Disclaimers for Freedom of Speech

[amylove]

Hello, does anyone here use disclaimers in their videos?

I've been following Vegan Gains and a few other controversial YouTubers and through interviews hear that people try to sue them and how important disclaimers are. I have done some research on defamation of name/character and how giving a negative statement on someone/something or company can result in being sued.

1. I was wanting to know what disclaimers you use.
2. Do you put them in your video description or at the beginning/end of the video.
3. What wording do you use?

I want to start making some controversial videos on Beauty Guru's and how they use products tested on animals, though I don't want to get sued because of my own opinion and the fact they do use products tested on animals. How would I get around this and prevent another case of 'defamation of name'.

Is anyone else worried about this?

 

[LJay]

Is anyone else worried about this?

I think about it all the time especially since my videos are mostly comedic and satirical. I'm always worried that when I write a joke or put together a script, the resulting video will get flagged by some myopic politically correct social media justice warrior who doesn't understand comedy. Luckily for me, the advantage of having a channel in the ten thousandth subscriber range hasn't exposed too many people to me so I've never had to deal with flaggings or mass dislikes or legal threats......yet.

However, I've noticed in years past channels doing videos on YouTuber's that are not inflammatory or mud-slingng in nature get taken down. A squeaky clean image is very important to YouTube growth so when someone comes around and challenges it you can bet those called out YouTuber's will do something about it. Michelle Phan is a good example. She tries to keep up the illusion of having a happy wholesome and clean image but all her controversies and backpedaling would indicate she is something totally different at least in my opinion. Here's why in case you are interested:http://yttalk.com/threads/michelle-phan-getting-sued.133443/page-4#post-1265271

Anyway, I feel like YouTube is becoming "all smiles and positivity" and you can't say a single negative thing against someone. It's one thing for that negative thing to be off the rails and inflammatory and totally irrational but I've noticed these past few months that people are getting videos taken down because of constructive and sensible criticism but it mainly comes from bigger and more well known channels.

So I've been thinking of putting a disclaimer at the beginning of my videos If and When things get worse. However, If you are small channel like mine I wouldn't worry about it as long as you can are being factual and rational in these controversial videos of yours.

EDIT: Also, I think it will help if you don't name anyone in particular.

 

[LostTrigger]

Most youtubers I watch dont put disclaimers unless they have had alot of copyright strikes. Only 2 or 3 of the channels I watch have one