Hundreds of YouTuber videos promoting EduBirdie have been removed from the video streaming website.
Last week, the BBC revealed an investigation that saw hundreds of YouTubers’ videos promoting an essay-writing service to students.
Apparently, more than 250 channels have been doing paid promotions for EduBirdie, a Ukranian company that sells essays. YouTubers have been telling their viewers that the service was an easy and cheap way to pass their classes. In short, to cheat their way into getting passing grades.
YouTube has notified influencers to say that it would take down videos that violate their policy on Academic Aids. This includes promoting “test-taking” services, paper-writing services and providing customised/prewritten theses. Since then, several YouTubers have seen their videos taken down. One channel, called TwinzTV, has had 138 of their videos removed.
AldosWorldTv, another channel that promoted the service, lost more than 30 videos. He took to Twitter to question why he was allowed to post so many videos containing the adverts in the first place.
“We give influencers total freedom on how they prefer to present the EduBirdie platform to their audience in a way they feel would be most relevant to their viewers,” Boosta, EduBirdie’s parent company, said in a statement.
On its website, the company claims that its services are useful for “research into the subject, generating initial input for for further reasoning and citations”. It adds that it paraphrases the work in accordance to college/university guidelines for plagiarism.
