Some figures in the controversial “GunTuber” community are fleeing YouTube after the platform began cracking down on machine gun videos and the marketing of firearms on the app.

At least four major gun-focused YouTube channels have announced they are leaving the platform and moving to competing services with looser rules. And although many of the biggest channels continue to post to YouTube, they have expressed concern that they will no longer be welcome on the video service after tightening regulations on gun-related content.

YouTube, which is owned by Google, has had rules on videos about guns for years. It has long banned the direct sale of firearms on the platform, as well as videos showing how to make firearms and ammunition.

But in June, it launched a series of actions that raised concerns among gunmakers. A new rule bans content showing the removal of gun safety devices. A second new rule limits who can watch videos showing the use of automatic weapons or homemade weapons, so that only people aged 18 or older can view them and ads cannot be broadcast on the videos.

And a third change addresses a gray area: links to sites selling guns. Since 2018, YouTube’s gun policy has asked people to “do not post” if their goal is to sell guns or link to sites selling guns, but the application was inconsistent. YouTube said it would expand enforcement of the rules to content with links to gun retailers, including landing pages to buy a gun.

These changes have ruffled the feathers of major players in the GunTube community, some of whom have gained millions of subscribers on the platform, struck major partnership deals, and worked with YouTube representatives for years.

This tension highlights the important role YouTube has played for more than a decade in promoting gun culture online, despite the app’s existing restrictions.

“The entire industry feeds off YouTube, whether they admit it or not,” Jon Patton, a gun reviewer with 369,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, told the gun podcast “The Reload ” in an interview in August.

There are dozens of gun-themed channels with 1 million or more subscribers on YouTube and many more channels with fewer subscribers. Some focus on reviews of newly manufactured firearms or historic weapons of war, while others showcase favorites from their personal arsenal or use firearms to perform stunts like carving a jack-o’-lantern. ‘Halloween.

YouTube says gun videos are just one part of its massive app.

“YouTube is the world’s largest video library and, as a result, hosts a wide range of online interests and cultures, from video games and music to educational tutorials, sports and podcasts. Responsible gun content is just one part of this vibrant mix of communities,” the company said in a statement.

Many gun chains are built around sponsorship deals: they receive money from retailers or companies that make guns or gun accessories, and in exchange, the chains often share links to these sponsors, sometimes with channel-specific promotional codes.

A successful YouTube channel can generate hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in advertising revenue and sponsorships, Bloomberg News reported this year.

Without YouTube, “it’s going to be a very different version of the gun industry,” Patton said in the podcast interview, adding that GunTubers would no longer have the resources to create content full time. He did not respond to a request for an interview.

YouTube’s ban on promotional links is broad and applies to URLs included in video descriptions, graphic overlays, and even when someone says the URL in a video.

YouTube has not explained why it is increasing enforcement. A spokesperson said this was not a reaction to a specific moment or a change in law. But the platform has been under pressure for years over its promotion of gun culture from advocacy groups such as Everytown for Gun Safety and public officials such as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Last year, a new California law took effect allowing prosecutions for “abnormally dangerous” firearms – such as those designed for assault and not self-defense – and although a federal judge blocked the law, it would even apply to companies involved in marketing.

The gun community on YouTube gained a lot of attention in July because the shooter who shot former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania wore a shirt advertising Demolition Ranch, one of the largest channels GunTube, with 11.8 million subscribers. Matt Carriker, who runs the chain, said after the shooting that he wished he could stop these people from buying his shirts, but he couldn’t.

Carriker also criticized YouTube’s increased policing of gun content, complaining in a July video posted days before the Trump rally shooting that the new age requirement for viewing machine gun content had “screwed up » his channel because people had to be logged in to prove their age. .

“A lot of people who watch my videos don’t have YouTube accounts,” he said. A video age-restricted to 18 and over, he said, “gets less than half the views, about 40 percent of the views, because most people aren’t logged in to an account.” .

