr. that have caught people's eye and eventually kept them in the loop with us. We've had a crazy subscriber boost of 7,500 over the past five months as well.”

Considering Limitless, as of this writing, has over 11,000 YouTube subscribers, that number from the last five months is enormous. Carver says that, over that time, revenue from YouTube was higher than that of what was generated for Limitless from their own website and from digital DVD emporium, Smart Mark Video. This is a promotion, like Beyond, building itself up using the technology of the day — and like Beyond and everyone else, that’s now been taken away from them without warning.

Carver and Limitless are “looking at all options to keep that source of revenue coming in from somewhere.” Cordeiro is also looking around for ways to fix the hole YouTube ripped in his revenues, but there is concern they could take this a step further and interfere with Beyond’s paid subscription demand service on the platform, BEYONDEMAND: “If we could lose ad revenue that we've relied on for years without any sort of notice, who is to say YouTube won't change their policy for paid subscription channels without any sort of heads up?”

YouTube finding a way to make its advertisers happy is important, especially considering their advertisers are unhappy with being associated with hate speech. YouTube creating an algorithm to do much of that work for them can work. Early returns are not promising, though, as there just isn’t enough communication, nor is the algorithm focused enough.

Independent wrestlers and wrestling will suffer, but there is hope. The algorithm should eventually learn what is hate speech and what is just suplexes and heel promos — as it figures out the differences between what is actually unfriendly to advertisers and what is just caught up in this initial storm, normalcy should return.

And if it doesn’t, between these promotions and the wrestling community itself, YouTube could be forced to change what’s happening manually. “I feel like the wrestling community is large enough and vocal enough to rally up and let YouTube know they aren't happy with them cutting the legs out from beneath these promotions,” says a hopeful Joey Ryan.

And let’s not forget that WWE, with a YouTube subscription base of nearly 16 million and the ad revenue that comes with that, is going to be furious about the cut into their earnings as well — chances are good that if YouTube doesn’t fix this soon, WWE will get their lawyers involved, as both a revenue stream and a talent pipeline have been harmed by this change.

While those are positives to consider, that doesn’t change what the present looks like. You’ve got Beyond Wrestling, a YouTube success story, scrambling to find alternatives. You’ve got wrestlers who expected to see their careers launched in the same way Beyond has managed for others in the past through YouTube now unlikely to see the same bump. And you have promotions like Limitless seeing their growth come up against a wall no one even bothered to warn them out. “We just kinda started hitting our stride, bringing in some good numbers with YouTube. It's a bummer.”

YouTube has to figure out how to combat hate speech, but they’re going to have to do better than blanket bans from an algorithm. Real companies, real wrestlers, real people have been caught up in the wake of this, and it’s all on YouTube until they find a way to make things right.