YouTube says it will make some exceptions to its machine gun rule for movies and news content, and Carriker said in his video about the rule change that he would try to use those exceptions.

“It will be artistic content like a film. Or maybe we just need to jam all the machine guns,” he said. His channel did not respond to a request for additional comment.

Other gun designers also began filing complaints in July, shortly after the new rules took effect.

Guns.com, an online retailer, released a “Goodbye to YouTube” video last month, and it hasn’t been posted since. Its account has 395,000 subscribers and has posted 2,341 videos since 2011, but the company now says it will publish all of its new video content on Rumble, a video app with relatively few rules. Rumble has become a popular choice among conservatives and the far right, although its user base is much smaller than YouTube’s.

Alexander Reville, one of Guns.com’s podcasters, said in the video that YouTube suffered from an “environment of increased censorship” and unclear rules.

“You’ve heard the term ‘move the goal post.’ At this point, we’re not even sure there are targets,” he said. Guns.com did not respond to a request for additional comment.

Several other YouTube channels have released similar statements. Firearms Guide, with 22,800 subscribers, announced its departure last month and has since been published on the X and Rumble apps. Old Row Outdoors, a lifestyle brand with 105,000 YouTube subscribers, announced plans to exit its business and move to Rumble. Joel Persinger, who uses the GunGuyTV brand and has 223,000 subscribers, said he would only use YouTube for interviews about gun rights, not gun reviews or anything of sponsored content – ​​which he said made up 70-80% of his previous YouTube content. Everything else would be posted on Rumble, he said.

Chris Mijic, editor-in-chief of Firearms Guide, a subscription-only reference guide, said in a phone interview that YouTube gave his channel two warnings, one warning before a permanent ban. He said he couldn’t keep up with YouTube’s rule changes.

“Just because everything goes well this year doesn’t mean everything will go well next year,” he said.

Persinger said in his video announcement that the rule changes, as he interprets them, prohibit “any type of examination of a firearm or firearm-related product” when the examiner approves the product. “I can’t do any of that, because they’re going to take it down,” he said. In an email, he declined an interview request.

Old Row Outdoors did not respond to a request for additional comment.

In a statement, YouTube said it respects its rules and must change them from time to time.

“These updates to our firearms policy are part of our ongoing efforts to maintain policies that reflect the current state of content on YouTube,” the company said in a statement to NBC News. “We regularly review our guidelines and consult with external experts to ensure we put the limit in the right place. »

Everytown for Gun Safety, an advocacy group that favors stricter gun regulations, said YouTube has a responsibility to demonetize users who don’t follow the app’s rules.

“GunTubers have helped push gun culture in a cruder, more dangerous direction. Meanwhile, the industry funds it directly through advertising because it knows that this cavalier attitude mixed with glorification guns will encourage people to buy,” Justin Wagner, senior director of investigations at Everytown, said in a statement.

Rumble, which appears to benefit from YouTube’s tougher rules, did not respond to a request for comment. Rumble has attracted others banned from traditional social media, including white nationalist Nick Fuentes, whose videos sometimes appear on Rumble’s trending list.

One of the largest YouTube gun accounts, Hickok45, with 7.8 million subscribers, initially interpreted the rule change to mean it couldn’t have sponsorship at all.

“We might lose everything,” John Kinman, who runs the account with his father Greg, said in a video in July.

In a follow-up video, Greg Kinman said they had “managed to get the attention of the right people on YouTube” and decided to move forward under the new terms of service, but the two men also stated that they felt they had no viable alternative. because so few people are on competitors like Rumble. Their YouTube subscriber count is 348 times that of Rumble.

“We don’t want to just go into obscurity, and right now, YouTube is by far – and not even close – the biggest video sharing platform,” John Kinman said in the second video.

“I think we’ve made a lot of new gun owners over the years, and I don’t think we would do that if it was on a platform that only gun guys looked at,” he said. -he declared.

The Kinmans did not respond to a request for comment.